Meet the HF-11, the New $1.8 Million Supercar From Automotive Startup Oilstainlab

At the Quail, A Motorsports Gathering in 2022, the half-jokingly prestigious “Car Park Concours de Quailegance” award went to a peculiar rolling portmanteau that resembles half of a Porsche 911, but with the rear end of a vintage tube-frame Formula 1 car. Fittingly dubbed the “Half11,” the homebuilt project is the brainchild of twin brothers Ilya and Nikita Bridan, automotive designers who worked with multiple automakers and companies in the aerospace industry before founding their own design and consulting atelier, Oilstainlab. After turning heads at the Quail, the Bridans took the Half11 to Aspen’s F.A.T. Ice Race and even ran the Goodwood Festival of Speed‘s famed Hillclimb contest this past summer. Now, the brothers have unveiled a new project, the HF-11 supercar.

As the name suggests, the HF-11 looks similar to the Half11, yet its purposefully retro-styled profile features futuristic hypercar lines and surfaces. With a carbon-fiber monocoque draped in carbon-fiber bodywork, the HF-11 takes inspiration from the Porsche Carrera GT, with a hint of the Aston Martin Valkyrie thrown in. The interior continues the simple and reductionist theme, somewhere between a vintage race car and modern supercar, with highlights in carbon fiber, titanium, and Alcantara. There’s even room for a crash helmet in the door cards, à la the legendary Lancia Stratos.

The Bridans plan to offer the HF-11 with a choice of power-train options. Porsche enthusiasts will no doubt prefer the air-cooled internal combustion flat-six, which will rev to a screaming 12,000 rpm. But a novel battery-electric system called “Thunder-Volt” also fits into the compact chassis. 

We visited Oilstainlab’s headquarters to learn more about the HF-11. While on site, a VR-headset experience revealed the exact size of the new creation, which promises space inside for drivers up to 6 feet, 3 inches in height (while wearing a helmet). Nikita Bridan explained that the HF-11 represents a major step forward from its Half11 predecessor.

“A lot of restomods are not really restomods [because] there’s almost no car left,” Nikita told Robb Report. “For us, we’re not really a hypercar . . . we don’t chase a performance metric. We’re not setting a world record, we’re not trying to be faster than anybody. We’re genuinely just trying to put the biggest smile on the driver’s face every time.”

It’s worth noting that the flat-six is not a Porsche engine. The Bridans are working with a team that includes IndyCar engineers to develop the naturally aspirated mill, which will displace 4.5 liters. Target output is pegged at 650 hp and 449 ft lbs of torque. In comparison, the Thunder-Volt system will rev even higher, to 13,000 rpm, while cranking out 860 hp and 899 ft lbs of torque. And no fake EV noises here, instead, the plan is to hear the actual sounds that the electric motor emits.

The Bridans also claim that, somehow, the electric HF-11 will weigh the same as the gas-powered variant, at just over 2,000 pounds. The low weight and minimal aerodynamic drag—achieved through CFD modeling and extensive underbody aero effects—are hoped to result in a target electric range of 350 miles. Most surprisingly, both the internal-combustion and electric drivetrains will pair to a six-speed manual transmission. 

How, exactly, the gearbox will cope with so much electric torque remains a secret the Bridans have so far kept under wraps—though they plan to demonstrate a running prototype of the electric conversion in the Half11 by the end of this month. Testing of the gas engine is slated for early 2025, though for customers who prefer to stick with proven Porsche reliability, the twins hope to offer a Manthey Racing GT3 engine, too.

“We’re very much anchored in the past, in terms of design and the experience and the kind of emotions we [want to] elicit,” says Nikita, “but there’s been so much progress in terms of technology, material, power trains, tires, ergonomics, brakes, legislation, all these things. So we’ve had to adapt with the times.”

The Bridans claim they began working on the HF-11’s first sketch back in 2019, then received an initial infusion of investment capital in Q1 of 2023 to jump-start the company’s development and begin assembling industry heavy-hitters to join the project. So far, the resumes of other key team members include histories at Mercedes F1, Koenigsegg, Ferrari, Czinger, Singer, Rimac, and Deutsche Bank. 

Customer deliveries of the first 11 examples are currently slated for the spring of 2026, reflecting a radically accelerated development process, especially considering that early customer test drives will supposedly begin in the middle of next year. Given the specs and styling, low production numbers, and customized nature of each HF-11 build, the model’s pricing will start at $1.85 million.

The production plan and pricing will require building trust and inspiring customer confidence, so the Bridans hope to entice early interest and ameliorate any lingering doubts with a structured pre-order and deposit system. The first 11 customers to place a 25 percent deposit will join the Maniac 11 club, which will allow them to receive invites to track-testing days, take on $500,000 in company equity, and gain access to help shape as-yet-unannounced future models already in the early planning phases. It’s all part of the Bridan brothers’ intent that Oilstainlab is “around for a long time.”

Building a road-going, retro-styled supercar while launching a new automotive brand is undoubtedly ambitious, but if the design and performance live up to projections, the HF-11 could be worth keeping an eye on as Oilstainlab works toward real-world production.

Click below for more photos of Oilstainlab’s HF-11 supercar.