Jason Castriota is an

automotive design Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles, including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern mot ...

er.

Biography

Jason Castriota was born in

White Plains, New York White Plains is a city in and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, and a commercial hub of Westchester County, a densely populated suburban county that is home to about one milli ...

, and raised in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich ( ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...

. He graduated from

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and attended but dropped out of the

Art Center College of Design The ArtCenter College of Design is a private art college in Pasadena, California. It was incorporated in 1930 as a degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the visual arts and design. ...

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

. Castriota began his internship at the

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (; ; short for Pininfarina Società per Azioni) is an Italian automotive design, car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 ...

design studio, which later turned into full time position in design. Castriota had decided to stay in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

and he took part in the design of production cars such as the

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (internal code F141) is a grand tourer produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari. It served as the brand's front-engined, two-seat model, replacing the 575M Maranello in 2006 as a 2007 model, and was late ...

and

Maserati GranTurismo The Maserati GranTurismo and GranCabrio are a series of grand tourers produced by the Italian manufacturer Maserati, succeeding the maserati Coupe, Maserati Coupé and Spyder. The first generation GranTurismo (M145) was introduced at the 2007 Ge ...

, concept cars like the

Maserati Birdcage 75th The Maserati Birdcage 75th is a functional concept car designed and developed by a Pininfarina design team led by Lowie Vermeersch, including Jason Castriota and Giuseppe Randazzo under the direction of Ken Okuyama. It was first introduced at the G ...

with accepted and approved U.S. patents on the design and the Rolls-Royce Hyperion. As Head Designer he continued on for Special Projects, one-off exclusive cars for particular customers, such as the

Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina The Ferrari P4/5 (officially known as the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina) is a one-off vehicle, one-off sports car made by Italy, Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari but redesigned by Pininfarina for film director James Glickenhaus, son of stock ex ...

, a restyled

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; ; 18 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of Scuderia Ferrari in Grand Prix motor racing, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Under h ...

for American car collector

James Glickenhaus James Glickenhaus (born July 24, 1950) is an American filmmaker, financier, and automotive entrepreneur. He directed, wrote, and produced a number of action films during the 1980s and 1990s, including ''The Exterminator'' (1980), ''The Soldier (19 ...

, and the Ferrari 612 Kappa, a restyling of the

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (Type F137) () is an executive 2+2 coupé grand tourer made by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari between 2004 and 2011. It was designed to replace the smaller 456; its larger size makes it a true 4-seater with ...

for car collector

Peter Kalikow Peter Stephen Kalikow (born December 1, 1942) is president of H. J. Kalikow & Company, LLC, a New York City-based real estate firm. He is a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), former commissioner of the Port Auth ...

. Castriota left his position at Pininfarina on the eve of the

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show () is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently takes place in Paris expo Porte de V ...

in September 2008, and was set to become Design Director at Stile Bertone. In 2009 he also formed his own design consultancy with offices in New York and Turin; Jason Castriota Design LLC. In June 2010,

Saab Automobile Saab Automobile AB () was a automotive industry, car manufacturer that was founded in Sweden in 1945 when its parent company, Saab AB, began a project to design a small automobile. The first production model, the Saab 92, was launched in 1949. ...

hired Castriota as its new design director. In 2014, Castriota joined Skylabs, a small product design firm in New York. In early 2016, he was recruited to work for Ford Motor Company as an Advanced Strategic Design leader in Dearborn, Michigan. Castriota moved into a strategy role on Ford's dedicated Electrified Vehicle team – Team Edison. Castriota was one of four directors who were responsible for the overall company’s EV strategy and lead Ford's Battery Electric Global Brand Strategy for all major markets. His latest project, the

Mustang Mach-E The Ford Mustang Mach-E is a battery electric compact crossover SUV produced by Ford. Introduced on November 17, 2019, it went on sale in December 2020 as a 2021 model. The Mach-E is part of the Mustang series, with its name inspired by the ...

is one of the fastest selling EVs on the market today. Castriota is also responsible for designing the

SSC Tuatara The SSC Tuatara is a sports car designed, developed and manufactured by American automobile manufacturer SSC North America (formerly Shelby SuperCars Inc.). The car is the successor to the Ultimate Aero and is the result of a design collabora ...

a sports car made in Washington State. Tuatara entered production in 2020, and also set world speed records for the fastest production car on January 27, 2021 hitting a one-way speed of 286.1 mph (460.4 km/h) and a two-way average of 282.9 mph (455.3 km/h) in 2021. the SSC Tuatara hit a verified top speed of 295 mph in just 2 miles of road in May 2022.

Designs

(2005) *

(2006) * Ferrari 612 Kappa (2006) *

Ferrari 599 The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (internal code F141) is a grand tourer produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari. It served as the brand's front-engined, two-seat model, replacing the Ferrari 575M Maranello, 575M Maranello in 2006 as a 2 ...

(2006) *

(2007) * Rolls-Royce Hyperion (2008) * Bertone Mantide (2009) *

Saab PhoeniX The Saab PhoeniX is a concept car produced by Saab Automobile, Saab which was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show#2011, 2011 Geneva Motor Show. The concept car's name was chosen at a time when the troubled Saab company had just been sold to Spyker ...

(2011) *

(2020) *

Ford Mustang Mach-E The Ford Mustang Mach-E is a Battery electric vehicle, battery electric compact crossover SUV produced by Ford Motor Company, Ford. Introduced on November 17, 2019, it went on sale in December 2020 as a 2021 model. The Mach-E is part of the F ...

(2021) File:2006 Ferrari P4-5 by Pininfarina (19631298185).jpg, Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina File:Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano - Flickr - Alexandre Prévot (51) (cropped).jpg, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano File:Maserati Gran Turismo V8.jpg, Maserati GranTurismo File:Stile Bertone Mantide.jpg, Bertone Mantide File:SSC Tuatara by J.Smith831 - 002.jpg, SSC Tuatara File:Ford Mustang Mach-E Leonberg 2022 1X7A0434.jpg, Ford Mustang Mach-E

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castriota, Jason American automobile designers Ferrari people Pininfarina people Maserati people Rolls-Royce people Saab Ford designers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)