Oilstainlab HF-11: The Last True Unicorn
Oilstainlab HF-11: The Last True Unicorn
“We simply couldn’t find something that met our standards.”
HAPPY RACE DAY! especially to Syd Cummings, the talented photographer rolling out her new collection entitled ‘Affluenza’ on Instagram. So far the cars have included a Lamborghini Countach, C2 Corvette and Ferrari F40. Needless to say… 🔥🔥🔥.
Read our 2020 interview with Syd right here. Should we bring her back for an update?
In today’s email: 👇
JCCS Weekend: It’s the JDM show of the year
Oilstainlab takes the next step: A mind-blowing reveal
Car culture round-up: News and reports from the aftermarket
Thanks for joining us. Read on for more.
JCCS This Weekend!
We’ll be at the Japanese Classic Car Show this Saturday from 9:00am-3:00pm. Get your tickets and find us at the Carrara Media booth!
We’ll have all current book titles for sale, including the public debuts of The Prototype Trilogy and Cult of GT-R | JCCS Edition. Any remaining stock will go live on our site this Sunday. Hope to see you there!
Now, here’s this week’s main article.
OilstainLab: Maniacs Seeking Maniacs
NO ONE is building cars like OilstainLab. The duo of identical twins Nikita and Iliya Bridan, Ukrainian-born Canadians educated in Italy, is somehow able to accomplish feats that anyone else would find tortuous. To them, it’s fun.
I attended the debut of their latest creation, the HF-11 pictured above, on Monday night in Los Angeles. The twins only had digital renderings to show, but it’s arresting nonetheless. Incredibly designed, of course, with Porsche-like headlights, their trademark exposed rear suspension and custom exhaust. You get a manual transmission whether you choose the 650-HP gas engine or 800-HP electric motor. The door panels hold a racing helmet. You can find the full details on Top Gear.
Internally, the twins embrace a mad genius mentality. (You kind of have to, to bring this to market.) Externally, there’s plenty of doubt surrounding them. Their last creation was the Half-11, a chopped-up 911 with hand-shaped aluminum bodywork. That’s a long way from building 25 ground-up supercars—with an original carbon-fiber tub—at production quality levels.
But the thing separating Oilstainlab from other boutique brands, high-end “reimagined” cars like a Singer or Gunther Werks, is that the Bridans don’t share their grand long-term ambitions. Nikita Bridan told Car And Driver they aren’t trying to turn Oilstainlab into a McLaren-esque automaker. The company became a certified manufacturer, but only out of necessity, to make HF-11 the way they wanted. They designed an original carbon tub, but only because, as Nikita said on Monday, “We simply couldn’t find something that met our standards.”
Oilstainlab has been about pushing boundaries. The first Half-11 and all its extremities was proof of that. And everything learned from Half-11 can now be seen carrying over into HF-11, and taken a step further. There are elements of ‘70s motorsport, prototype endurance racing and high-tech dynamics in both cars. Oilstainlab is about all of these serious things, but having spent time around the Bridans for the past five years, there’s a bit of whimsy in every project that serves as the secret ingredient.
These are the guys that came to my attention with a lifted Alfa GTV on knobby ATV tires. These are the guys that adopted mantras like “Slow is ur fault” and “Clean cars, dirty money” and deploy them like rally cries. They called a 3,000-mile road trip “The last bad idea,” then competed in an ice race, and shipped the car to England for the Goodwood Festival of Speed where it competed on a royal estate with an “I got wood in Goodwood” sticker.
They’ll use whimsical phrases and ideas to keep them going through the pain points of making HF-11 a reality. They’d go crazy otherwise. (Well, more crazy.) But behind the wild designs and cooky slogans is a burning intensity. The Bridans are trying to bring their dream car to life and have already shown they’ll stop at nothing to do it. They also told Car And Driver they’re well aware this makes them maniacs, and they just need to find more maniacs to buy the things. I’m confident there are more than enough loaded maniacs in the car world to give the HF-11 a home. And I’m even more confident that the Bridans will give us plenty of adventures to cover along the way.
Car Culture Notes
Here are some links I found from around the web this week:
SEMA approaches. We’re three weeks out from the aftermarket’s biggest convention. Read last month’s article on “The SEMA Crunch.”
Speaking of the aftermarket, East Coast ports are open again after a labor strike that reportedly cost the aftermarket industry $340 million per day.
Cleanup efforts in the wake of Hurricane Helene are going to take years. One aftermarket association raised over $80k on GoFundMe for area shops.
Auto retailers are feeling the pinch. Advance Auto Parts sold its Worldpac distribution arm to private equity for $1.5 billion back in August, in part to cut costs, and O’Reilly Automotive will soon report Q3 earnings after regularly missing Wall Street projections in 2024.
This jives with our previous reporting that investors are eagerly eyeing the aftermarket. As the industry transitions to EV—an expensive undertaking—private equity firms and other well-funded conglomerates are likely to scoop up companies eeking out meager profits. Something to watch.
Pit+Paddock is choosing the winner of its creator contest this weekend. Good chance to follow some innovative work in the social space.
The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum is sadly closing its doors. The museum wonderfully preserved many beautiful cars and hosted meets, cruises and fundraisers for more than 20 years. But it was well known the museum had been struggling of late.
In a bit of good news, the Bayside Cafe—which only recently launched—will remain open through December. Read our interview with founder Jonathan Lucero here.
Our friend Kelly, who’s documenting her forays into motorsports at Your Mom Races Rally on Instagram, has her first official event this weekend! Go watch her video about learning to install a suspension and wish her luck.
And Finally…
When Jay Leno posts a video, the car world notices. People sent me this video all weekend, and I heard it brought up multiple times at different events. It’s a really fun perspective on three Japanese icons. I learned a lot and you probably will, too.
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