Arash Farboud

Arash Farboud is a British based Iranian entrepreneur. He is responsible for the development of the Farbio and Arash cars.

Biography
Arash Farboud attended St Faith's School and then The Perse School, Cambridge. He founded a company, Farboud Sports Cars making exotic British automobiles in 1998. The original car design was prompted by the refusal by Porsche GmbH to sell 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 sold by invitation only. Only five 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 raison d'etre.

Arash Farboud continues to be involved in the family's property, land, investments and other medical businesses. He is now not financially connected with Farboud Sports Cars, rebranded Farbio Sports Cars in 2007, but is currently 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 Porsche Carrera GT featured in Evo Magazine as part of "The Incredibles" group test.

Arash explained in his blog at Lusso Magazine that he is now looking to place a deposit on a Bugatti Veyron, and is speculated to have done so already

The GT and GTS
The first Farboud, the GT, was similar in appearance to the 1996-99 Porsche 911 GT1 but 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 then 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, carbon fibre body panels, pushrod suspension with Öhlins dampers, and with engine power expected to be up to 580 hp on production models. The GTS was well received as a stunning looking car and expected to perform up to the promise of its appearance but had a high price tag.

Farboud and Farbio Sports Cars
Farboud Sports cars was started in 2004 by Arash.

It was thought that the GTS was too big a project for so small a team; Farboud had hired ex-MTM engine tuners and ex-Lotus chassis engineers. So 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 previous experience working on the Marcos and Invicta British Sports cars.

With the aim of maintaining the looks of the GTS and the expected performance, Marsh is rumoured to have addressed some points such as the low windscreen header (raised for production but with the profile maintained), the partially obscured rear window (the original GTS had a decorative vent right in the middle), the expensive pushrod suspension (now replaced by upright coilovers positioned nearly vertically above the control arms), the expensive Öhlins dampers, and most disruptively, replacing the defunct Audi-derived longitudinal mounted turbocharged engine(s) with transversely positioned naturally aspirated or supercharged, Cosworth-tuned Ford V6's based on the current Duratec found in Mondeos, Escapes and Five Hundreds.

The badge 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 hit upon, after learning stories about the mythical character as a child.

Farboud exports to the USA will be handled from Miami, Florida. Farboud plans to have 50 GTS cars for export to the USA when production models are complete by 2007. Farboud also hope to export 20 GTS cars to Japan once final production model is under way. On-road production for the GTS is on track to be completed in late Summer of 2007. The suggested price of the GTS so far listed is £48,175. The vehicle was however never production ready, and after abruptly laying off all staff at it's Old Buckenham, Norfolk base, the company hastily moved to its current location. Less than a handful of examples were completed by a third party prototype specialist.

In April 2007 it was announced that the company would be renamed Farbio Sports Cars.

The Farboud GTS is featured in the video games: Project Gotham Racing 3 and Test Drive Unlimited.

Arash Cars
Arash Farboud, unhappy to see the planned GTS (Öhlins pushrod suspension, longitudinal 2.8L twin-turbo Audi-derived v6) so watered down from his original concept of a road-going racecar, has created a separate brand, Arash Cars. In mid-2006 Arash published sketches for the 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 to be priced at £170,000 apiece, about a third 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 claimed "secret running prototype" had revealed a better stability at higher speeds.

The 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. The car is not likely to be produced in high volumes.

The AF10 is branded under the 'Arash Cars' banner and was gearing for production by November 2007. However to date no operational vehicle has been made available to the motoring press. An body shell model was presented to the world press in conjunction with Carole Nash Motor Insurance as a taster of the car being prepared. A fully running prototype was claimed to have been constructed and final touches to the car's styling were apparently being made, but as of June 2008 only CG images were available on the company website.

Other Activities
Arash Farboud is also the CEO of Unisurge, a pharmaceuticals company based on the same industrial estate as his supercar manufacturing workshop. He writes and gives interviews for many magazines, and also commonly writes for Lusso Magazine (including a blog covering the purchase and use of his Porsche Carrera GT).