Jason Castriota was born in
White Plains, New York, and raised in
Greenwich, Connecticut. He graduated from
Emerson College in
Boston and attended but dropped out of the
Art Center College of Design in
Pasadena. Castriota began his internship at the
Pininfarina design studio, which later turned into full time position in design. Castriota had decided to stay in
Turin and he took part in the design of production cars such as the
Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and
Maserati GranTurismo, concept cars like the
Maserati Birdcage 75th 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, a restyled
Enzo Ferrari for American car collector
James Glickenhaus, and the
Ferrari 612 Kappa, a restyling of the
Ferrari 612 Scaglietti for car collector
Peter Kalikow. Castriota left his position at Pininfarina on the eve of the
Paris Motor Show 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 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. Tuatara entered production in 2020, and also set world speed records for the fastest production car on January 27, 2021, reaching 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 reached a verified top speed of 295 mph. ==Designs==