Vector

[HarleyEarl]

Orignially made in California, the Vector. I always liked this car.

Edited November 28, 2005 by HarleyEarl

[balthazar]

Me too, tho I prefer the earlier W8 model.

[HarleyEarl]

I agree Balthazar....I liked the original best....had a hard time finding a good photo. Thanks for that one..

[Hudson]

I'm fairly knowledgable about Vector. I authored the only-known (to me, anyway) published history of the Vector Aeromotive Corporation.

[bobo]

I remember AutoWeek's harsh articles on Jerry Wiegert, Vector's founder. They implied he was a fraud. The original car kind of looked like an American Lamborghini. The interior was button-happy.

[Satty]

The interior was button-happy.

[post="49328"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Worse than the Bonneville?

[HarleyEarl]

I'm fairly knowledgable about Vector. I authored the only-known (to me, anyway) published history of the Vector Aeromotive Corporation.

[post="49320"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Very interesting....it would be great hearing some of your insight.

[2005 EquinoxLS]

My Bonneville isnt button happy.

[Flybrian]

Worse than the Bonneville?

[post="49331"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

More buttons is more better. Ask the VW Phaeton before it goes back home.

[Hudson]

I remember AutoWeek's harsh articles on Jerry Wiegert, Vector's founder.  They implied he was a fraud.  The original car kind of looked like an American Lamborghini.  The interior was button-happy.

Wiegert sued AutoWeek after they related his factory to Peter Pan's Neverland. The lawsuit was settled out of court...along with most of Wiegert's lawsuits. I really think he financed much of Vector by suing people.

[Nick]

Neat car...never seen it before...looks a lot like a Lotus...

[Hudson]

Neat car...never seen it before...looks a lot like a Lotus...

You've never seen a Vector? I didn't think there was an American car enthusiast alive who didn't know what the Vector was.

[Sixty8panther]

It was such a radical car... IIRC each one of the aircraft rivets that held the chassis togeather cost like $70.00 or somethign sill ylike that... in the 80s!!!

Absolutely on my list of used semi-affordable exotics I'd buy if I had money to burn.

[Sixty8panther]

I remember AutoWeek's harsh articles on Jerry Wiegert, Vector's founder.  They implied he was a fraud.  The original car kind of looked like an American Lamborghini.  The interior was button-happy.

[post="49328"][/post]

Yet they LOVE this POS. :blink: <_<









Look Familiar???











I guess the Saleen S7 did have one thing the McLaren didn't: 78 freekin "gills" and about 36 more inches of overall length. Way to make a super lightweight perforamance car. :rolleyes:

[Carguy]

The last of those cars useing Lambo V12's were built here in my home town of Jacksonville Fl.-----((BRAG--BRAG!!)) :P I allwase liked old Jerry Weigert he reminded me of Prestin Tucker a little with his dream of THE AMERICAN SUPERCAR! To bad its NOT POSSABLE for a lone single and creative MAN to find his DREAM AUTOMOBILE COMPANY these days! <_< Its Henry Fords America NO more!! <_<

[HarleyEarl]

I so admire these American automobile entrepreneurs, no matter their quirky personalities....I think you have to be a bit off the beaten path even to consider building a car these days...and I'm glad they do. They have made the automotive landscape so much more interesting. Even Malcolm and his Bricklin. And DeLorean and his DeLorean. And Tucker and his Tucker....all good stuff.

[LosAngeles]

Looks like another victim of ever-evolving safety regulation.

[Hudson]

The last of those cars useing Lambo V12's were built here in my home town of Jacksonville Fl.-----((BRAG--BRAG!!))  :P  I allwase liked old Jerry Weigert he reminded me of Prestin Tucker a little with his dream of THE AMERICAN SUPERCAR! To bad its NOT POSSABLE for a lone single and creative MAN to find his DREAM AUTOMOBILE COMPANY these days!  <_< Its Henry Fords America NO more!! <_<

Although (Steve) Saleen is making a few S7s and (Danny) Panoz produces a couple hundred cars a year. Although I don't count it, there's also Avanti.

Preston Tucker was in business for just a couple of years and built more cars than Vector did in its quarter-century history. And Wiegert claims that Vector's not yet dead.

I had tours of both the Jacksonville and Wilmington facilities. Neither could really be considered to be a "factory," more like large garages. Edited November 28, 2005 by Hudson

[Sixty8panther]

I agree Harley... I wasted away many an hour as a only child sketching a car that would bear my last name.... Years before the aftermarket made it possible I had the idea of reproducing 1969 Camaros.... in the ealry to late 90s peoepl laughed at my "dumd musclecar ideas" no one will pay $30,000 for a reengineered '69 Camaro wiht a LT1/LS1 or wahtever... now it seems like a select few will pay $427,000 for the Baldwin Motion '69 Camaro. Water over the damn.

[mustang84]

I've never heard of Vector before either...must be a generation gap thing. When were they made and how many? The design looks like it was from the early-mid 80s.

[balthazar]

Tucker built 51 complete units including the prototype. I would be interested to learn how many Vectors were produced in comparison.

[Flybrian]

Figuers I've found would amount to likely under 50 total including prototypes. About 17 M12s were built among the others.

[razoredge]

I never heard of them either. The 80's and early 90's were years I was worried about more heavier chunks of iron, so I did miss quite a few things in the auto world. The Lamborghini insect styling is not amounst my favorite, but this is kinda nice to learn anyhow. If someone is going to build this kind of car they need to hand build them, just as the European sports car builders did it. You can't go spending all your money on factory equipment to only produce 10-15 cars a year. Im sure safety and emission "regulations" combined with the money sucking insurance industry destroys this industry just as it does almost any startup industry in the US. Dont worry though they got their share of the money !

