Galmer Engineering was established in November 1988 by former March engineer Alan Mertens and CART team owner Rick Galles. The name "Galmer" is a portmanteau of their surnames. Although the team was an American-based effort, the cars were assembled at the Galmer Engineering shop in Bicester, England.
The Galmer chassis program emerged during a period of intense interest in in-house chassis development within the CART series. It followed in the footsteps of Penske and Truesports, and coincided with similar efforts by Porsche, all of which sought to build proprietary alternatives to the dominant customer chassis suppliers of the era.
The G92 designation reflected the car's debut year. One distinctive engineering characteristic set the car apart from competitors: where CART regulations required all cars to mount their timing transponder in the left side pod, the Galmer chassis lacked space in that location. Cars driven by Unser Jr. and Danny Sullivan instead had their transponders placed in the nosecone. This placement later became significant in determining the precise winning margin at Indianapolis.
The 1992 season was the only year the Galmer chassis was used in a full-time capacity. Unser Jr. scored 15 top-ten finishes in 16 races, with his sole non-top-ten result being an 11th-place finish, and ended the year third in the final CART championship standings. Sullivan, the team's second driver, recorded 11 top-ten finishes and placed 7th in the championship.
The car also won one additional CART points race in 1992, with Sullivan taking victory. The two victories made the Galmer one of the most successful chassis programs on a per-race basis, given the limited number of events entered.
The defining moment of the Galmer program came at the 1992 Indianapolis 500. Unser Jr. won the race over Scott Goodyear by an official margin of 0.043 seconds, at the time the closest finish in the event's history. The margin subsequently attracted scrutiny because Unser Jr.'s transponder was mounted in the nosecone rather than the standard left side pod location. After further review, USAC officials calculated the actual margin of victory to be 0.0331 seconds, though the official record retained the 0.043-second figure. Valvoline, a sponsor, later purchased the winning Galmer chassis and used it for display at various promotional events.
Notably, although the decision to shelve the Galmer project was effectively made internally on the morning of that 1992 Indianapolis 500, it was not publicly revealed at the time.
In 1993, the Galmer chassis was campaigned on a part-time basis by Dominic Dobson. The car proved uncompetitive and was retired without further CART races.
Galmer Engineering also attempted to re-enter the global racing landscape by pursuing a takeover of the defunct Brabham Formula One operation in 1993, but the effort failed due to financial difficulties. Following the conclusion of the active racing program, Rick Galles sold the company's stake to Bruce McCaw of PacWest Racing, and for the next several years Galmer performed research and development work for the PacWest team.
Only three drivers — Unser Jr., Sullivan, and Dobson — ever raced a Galmer in CART competition, yet the program yielded two victories, underscoring how concentrated and effective its brief competitive window was.