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[citation needed]. 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 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. 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 its 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.
