Our design chief, Jason Castriota, has done some very cool things in the past. This very exclusive, one-off Lancia Stratos is one of them. Yes, this car was done by the same guy who’s leading the design team working on your future Saab 9-3 replacement.
Doesn’t that get you just a little bit excited?
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I know it might seem a little unusual to be talking about a Lancia here, but I guess you could say this is more a post about passion.
If there’s one thing I hear consistently from Saab fans around the world it’s that many of them feel the cars lost some of their individuality – things that people can get passionate about – in recent times.
Saab is a small company and we have to be passionate about what we do in order to keep on moving. We also need to build vehicles that you can get passionate about as a customer, in order to keep you interested in what we do.
If you know anything about our Chairman, you’ll know that he’s passionate about this company. I guess that’s why he wanted to get Jason Castriota involved as soon as the two met a few years ago.
This Lancia Stratos was a one-off project, but it met with universal praise and pleas for the Fiat group to seek mass production of the design. Such is the passion that evocative design can inspire in people.
We’re looking forward to the future to see what sort of magic Jason and the Saab design team have come up with for the Saab 9-3 replacement
We’re yet to see the full depth of Jason Castriota’s design work for Saab Automobile – a fact not lost in this NY Times profile of Saab’s current design chief.
This brief profile ends a little too quickly for my liking, but it’s a nice backgrounder for those who don’t know a lot about Jason’s career so far.
Right: Jason with PhoeniX at Chelsea Piers, in New York
The article traces his beginnings as an art student in the north-eastern US and follows his accelerated rise to prominence after leaving the US for jobs with Pininfarina and Bertone in Italy. There is a quite a lot of Saab-talk in the article, but given that his public work with Saab is confined so far to the PhoeniX concept car, there is more talk about the company than the vehicle, which is a little disappointing.
Like you, I’m very much looking forward to a time when they re-visit articles like this and have a lot more to talk about in terms of vehicles.
For now, though, this is a good article and it’s great for Saab and for Jason to be featured in the NY Times.
Auto Express magazine (UK) has just handed out it’s 2011 New Car Awards, and the award for Best Design goes to …… [drumroll] …… the Saab PhoeniX Concept.
The award for Best Design was decided by public poll. The PhoeniX was up against 39 competitors but took a massive 30% of the vote (yes, Saab does indeed have an engaged online community).
Second place in the award went to the Alfa Romeo 4C and the final spot on the podium was occupied by the Jaguar C-X75.
Concept cars are designed to grab headlines, and Saab’s PhoeniX did just that when it was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The stunner is the first car to be penned from scratch by new design director, Jason Castriota, and its styling gives us a glimpse of what’s to come from the famous brand.
Comments from Saab GB:
Commenting on winning the award, Saab GB Managing Director, Charles Toosey, said: “We are delighted that the PhoeniX has been awarded this prestigious accolade. The PhoeniX symbolises a renaissance of the innovative spirit and passion that drove Saab to build its first car, the iconic Ursaab, and we look forward to launching the next generation of Saab models in 2012.”
Charles Toosey, left. AE’s Graham Hope, right.
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Below, Jason Castriota talks about PhoeniX – what it is and what it means for Saab.
Jason Castriota, Saab’s Executive Director – Design, has been honored by Fast Company Magazine as one of their Top 100 Creative People in Business for 2011.
The Fast Company list of 100 Most Creative People spans entertainment to medicine to technology to social enterprise. People honored in 2010 include artists Lady Gaga and Jay-Z, thinkers such as Chris Andersen from TED Conferences and various executives from Nike, Nokia, Microsoft and Nissan.
Jason Castriota was appointed the head of Saab Design in June 2010. Prior to this appointment he had previously held positions as Design Director at Stile Bertone and Chief Designer, Special Projects at Pininfarina. He began his own US-based design consultancy business prior to taking up the position at Saab Automobile.
Jason Castriota’s first public design statement at Saab was the PhoeniX concept vehicle, which debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011. He is now leading the design execution for the new Saab 9-3, which is expected for release in the final quarter of 2012.
Following is the Saab press conference from the New York International Auto Show.
It’s 10 minutes in length and features Matthias Seidl (VP Global Sales and Aftersales), Victor Muller (Chairman) and Jason Castriota (Executive Director, Design).
