HAL

After the original Giocattolo Group B of the 1980s, Paul Halstead continued under the HAL name with a series of later Australian specialty-car projects. The first was the HAL Monaro, a heavily reworked Holden Monaro shown in 2009. Built as a HAL design study, it used extensively revised bodywork and a 427-cubic-inch Corvette V8. HAL then shifted to a far more ambitious supercar program centered on a bespoke W16 powertrain created by coupling two 7.0-litre LS7 V8s to a single output through a custom transfer case and sequential transaxle.

That drivetrain was developed for the Giocattolo Marcella, a three-seat, central-driving-position supercar announced in 2020. Halstead described the Marcella as a Hyperod, combining hypercar performance with styling cues drawn from American hot rods. The planned specification included a carbon-fibre structure, stressed-engine layout, sequential transmission, and output of about 1,400 horsepower. The Marcella represented the final and most technically ambitious evolution of the Giocattolo idea, linking Halstead’s original 1980s marque to his later HAL engineering work.