Jason Castriota

Looking back on the life and [slow and painful] death of Saab, it's impossible to not stop and think of what might have been with the quirky Swedish automaker. As it turns out, SaabsUnited has decided to shed some light on what the company's future might have looked like, including some images and information that include full-scale mockups of the 9-3 Phoenix, which you see above.

The Saab faithful are going to be playing the "what if" game for years to come. It's one of the burdens of being a fan of a dead brand. A fresh batch of grainy 9-3 Phoenix images have made their way online, alleged shots of a design proposal penned by none other than Jason Castriota. The five-door looks to feature an honest liftback, though SaabsUnited.com says this particular vehicle was drawn up as part of a business plan in early 2011. As such, Castriota apparently told the site the final pro

Shelby Supercars hasn't had any trouble finding buyers for the company's Tuatara. According to Gulf News, the exotic drew a whopping 10 buyers at the Dubai International Motor Show. Global recession? What global recession? Each Tuatara comes with a sticker price of $1.3 million, and even Shelby Supercars didn't expect to find the sort of following that it did at the show. The brand largely decided to attend the event to raise awareness about its efforts in high-performance engineering, with foun

2011 SSC Ultimate Aero II – Click above for high-res image gallery

SSC recently teased us with shots of their new would-be Bugatti assassin, the Ultimate Aero II and Shelby Supercars has allowed Top Gear to provide the world a new angle with which to view their exotic road warrior.

SSC Ultimate Aero II - Watch the "unveiling" teaser video after the jump

Shelby Supercars 2011 Ultimate Aero teaser – Click above to enlarge

Saabs United, the site that played such a noteworthy role in the General Motors-Saab-Spyker cage match earlier this year that Saab gave the site an award, is at it again. This time, Saabs United is voicing concern about Jason Castriota, who was recently named 's Saab's design director. Castriota took the position above longtime Saab designer Simon Padian, who penned the Aero X concept.

The story of the coachbuilt Lancia Stratos gets more curious by the day. Although it appeared that the homage was a Pininfarina-designed one-off for a wealthy and anonymous European, Car & Driver has done some snooping of its own and reports that it wasn't exactly designed by Pininfarina and it won't exactly be a one-off.

Jason Castriota at work – Click above for high-res image gallery of the Bertone Mantide

While definitely one of (if not the) fastest production cars in the world, the SSC Ultimate Aero has seldom been praised for its looks. Somewhat resembling just about every other supercar out there in one detail or another, the styling has charitably been described as everything from derivative to kit car-ish. Shelby Supercars wants to do something about that. Now that they've proven they can get their car up to its claimed top speed of over 255 mph, the next step is to get a few more of them ou

Bertone Mantide - Click above for high-res image gallery

Bertone Mantide - Click either pic for a high-res image gallery

Click above to jump to episode six of the Project M web video series

Project M - Click above for a high-res image

Click above to view the first episode of Inside Project M after the jump

It's no news that business has been tough for Italy's most vaunted design studios and coachbuilders. But that hasn't stopped Bertone from hiring Jason Castriota as its new design director. Castriota has spent the past several years at arch-rival Pininfarina, where he worked on such projects as the Maserati Birdcage concept and GranTurismo, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, custom P4/5 and the Rolls-Royce Hyperion one-off, before leaving with the aim of starting his own studio. But as the Italian-American