Magnate P 708

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Magnate
Paris - RM Sotheby's 2018 - Magnate P708 barchetta - 2005 - 002.jpg

Magnate P 708

P 708
Presentation year: 2009
Vehicle fair: Motor Expo Bangkok
Class : Sports car
Body shape : Cabriolet
Engine: Otto engine :
7.0 liters
Production model: none

The Magnate P 708 is a concept vehicle from the US racing car manufacturer Galmer Engineering , whose development began around 2005. The car has had its current name since 2010; before it was called Galmer Arbitrage GT and Bizzarrini P 538 . The latter model designation was intended to give the impression that the car was the new edition of a classic Italian racing car of the same name . The associated hope for the revival of the Italian sports car brand Bizzarrini was not fulfilled. There was no series production until 2019. The car is still a one-off that has now passed through several hands.

History of origin

Galmer Arbitrage GT / Cobra Arbitrage GT

The initiator of the project was Galmer Engineering , a racing car manufacturer who had designed some successful chassis for the IndyCar World Series in the early 1990s . Since the early 2000s, the Galmer management has been considering building a super sports car with road approval. Galmer first constructed a plastic chassis that was designed according to the mid-engine concept . The body of the coupé was designed by the Turkish hobby designer Togay Yuvanc. It should also be made of plastic and have butterfly doors. The triangular air inlets in the sides of the car were a particular stylistic feature. After Galmer initially wanted to install a 3.2-liter six-cylinder engine from Audi , the company switched to a 7.0-liter eight-cylinder V-engine from General Motors at the end of 2006 .

Galmer wanted to sell the coupé, initially known as the Arbitrage GT, as a kit car in the USA in order to avoid the time-consuming registration process. Most of the components should be produced in Thailand for cost reasons . Cobra International, based southeast of Bangkok and primarily known as a manufacturer of surfboards , was selected as the supplier .

The Galmer Arbitrage GT received critical reviews in the US press. Commentators saw the sales chances for a super sports car, which the buyer had to assemble from Thai individual parts, as slim, also because of the lack of prestige of the Galmer brand. In fact, Galmer failed to find investors for the Arbitrage GT. In the end, the car was never realized in this form. The result was only the floor pan of the sports car; With regard to the body, it remained with computer animation at this stage.

There are also sources based on a press release by Cobra International from the beginning of 2006, according to which the vehicle was originally presented as the Cobra Arbitrage GT. It announced a series production of the sports car from 2008 in a limited edition of 350 pieces; the engine of the VW Golf R32, a VR six-cylinder engine with 3.2 liter displacement, optionally as a naturally aspirated engine with an output of 184 kilowatts (250 hp) or with single or double turbocharging with up to 404 kilowatts (550 hp) . The North Americans Kevin Gallahan and Alan Mertens were named as the main designers and constructors.

Bizzarrini P 538

Namesake and stylistic model: Bizzarrini P 538 from 1967

In 2007 there was a realignment, in the course of which Galmer discarded Togay Yuvanc's design. Together with the German designer Stefan Schulze , the idea arose to market the car with a modified body as a new edition of a classic European sports car. In this way the “Kit Car aspect from Thailand should be pushed into the background”. At first Galmer wanted to declare the car as a new version of the De Tomaso Pantera, which is very well known in the USA . This approach failed because no agreement on the naming rights could be reached with De Tomaso .

In the following year, Galmer acquired the right to use the name Bizzarrini and the model designation P 538, which had originally been used for an open racing car presented in 1966, from the Italian automobile designer Giotto Bizzarrini . The factory-made Bizzarrini P 538 from 1966, probably only four copies, is far less known than the De Tomaso Pantera, and there are some ambiguities and inconsistencies with regard to its production. Nevertheless, it is considered a "legendary classic" and Giotto Bizzarrini's "masterpiece". Stefan Schulze then designed a new Barchetta-style body for the Galmer chassis, which takes up some of the design features of the P 538 from 1966. These include the two pronounced headrests and details of the front panel. In the area of ​​the side air intakes, however, Schulze's body has similarities with Togay Yuvanc's original design.

