Farbio

Farbio (formerly known as Farboud, and along with Arash) is a boutique supercar manufacturer by Iranian-born entrepreneur Arash Farboud. To date, the company has created 2 vehicles: the Farboud GT and the Farboud GTS prototype.

History
Arash Farboud attended St. Faith's and then The Perse School, Cambridge. He founded a company making exotic British automobiles in 1998. The original car building was prompted by the refusal by Porsche GmbH to sell Arash Farboud a GT1 Road Car. The Porsche 911 GT1 had just swept to victory in the 24 hours of Le Mans, but road cars were by invitation only. Only 5 road going GT1s were made and used, ironically, mostly for racing, with one saved for the Porsche Museum. The sale of the Farboud family business, specialising in sterile medical supplies provided the funds; and the snub by Porsche provided the reason d'etre. Arash Farboud continues to run the family's property, land, investments and other medical businesses that were not sold. He is still very involved with Farboud Sports Cars and is currently working with the team in Bristol; as well as working on his new range of supercars badged 'Arash Cars' including his AF10 and racing car projects. Arash is renowned for his collection of supercars from Lamborghinis to a rare Carrera GT specially made for him in Germany by Porsche.

The GT and GTS
Thus the first Farboud, the GT, was formed in the visage of the '96-'9 Porsche 911 GT1, powered by a twin-turbo v6 derived from the Audi S4. Porsche complained about the styling but only one vehicle was made and never sold on the open market. The Farboud GT turned up at the start of the 2005 Gumball 3000 rally in London as a star vehicle and continues to make appearances in the UK. Arash turned his mind to a more marketable car and hired a stylist fresh out of school to help him develop a compact supercar formed around the same drivetrain.

The resulting prototype, the GTS, was a compact car with a steel tube-frame with carbon fibre body panels, pushrod suspension with Ohlins dampers, and with power expected to be available up to 580 hp at production. The GTS was roundly received as a stunning car, mostly revered for its looks and expected to perform up to the promise of the body, even if at a cost. Link to Evo Pictures

Farboud Sports Cars
It is believed the GTS was too big of a project for so small and expensive a team (Farboud had hired ex-MTM engine tuners and ex-Lotus chassis engineers), and Chris Marsh was asked by Arash Farboud in 2004 to take the reins of daily running of the company so Arash could concentrate on supercar projects, racing, and his other family business commitments. Marsh had experience working on the Marcos and Invicta British Sports cars, and was especially attracted to the Farboud for the unusually warm public reception to its looks, and was excited about how to bring the GTS to market profitably.

With the aim of maintaining the looks of the GTS and the expected performance, Marsh is rumored to have addressed some sore points, such as the low windshield header (higher for production with the profile maintained), the partially obscured rear window (original GTS had a decorative vent right in the middle), the expensive pushrod suspension (now seen to be upright coilovers positioned nearly vertically above the control arms), the expensive Ohlins dampers, and most disruptively, replacing the defunct audi-derived longitudinal turbocharged engine(s) with transversely positioned naturally aspirated and supercharged, cosworth-tuned Ford v6's based on the current Duratec found in Mondeos, Escapes and Five Hundreds.

Farboud Sports Cars is currently finalising production of the Farboud GTS as of Summer 2006. The marque of the company is a yellow bow and arrow taken from the character Arash, an archer from Persian mythology. The mark is a lucky charm that Arash wished to use after learning stories about the mythical character as a child.

Farboud exportation for the USA will be based in Miami, Florida. Farboud plans to have 50 GTS cars for export to the USA when production models are complete by 2006. Farboud also hopes to export 20 GTS cars to Japan once a final production model is complete. On-road production for the GTS is on track to be completed in late Summer of 2006. The suggested price of the GTS so far listed is £48,175.

The Farboud GTS is featured in the Xbox 360 game: Project Gotham Racing 3 and Test drive Unlimited.

Arash Cars
Arash Farboud, unhappy to see the planned GTS (Ohlins pushrod suspension, longitudinal 2.8L twin-turbo Audi-derived v6) so watered down from his original concept of a road-going racecar has formed a separate company, Arash Cars. In mid-2006 Arash published sketches for their new car, the Arash AF10. Based on the graphics released, the car looks similar to the Ferrari Enzo, but powered by a Corvette V8 engine. The AF10 is priced at £170,000 apiece, about 1/3rd of the Enzo's list price. Although the original sketches have been compared to the Enzo, a mock up of the proposed shape showed an evolution away from the sketches in order to compensate for door openings and the result of wind tunnel testing for air vents. The wheel base has also been extended after a secret running protoype had revealed a better stability at higher speeds. (Source - speaking directly to the factory)

AF10 is now being designed and assembled at his Cambridge facilities, with a close knit team able to make the car exactly as he wishes. Although the car is not likely produced in high volumes, it will cater for a small number of customers and loyal followers of his work for the next few years.