Sport Cars i8 Concept

The JOSS supercar was a concept first penned by Matt Thomas in 2006. Thomas’ extensive experience as an automotive designer in Europe, Australia and North America has seen the project progress from a dream to reality over the past decade. The team hopes the first Australian supercar will be available in Australia from 2011. You may be thinking this is the Mclaren F1, it has the same shaped nose and headlights. It has the same rear round tail lights and even the doors open up the same but its not. This is infact a new supercar from Australian based, Joss Developments Limited and its called the Joss JP1.

2011 Joss Super Cars JP1, Australia’s sports car design is good, seen from the butterfly-style doors, the front of the 2011 Joss Super Cars JP1 Australian Sport Cars which is almost like McLaren, but more modest, and the rear is more like a Ferrari. The Melbourne-based firm behind the Joss JP1, Australia’s first production supercar, has released a teaser image of the car as the project nears completion. Under the black cloth lies a 1:1-scale clay model which will will be used to determine the supercar’s final aerodynamic design with the finishing touches to be applied at the company’s Advanced Automotive Design Studio in Melbourne. The overall design will adhere to the classic form of a mid-engined GT sports car while underneath the mechanics will resemble a high-performance race car.

CarAdvice can exclusively reveal that Australian company JOSS Developments Limited, developers of the soon-to-be  2011 Joss Super Cars JP1 Australian Sport Cars, are on the brink of signing a multi-million dollar deal with Mercedes-Benz that will secure the rights to use a revised version of the European manufacturer’s petrol AMG engine in its supercar, according to an inside source. The alleged deal with Mercedes-Benz comes days after JOSS Developments Limited announced a $1.2-million partnership with Ballarat company Albins Off Road Gear. The Ballarat company is the largest high-performance transmission manufacturer in the southern hemisphere and has been tasked with designing a mid-mounted transaxle for the Aussie supercar.

Glenn Draffin, JOSS Developments Limited CEO, said: “There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes development work carried out by our engineering team and the transmission partnership with Albins is one of several exciting developments that JOSS will be announcing over the coming months, “This transmission will set a new standard and is a key component in JOSS’ planned 300km/h supercar.”

While not confirming the information from our inside source, Technical Director Matt Thomas told CarAdvice today: “…we have worked very hard and for quite some time towards securing a proper and complete engine supply and support deal with this leading European manufacturer. “The news when released will be fantastic for the Australian automotive industry as there has never been an engine agreement of this caliber structured for a local vehicle before.”

The 2011 Joss Super Cars JP1 Australian Sport Cars is a two seater supercar with an ultra light composite honeycomb sub-frame decked in a carbon fiber body and weighting only 940 kg. It hides a mid mounted aluminum V8 engine which is able to produce 500 HP and its connected to a six speed manual transmission. Thanks to the supercars light weight and its powerful V8 engine it has an amazing power to weight ratio that makes this car as fast as a rocket! This car is able to hit 60mph (100 km/h) from standstill in just 3.0 seconds, it can do the quarter mile in under 11 seconds and it could reach a breathtaking top speed of 340 km/h (211 mph).

Prepare to shell out some serious dough for a chance to own Australia’s very own supercar, something to the tune of AU$500,000, which, surprisingly translates to somewhere around US$530,000 or around €373,000.