A few months ago, it emerged that Australian supercar manufacturer Joss had turned to crowdfunding to help launch its proposed JP1 supercar. Now the company’s founder, Matt Thomas, has confirmed that the manufacturer has received financial backing from the Hatzimihail Group.
Through the agreement, Joss hopes to raise enough funds to for a public listing to help raise the money required to get the Joss JP1 supercar project off the ground.
While speaking about this with Car Advice, Thomas said, “We have signed a partnership with the Hatzimihail Group, which is gigantic for us. That’s going to be bigger than Ben-Hur for us. So people are saying we’ve got $35 million dollars, no [we don’t], we’re going to a public listing very early next year… to raise the bigger money.
““There’s a lot of expense in going to a listing, which is what part of the whole agreement is with the Hatzimihail Group,” he said.
As part of the agreement, Thomas will become the company’s head of engineering and design while Alex Hatzimihail from the Hatzimihail Group will run the business. Thomas believes that the agreement means Joss is really on its way to being “a fully funded supercar company”.
When the Joss JP1 does launch, it should feature a 5.0-litre V8 delivering 563 hp and 412 lb-ft of torque. Power will be sent to the rear wheels via an advanced transmission dubbed Zeroshift. The company behind the revolutionary new transmission claims it is faster, lighter and cheaper than a dual-clutch transmission. Word about this gearbox first emerged back in 2011 and it remains unclear how much progress has been made since. Either way, Joss is promising a 2.8-second sprint to 100 km/h as well as a top speed 340 km/h.
[Via Car Advice]
