Oilstainlab and Delphi Bring the Half-11 Back to Europe
Oilstainlab and Delphi, a brand of PHINIA Inc., have announced the official European tour of the Half-11, marking a homecoming for the one-of-a-kind bespoke car whose spiritual roots lie deep in the golden era of 1960s European motorsport and are blended with modern technology. The car makes its official premiere at Ultrace in Gdańsk, Poland, on 27 and 28 June, before appearing at HEIZR Racing Dept at Hockenheimring, Germany, on 4 July, and concluding its European showcase at the exclusive Tutto Bene event in Italy on 12 and 13 September.
Delphi has reimagined the Half-11 in a bespoke art car livery, created in collaboration with the brand. This striking artwork forms a deliberate neo-digital remix of the iconic art cars of the past, paying homage to the trailblazers who laid the foundation where art, design and motorsport intersect.
Following the success of its inaugural Alpine A110 Rally GT+ project, which debuted at Tutto Bene last year, Delphi now presents its second-ever art car, conceived as a rolling tribute to the engineers, dreamers and mechanics whose dedication transforms machines into global icons.
The best art carries a powerful point of view and remains unique and singular. Entrusted with the role of canvas, the Half-11 fits that brief exactly: a radical, beautiful creation crafted by the artists at Oilstainlab. As a time-bending prototype that bridges the romance of 1960s motorsport with the bleeding edge of future mobility, the Half-11 offers a truly unrivalled platform for this bespoke livery.
Through this initiative, Delphi honours its partnership with Oilstainlab, embracing a shared belief in beautiful technology, mechanical emotionalism and uncompromising engineering. Oilstainlab's founders, Nikita and Iliya Bridan, will drive the vehicle, created specifically for the Half-11's European homecoming, across Europe's most iconic automotive landscapes.
"The Delphi Art Car is a celebration of global car culture and forward-thinking design," said Neil Fryer, Global Vice President of Aftermarket at PHINIA. "It represents the collective experience we've gained in the aftermarket and its vital role in shaping future engineering breakthroughs."
Twin brothers Nikita and Iliya Bridan created the Half-11, and they never intended it as a traditional commercial car. Born in Ukraine and raised in Canada, the brothers moved to Italy at age 14 to study car design, before eventually attending the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. After working for major automotive brands, they founded Oilstainlab in 2018, followed by House de Stains, the automotive company's culture house.
The Half-11 made its debut through a viral campaign of "historical vandalism." Oilstainlab seeded the internet with meticulously doctored, period-correct photographs, placing the fictional car in real 1960s European races. Starting with zero fabrication skills, the brothers set out to build a physical manifestation of the 1960s, an era defined by the romance of danger, illicit speed and unrelenting beauty.
Born decades too late to experience the era firsthand, Nikita Bridan, founder and CEO, said, "With the Half-11, we set out to build a myth, alive simultaneously in the past, present, and future. We wanted to build a myth that represents the past, present, and future. The Delphi Art Car is a natural extension of that vision, blending the worlds of automotive design, culture, and art, making it disruptive but relatable."
The Half-11 project explores mechanical anchoring in an increasingly digital world. Beneath the radical prototype bodywork lies an unrecognisable 1966 Porsche 911 chassis, powered by an unhinged V8 engine paired with a six-speed manual transmission. A 3D-printed Inconel exhaust gives the car its iconic sound, while the hand-beaten aluminium body carries the curves and authentic patina needed to fit onto any vintage starting grid.
Since then, the Half-11 has racked up over 12,000 miles through relentless driving. It has raced across America from Los Angeles to New York City in just four days, drifted through the FAT ICE Race in Aspen, crossed the Atlantic to run the hill at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, and claimed an award at the prestigious Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. Today, little remains for the Half-11 to conquer, so returning it to Europe, the very continent where its fictional legacy was forged, delivers its final and most spiritual homecoming.
This tour immerses the vehicle in the world of vintage motorsport, placing it on the very tarmac that inspired its genesis. The journey celebrates history while also serving as a rigorous testing ground. The continued distillation of the driving experience gathered on this tour will directly inform Oilstainlab's upcoming production vehicle, the HF-11. Conceived as an ultra-lightweight 2,000-lb machine, the HF-11 is being engineered to deliver a visceral, raw, and unapologetically analogue driving experience. By pushing the Half-11 to its absolute limits across Europe, Oilstainlab gathers the vital emotional and mechanical data needed to ensure the HF-11 embodies the company's ultimate mantra: "when the past overtakes the future."
To execute this ambitious tour, Oilstainlab has partnered with One Off House in Poland. Functioning as the operational and experiential hub for the European activation, One Off House will curate and develop a series of exclusive brand activations, offering select clients an unprecedented, immersive entry point into the Oilstainlab universe.
