By XR4Tim - Sat Feb 20, 2021 10:41 pm
- Sat Feb 20, 2021 10:41 pm
#61086
Vector founder Gerald Wiegert passed away last month, and scrolling through some old photos on my phone inspired me to start this thread.
Vector was founded in the early '70s, producing and constantly improving his W2 prototype (and raising capital), but Wiegert didn't produce the first customer car until 1991 when the W8 was officially available. It was essentially a cost-is-no-object project to make the best supercar possible. It featured a carbon fiber body, fully adjustable coilovers suspension, aluminum wiring harness, a twin-turbo 6.0 liter resleevable Rodeck aluminum race engine with dry sump oiling system, adjustable boost control from the dashboard, and strangely a 3-speed transmission. The transmission was based on a TH475 automatic transaxle (IIRC), but modified with about $75k of goodies inside to handle the power. It did not shift automatically. If you put it in "D", you were in 3rd gear. If you see test drive videos and acceleration seems slow, they are not starting out in 1st. Vector guaranteed at least 625 horsepower from each W8. This was at the wheels, on pump gas (low boost). Each W8 was dyno tested before leaving the factory, and some were putting out close to 750hp on low boost, and 1,200 on 110 race gas with the boost turned up.
Sadly, the cost-is-no-object approach got expensive. By 1993, the MSRP went up to $440k for a W8 (almost $800k in today's dollars) because material costs were rising. Constant delays made customers unhappy, Andre Agassi gave them some bad press when he drove an incomplete car that he had promised not to drive, and overheated it, and some very sketchy investors were unhappy with Wiegert. 18 production W8s made it out to customers. I saw my first Vector (yellow W8) in 1994, and had no idea what it was until years later.
This is #001 in Gunmetal Grey
And this is #015 in Pearl White
More to come...
Vector was founded in the early '70s, producing and constantly improving his W2 prototype (and raising capital), but Wiegert didn't produce the first customer car until 1991 when the W8 was officially available. It was essentially a cost-is-no-object project to make the best supercar possible. It featured a carbon fiber body, fully adjustable coilovers suspension, aluminum wiring harness, a twin-turbo 6.0 liter resleevable Rodeck aluminum race engine with dry sump oiling system, adjustable boost control from the dashboard, and strangely a 3-speed transmission. The transmission was based on a TH475 automatic transaxle (IIRC), but modified with about $75k of goodies inside to handle the power. It did not shift automatically. If you put it in "D", you were in 3rd gear. If you see test drive videos and acceleration seems slow, they are not starting out in 1st. Vector guaranteed at least 625 horsepower from each W8. This was at the wheels, on pump gas (low boost). Each W8 was dyno tested before leaving the factory, and some were putting out close to 750hp on low boost, and 1,200 on 110 race gas with the boost turned up.
Sadly, the cost-is-no-object approach got expensive. By 1993, the MSRP went up to $440k for a W8 (almost $800k in today's dollars) because material costs were rising. Constant delays made customers unhappy, Andre Agassi gave them some bad press when he drove an incomplete car that he had promised not to drive, and overheated it, and some very sketchy investors were unhappy with Wiegert. 18 production W8s made it out to customers. I saw my first Vector (yellow W8) in 1994, and had no idea what it was until years later.
This is #001 in Gunmetal Grey
And this is #015 in Pearl White
More to come...