Unlike Yuvanc's work, Stefan Schulze's design was realized. The red-painted, non-roadworthy sports car with this body was exhibited at the Motor Expo in the Thai capital Bangkok in 2009 as the Bizzarrini P 538. The contemporary press then often classified the Galmer project as a new edition of the classic Bizzarrini P 538 and predicted the resurgence of the Bizzarrini brand. Some reports also assigned the car directly to Giotto Bizzarrini, claiming that he was involved in the development or designed the car himself. The designer Stefan Schulze does not confirm this.

In the following months there was a dispute between Galmer and Giotto Bizzarrini, as a result of which Galmer lost the rights to use the term Bizzarrini P 538 "in a curious way".

Magnate P 708

Magnate P 708 (2018)

In 2010 it was renamed again; the externally and technically unchanged car has since been called the Magnate P 708. According to one source, the new name is derived from the Thai company Siam Intermagnate. The model name structurally follows that of the (original) Bizzarrini P 538: The first two digits indicate the displacement, the last digit stands for the number of cylinders.

The Magnate P 708 stood for a few years with a specialist in Nuremberg who was supposed to develop and install the electrical system. The work, however, was not completed. In 2013 a collector took over the car, which was dismantled at the time. In the years that followed, he had the car reassembled and ready to drive in the USA.

In February 2018, the car was offered for sale under the name Magnate P 708 at an auction in Paris . The estimated price was between € 300,000 and € 600,000. The car found no buyer here.

Model description

The Magnate P 708 has a chassis and body made of plastic. It is designed as an open two-seater and has butterfly doors.

The car is powered by a 7.0 liter (7012 cm³) eight-cylinder V-engine, which comes from the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and is installed in the mid-engine position between the passenger cell and the rear axle. In the factory version, it develops 376 kW (512 hp). Galmer announced in a press release on the Arbitrage GT that an increase in output of up to 590 kW (800 PS) was possible. But there is no evidence that the engine installed in the prototype was actually tuned.

Web links

Commons : Magnate P 708  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thomas Bey: Exotic Rides: Galmer Arbitrage GT. www.askmen.com, accessed November 20, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Mike Spinelli: Buy Low, Pad Thai: Thailand's Arbitrage GT. www.jalopnik.com, September 27, 2006, accessed November 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Viknesh Vijayenthiran: Thai built Galmer Arbitrage GT Supercar. www.motorauthority.com, September 27, 2006, accessed November 21, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f The Bizzarini P 538 on Stefan Schulze's website (accessed on November 20, 2019).
  5. ↑ Cobra International website (accessed November 21, 2019).
  6. ↑ a b Reinhard Lintelmann: 500 sports cars - speed and elegance from 1900 to today . Planet Medien AG, Zug, Switzerland, no year (approx. 2007), ISBN 978-3-86146-384-9 , p. 249.
  7. ↑ a b Reinhard Lintelmann: 1000 Concept Cars - Ideas, Developments, Utopias . NGV - Naumann & Göbel Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne, no year (approx. 2007), ISBN 978-3-625-11639-4 , p. 314.
  8. ↑ a b N. N .: Here comes the Cobra Arbitrage GT from May 9, 2006 on the web portal t-online.de , accessed on December 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ a b hwi: Cobra Arbitrage GT: Sportcar made in Thailand from May 9, 2019 on the web portal freenet.de , accessed on December 8, 2019.
  10. ^ Georg Amtmann, Halwart Schrader: Italian sports cars , Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 , p. 90.
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Blaube : A fish called Manta . Presentation of the Bizzarrini Manta and a brief description of the history of the Bizzarrini P 538 in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 44 ff.
  12. ^ Philippe Olczyk : Bizzarrini & Diomante. The Official History , 3rd edition 2017, ISBN 978-84-697-6659-0 , p. 111.
  13. ↑ Lastly, RM Sotheby’s auction announcement from February 2018 (accessed on November 21, 2019).
  14. ↑ a b Brief description of the project on the website www.seriouswheels.com (accessed on November 21, 2019).
  15. ↑ a b c Auction announcement of the auction house RM Sotheby's from February 7, 2018 (accessed on November 21, 2019).