[Hudson]

I've never heard of Vector before either...must be a generation gap thing.  When were they made and how many?  The design looks like it was from the early-mid 80s.

The forerunner to the Vector Aeromotive Corporation was founded in 1972 with the first Vector prototype being shown at the LA Auto Show. The company showed its first running prototype, the W2 in late 1977. Car and Driver tested the W2 in 1980 (top speed of 237 was claimed). It was powered by a Chevrolet small-block based 5.7L twin-turbo V8 producing an estimated 625hp and driving a modified Toronado 3-speed automatic transaxle (ratchet shifting manual mounted to the left of the driver).

The car was re-engineered in the late 1980s and became the W8. The 5.7L engine now measured 6.0L but power still remained in the 625-650 range and it was still mated to a 3-speed automatic.

Production began around 1990 (18 years after the first car was shown). There was one W2 prototype (shown in many colors with different wheel designs through the years) and a total of 21 W8s (four prototypes and 17 customer cars).

More concepts were shown including the Avtech coupe and convertible, which became the starting point for the production M12.

Wiegert lost control of the company and production was moved from California to Florida. The M12, powered by a Lamborghini V12, was produced from 1996 until the company folded in 1999. A total of 14 M12s were built (plus three prototypes including one that was converted into a race car). The final car built by the Florida group was the SRV8, which was an LT1 powered M12 with fixed headlights. Production of the SRV8 was announced by the factory closed its doors a month later.

[Sixty8panther]

Wow, I had always assumed they built something like 200 of them... I must have at least 70 photos of Vectors in all differetn colors that I've 'right clicked' over the years. I guess repainting the original car and showig it off for a decade will do that. Carol Shelby did the same thing wiht the original AC Corba roadster.

[91z4me]

The forerunner to the Vector Aeromotive Corporation was founded in 1972 with the first Vector prototype being shown at the LA Auto Show. The company showed its first running prototype, the W2 in late 1977. Car and Driver tested the W2 in 1980 (top speed of 237 was claimed). It was powered by a Chevrolet small-block based 5.7L twin-turbo V8 producing an estimated 625hp and driving a modified Toronado 3-speed automatic transaxle (ratchet shifting manual mounted to the left of the driver).

The car was re-engineered in the late 1980s and became the W8. The 5.7L engine now measured 6.0L but power still remained in the 625-650 range and it was still mated to a 3-speed automatic.

Production began around 1990 (18 years after the first car was shown). There was one W2 prototype (shown in many colors with different wheel designs through the years) and a total of 21 W8s (four prototypes and 17 customer cars).

More concepts were shown including the Avtech coupe and convertible, which became the starting point for the production M12.

Wiegert lost control of the company and production was moved from California to Florida. The M12, powered by a Lamborghini V12, was produced from 1996 until the company folded in 1999. A total of 14 M12s were built (plus three prototypes including one that was converted into a race car). The final car built by the Florida group was the SRV8, which was an LT1 powered M12 with fixed headlights. Production of the SRV8 was announced by the factory closed its doors a month later.

[post="50040"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

I am still trying to find the name of the book to learn who you are. :AH-HA_wink:

[Cory Wolfe]

Heh.. I remember that freaky (in a good way) looking thing. Its in one of my books (well, the original).

[Sixty8panther]

The Purple Prototype (W8?) was featured in that awsome Australian TV show "Beyond 2000" in the mid 1990s on the Discovery Channel. (or perhaps it was TLC) It was a very cool car frmo my teenage perspective, very different fomr Lamborghini and more original than the typical Exotic car.

[Freddie Frederickson]

"What's your Vector Victor?" I liked the Vector.

[razoredge]

Yea, I guess I do like this first model, quite a bit actually. I just wish I could figure out how it excaped me ? I knew about Bricklin, Detomaso, what Delorean was up to, Boxer, 930 turbo, 917, Maserati Bora & Merak, Lambroghini Miura & Countach but this Vector didnt even ring any bells. Maybe it was dead news in late 70's early 80's ? or I just happened to miss any issues that had word of the car. Oh well, that first body is kinda nice, far superior in styling to the Brick or Snowmachine. The second one reeks of to many rocker panel holes. Dont like the way the nose comes together either.

[Hudson]

I am still trying to find the name of the book to learn who you are. :AH-HA_wink:

Then I'll save you some time. My book has yet to be completed. But my published history of Vector was in a car magazine a few years back.

[91z4me]

Then I'll save you some time. My book has yet to be completed. But my published history of Vector was in a car magazine a few years back.

[post="50406"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

D*mn you thought of that already didn't you? I did find a history of the Vector auto company, for kids, while searching the library of congress but I am sure it wasn't nearly the same level of detail.

You wouldn't have heard of a "All Corvettes Are Red" type of thing for the 5th gen would you?

[Hudson]

You wouldn't have heard of a "All Corvettes Are Red" type of thing for the 5th gen would you?

"All Corvettes are Red" IS about the C5.

What's the name of the kids book about Vector?

[91z4me]

"All Corvettes are Red" IS about the C5.

What's the name of the kids book about Vector?

[post="50602"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

I actually own ACAR and I think that the story of the 5th gen Camaro would be more exciting than the C5 Corvette was because I have been watching from the outside for part of it.

I can't find the book now but it said vector automotive and then afterwords it had juvenile in []. I will look some more later.

Edit: I am so used to posting on CZ28.com's 5th gen board that I use 5th gen to talk about the 5th generation Camaro by default. Sorry I was unclear. Edited November 30, 2005 by 91z4me