A Victorian automotive designer from Warragul hopes to succeed where many have failed in being the first to bring an Australian designed and developed supercar to reality. Dubbed the Joss Supercar, this mid-engined two-seater capable of sub-4 second 100km/h passes will make its debut at this month's Melbourne motor show.
The car is the dream-child of Mathew Thomas, a 33-year-old graduate from RMIT's Automotive Design course, who currently works in the design department of Ford Australia.
Mr Thomas' credentials in the supercar arena come from work he has undertaken for the Stewart F1 team, Aston Martin, Bentley and Jaguar.
Much of this work has been translated into the aerodynamic design of the Joss Supercar, which uses a composite body over a space frame chassis to keep the weight of the car to an absolute minimum.
Driving the rear wheels is a 350kW 6.6-litre all-aluminium V8 mounted longitudinally behind the two-seat cabin that, in the production car, will drive through a Porsche six-speed transmission.
In its first testing at Melbourne's Calder Raceway last week, the car managed a 0-100km/h time of just 3.7 seconds and covered a standing 400m run in 11.9 seconds with a terminal speed of 203km/h.
This was, however, using a smaller 6.1-litre version of the engine and a five-speed gearbox without the limited slip diff that the production car will feature. The production car -- which is expected to hit the streets in 12-18 months time -- will also be about 40kg lighter.
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it may be a far cry from the likes of the SLR, Enzo and even the 360 and Gallardo, but i think its still something to be proud of. everyones guessing at what make engine's going to be used, based on his current job i'd say he'd use a ford engine, but its all alluminium alloy which sounds like an LS1 so im stumped.