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Sorry it took a little long to get up here. Who knew HD video would take so long to process?
My thanks to Jason Castriota for taking some time to be our first interviewee here on Inside Saab.
I was curious to ask Jason how his thoughts have settled now that we’re a month or so along from the launch of the Saab PhoeniX Concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011.
PhoeniX was a concept that got a lot of attention, the majority of it positive, but it wasn’t without controversy. The car has received an overwhelming response here in New York and I was keen to see how Jason felt about PhoeniX visiting his home town.
Today was press day #1 at the NYIAS and even though Saab’s press conference isn’t scheduled until tomorrow, there was a flurry of activity at the Saab stand with a steady stream of visitors all day (and whilst I don’t want to sound smug, I think there are a few manufacturers who wish that was the case at their stand).
Following are some images and commentary on some of today’s events and some of the vehicles on show at the Saab stand.
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Being a senior executive at an Auto Show is all about two things – interviews and business. If they’re not engaged in one, it’s the other. Victor Muller arrived this morning with a phone virtually plastered to his ear and when he wasn’t speaking to the media, the phones were busy once again (often two at a time).
For Jason Castriota, it was all interviews. He was walking journalists around the Saab PhoeniX Concept for most of the day……
…..although he also got to sit down occasionally. This is Jason speaking with Alrik Söderlind from Auto Motor and Sport in Sweden.
These are not models from the Saab stand today. Saab has a regular crew that does all their major motor shows. These two young ladies saw PhoeniX’s doors were open and couldn’t wait to jump right in…..
Former Saab ad writer, Curvin O’Reilly, was also in attendance today. He offered both his credit card and checkbook, but still wasn’t allowed to take PhoeniX home.
Concept cars can be temperamental things. Some of you may remember the Aero-X almost swallowing a man at an auto show around 5 years ago. The poor guy had to climb out through the hatch at the back of the car as the power to the canopy top failed.
The PhoeniX has been exceptionally well behaved in comparison, but it’s not without its moments. Today, whilst Curvin was sitting in the car, the driver door decided that it was time to close. A few frantic minutes were spent looking for the remote control, before Curvin was safely extracted from the car. He seemed pretty content in there, though….
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Let’s take a closer look at some of the cars on the Saab stand. As noted earlier this morning, Saab have what is virtually an all-new lineup on the stand comprising the PhoeniX Concept, the Saab 9-5 SportCombi (due for release later in 2011), the Saab 9-4x (due for release in a month or so) and the Independence Edition Saab 9-3 Convertible (a limited edition of just 366 vehicles worldwide, available for order right now).
The Saab 9-4x has been seen occasionally on the streets of Trollhattan in recent weeks (Saab’s home town). I saw it twice in a few days before heading to New York for this show. I’m going to go out on a limb here – ‘crossover’ vehicles are not normally my taste – and say that the Saab 9-4x is taking very large strides in the race to become my favourite looking Saab. It really does look exceptionally good on the road and it doesn’t look too shabby under lights at the NYIAS either…..
The interior of the car features a dash panel with a silver/grey fleck finish as well as a patterned trim down the side of the center stack. It’s subtle, but very welcoming indeed.
I can’t wait to drive this car.
There will be a drive event early in May for members of the US automotive press corps (Some “long lead” publications have already driven the vehicle). Look out for coverage on the web shortly thereafter.
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The Saab 9-5 SportCombi was also on the Saab stand today and will be joined by a Saab 9-5 Sedan on Friday, the first public day of the show.
The interior of the 9-5SC Aero was finished in Parchment, with a patterned trim featuring on the dashboard and elsewhere.
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As I said at the top, the Saab stand was very well attended today, despite there being no actual press event scheduled for the day. That all happens tomorrow and I’m sure it’s going to be even busier then.
Interest in the company is really high and the great thing about that is that it was all interest in the product. PhoeniX was the star attraction, of course, but there were plenty of people going through the Saab 9-5 SportCombi and especially the Saab 9-4x.
The New York Auto Show has been a good one for Saab so far. The press will be even more engaged with the company tomorrow and I can’t wait to talk to a few of them and see what they think of PhoeniX and Saab’s upcoming vehicle range
(…..and speaking of which – aside from Geneva, last month – when was the last time Saab had such a totally fresh and new range to show people? It’s very exciting to see things evolving like this, like watching a newborn growing up)
