Galmer History
Source: GalmerI would like to welcome everyone to Cobra International Co., Ltd's arbitragecars.com website. We will do our best to keep everyone informed of the progress of both the Galmer Arbitrage GT and the Galmer DSR projects. Both of these project are well underway and the shop is being prepared for the production of both of these vehicles.What we are doing here at Cobra International is taking the combined experience of Cobra International and their vast experience in light weight composites, and Galmer Engineering, with their 18 years of race car engineering and design, and putting them together with the latest in computer technology. Then under a well organized, efficiently managed, large production staff, we will bring to market two very sorted out, world class vehicles, in a very short amount of time. With the help of Mr. Vorapant Chotikapanich, President of Cobra International and an amazing young designer, Togay Yuvanc, we have started something that we hope other sports car and motor sports enthusiasts will find as exciting as we do.
This project started out as an idea scribbled on a small piece of paper and a couple late night phone calls. I never imagined it would have gotten to this level, but it happened in a natural way and not something that was forced to happen. The difference between the two is dramatic in such that we are able to move very rapidly forward, smoothly and effectively because everyone on the team is 100% enjoying themselves. At the same time, the team works relentlessly day and night, 7 days a week, to make sure we meet the production goals we originally set. We are about 1 year underway from the original concept date of the Arbitrage GT, and we are set to have to the first 4 prototypes on the ground by August 2007. We will road and track test including track testing at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia between August and September, with the first debut of the car at Sema 2007 in Las Vegas. Orders will start to be taken in September 2007 and actual production will start January 2008.
For the Galmer Arbitrage GT, there will be only 350 cars produced world wide.
Since the first press release in March of this year, there has been an overwhelming amount of world wide interest in the Arbitrage GT. I must say that all of us are extremely pleased at the acceptance of the overall design and appearance of the car. We have made some slight changes, but overall the car remains just about the same as the conceptual design. The Arbitraqe GT gallery has the latest design changes. We will also openly show what we are doing with the design. Please feel free to send us your comments.
Also since the press release in March, the question we received the most was surrounding Cobra International Co., Ltd. Immediately I want to make sure there is a clear understanding that there is no affiliation with Carrol Shelby and the COBRA everyone knows. Cobra International Co., Ltd. is a long time registered Thailand Corporation. Cobra International is the largest manufacturer of windsurf boards and surfboards in the world with sponsored riders such as Kelly Slater riding Cobra Surfboards. Cobra International produces in excess of 1500 surfboards a day, but not only do they produce surfboards. They also make carbon fiber racing yachts, carbon fiber wind turbine blades, carbon fiber motorcycle parts for Ducati and Aprillia, and carbon fiber parts for Audi and Porsche. The factory is over 800,000 sq ft. and employes over 4000 workers. There is also Cobra Engineering, another Cobra Company that manufactures steel dies for the steel stamped automobile parts for various automobile and truck manufactures in the world. Nobody needs to question what is the capability of Cobra International. We have combined the tremendous resources of Cobra International with the long time experience of Galmer Engineering and Alan Mertens. The resulting product will speak for itself.
Lastly I want to say that we have utmost respect for anyone and any company that makes cars out of passion. The list of companies that we are fans of is very long. All we can say is we designed the Galmer Arbitrage GT with a culmination of ideas that came from the sports car enthusiast. A practical approach was taken from the start. Furthermore, it was never my intention to create what is so easily referred to as a supercar, and even today, we never refer to it as that. But as you look through the website, you be the judge. My goals are to create a blazingly fast, competitive, common sense sports car, that is designed with purity, simplicity, serviceability, and reliability, and do it at a fraction of the cost of any other carbon fiber monocoque sports car comparable in the market today. As of today, I can say that we are on target to achieving this goal.
