Vector w8 Ford GTs Ferrari's

[nthfinity]

 

[B O N Y]

nothing sexier and hotter than an all white FGT. gives me wood....
who is the guy with the pony tail?

what a sad story about the Vector, great concept, wish it would have launched.

 

[nthfinity]

nothing sexier and hotter than an all white FGT. gives me wood....
who is the guy with the pony tail?

what a sad story about the Vector, great concept, wish it would have launched.

Bony
Was this your car at the national meet on woodward last year?
http://www.nthimage.com/Detroit/events/Ford_GT_Rally/Ford_GT_White_10.jpg

I agree 100% about the original Vector's... they were so close to having success... even had between 40-50 orders for the cars when the company went to hell via the Indonesians. Very fast cars... yesterday, Kurt (the owner) was running some race gas, and a "little extra boost" on his already potent 749 rwhp on 93 octane.

 

[mardyn]

What happened to Vector? How/why did the company collapse?

mardyn

 

[Kingman]

What happened to Vector? How/why did the company collapse?

mardyn

Decent explanation - http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z916/Vector_Wiegert Vector W8 Twin Turbo/default.aspx

 

[Kingman]

.....and another - http://www.virtualvenice.info/media/vector.htm

 

[B O N Y]

Bony
Was this your car at the national meet on woodward last year?
http://www.nthimage.com/Detroit/events/Ford_GT_Rally/Ford_GT_White_10.jpg

I agree 100% about the original Vector's... they were so close to having success... even had between 40-50 orders for the cars when the company went to hell via the Indonesians. Very fast cars... yesterday, Kurt (the owner) was running some race gas, and a "little extra boost" on his already potent 749 rwhp on 93 octane.

guilty, that is #1153:thumbsup

 

[nthfinity]

Mardyn, Kingman.... those explanations are very Media correct, but far from the truth.

In 1972, the name Vehicle Design Force was changed to Vector Aeromotive Corporation. Their first creation was again a shell, this time dubbed the Vector W2. By the 1980s a power-train had been outfitted to the W2. Throughout the 1980's various W2 variants were created, each unique in design but never mass produced. By the close of the 1980's, the W2 was no longer being produced.

Only one W2 was created, evolving over time as engineering dictated. One engine resided in it from the first running prototype through the final stages of development. A 5.7 liter Donnovan Y block Twin Turbo running roughly 600 hp, even as early as 1980 when Car and Driver first got a hold of it and ran 237 mph.

In 1991 the W2 was redesigned and dubbed the Vector W8 of which two prototypes were originally created. The name was formed by using Wiegert's last initial and the number of cylinders in the engine. Power was supplied through an eight-cylinder engine capable of producing 600 horsepower and 600 foot-pounds of torque. Top speed was estimated to be over 200 mph. Production was low with only seventeen examples ever created. Eventually the designs were sold and Vector began focusing on their new model the Wx-3 and WX-3R.

First, Designs were never sold. Second, the name W8 comes from Weigart and 8th evolution of the Vector, where the W2 was the second evolution, and had 5 subsequent generations engineered onto it before the W8 production car was created.

There were 2 prototypes made, one of which was used to pass all federal regulations for crash safety.... the only manufacturer ever to be able to use only one car and pass EVERY test even through today... the W8 is still the safest car on the road today to be in a side impact collision! One of those 2 prototypes was destroyed in the movie "Rising Sun" The other prototype was left off as a world speed record breaker (made to break 300 mph average around a track like Talledega) and makes well in excess of 900 hp on pump gas... and varies from the production unit in that it has 15,000 chrom moly aircraft specification rivets rather then the 5,000 used otherwise.
The intended engine for WX-3 was to have more than 1000 horsepower. The engine was never completed so a turbocharged Chevrolet engine was used. Production cost for the WX-3 was around one-million dollars. The sticker price to own a WX-3 was around $685,000. The WX-3R was intended on being the roadster version, but never made it passed being a prototype.

Each of the 17 production cars will hit a max. speed of 242 mph gear limited... Vector advertised "200+" when the first owners were unable to get insurance for their cars, and retracted statements of 242 gear limited....which had been published in 2 magazines briefly. The car hit this speed several times on the Salt Flats, and on PCH :shock:. Not unlike the Bugatti Veyron, which makes a claimed 1001 hp, but actually makes no less then that.. the Vector W8 made no less then 625 hp... almost all of which had more.... while all have adjustable boost, and will make approx 1200 hp @ 12psi and 110 octane.

High production costs and poor build quality eventually sent the Vector Company to file for bankruptcy protection.

The Vector was so built that the minimal maintainence costs exist... the design engineering feature of this car was that it last the "Life of the owner" with regular maintainence care. Build quality was such that Williams International, a turbine engine builder, actually were in a so-called technology share... that Vector came out with nothing, and Williams came out with a more accurate manufacturing process...

Vector never filed for bankruptcy while under Weigart's ownership. and at the time of the illegal takeover (read: paid off judge, paid off stock broker etc. etc.) It cost $30 million to build 22 cars (17 production, 2 pre production, 1 prototype w2, 2 prototype Avtech cars) with orders for over 40 more cars in wait when the Indonesians canceled those orders.

In 1993 the Indonesian company Megatech bought Vector and moved the company from California to Florida. Wiegert was not allowed a lead position in the company but was offered a position as a designer, which he refused and thus, left the company. Before he left, Wiegert copyrighted the designs for the WX-3 and the W8 and as a result, the WX-3 never entered production.

Considering that the new "vector" company fired all but one employee (the man who brought the Indonesians in) and they did not offer him a position... Weigart owned the rights to the cars anyway due to the way in which he had run Vector Aeromotive, and small victories in court battles over the years.... before eventually winning the company back in 2000.

The Indonesians (megatech) moved company to Florida because that is where Lamborghini USA headquarters were; and they had 100's of unsold diablo's they wished to sell as new that were built under Iaccoca's ownership of Lamborghini SpA.

In 1994 Megatech purchased Lamborghini for forty million dollars. In 1998 it sold the Lamborghini marquee to Volkswagen.

Terrible part of automotive history

lots more to tell... but this is cliff notes.