Browsing the Lambo forums earlier today a member there with a Vector was dropping a little knowledge on the Lambo owners. Pretty cool read, but a little lengthy.

http://www.lambo-power.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11522&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
You have to register to view the site. I'll post a little bit for those who don't want to register. :)


But that is because I worked for Vector Aeromotive and know how the cars were built and the care and attention to detail that went in to them. I also own one of the 17 production W8's that roam this earth. Doesnt matter what anyone says about it, too many myths and mis-information out there. Until you have owned one you truly have no idea what a pleasure they are to own.

The W8 is the only ALL AMERICAN Vector ever produced. There was one W2, and the two Avtech cars AWX3 and AWX3R that were produced by the original Vector Aeromotive in Wilmington CA. The M12 is a chopped up Diablo with a cheap chopper gun fiberglass shell over it. The engine was flipped 180 degrees and a getrag 5 speed was mated to it. Nothing more than a Lamborghini kit car.

The W8's have a Semi aluminum monocoque chassis with a 4130 Chro-Moly roll cage, All production W8's have a Rodeck Y block. Not some cheap Chevrolet V8. All of them are resleevable. They are twin turbocharged, transversely mounted, and each car came with a minimum of 625hp and 650lbft of torque. I say minimum because a few of the W8's put down more power than that as factory stock cars. 013 and 015 are good examples of higher power Vectors. There is only one "California Emissions" car and that is mine. All of them will pass CA emissions, but my car was specifically built to do it.

The car is capable of pulling 1.25 G on a skid pad, it just depends on how you set the suspension on them. The cars ride very nice, and handle very well, 0-60 happens in 3.9 seconds and they top out well above 218mph. The body is Kevlar, Carbon Fiber and S-Glass. The interior is wide and comfortable. While the cars are not built with someone over 6' tall in mind, at 5'9" I have no problems fitting in. All Vectors have 3 speed transmissions. Many of the parts in the cars are from aircraft, Switches, Circuit Breakers, the Electroluminescent display panel, aluminum wire harnesses are all from jet fighters. The aluminum honeycomb floor pan is also aircraft derived. Cherry-Max rivets and epoxy bonding hold the chassis together (aircraft derived) other parts on the car were very heavy-duty stock car components and F-1 components for the day.

Fit and finish are second to none. I have yet to see another exotic with better panel fit and finish.

From a pure driving perspective, the steering is a little light but has good feedback, the car will understeer a little but is easily overcome by adding a little throttle. Acceleration is linear and does not stop; the automatic transmission copes well with the boost and never lets the engine fall off its torque curve. Its like being strapped to a SCUD Missile.

The cars do not over heat; I have let mine idle endlessly at events just to prove the point. Usually that is the first thing people say is "that car overheats" Not true. One preproduction car had an air bubble in the cooling system and did over heat during a test session. But none of the cars have an overheating issue.

I have driven XJ220's, EB 110's and McLaren F1's I could afford any of them but have the Vector as my pride and joy because it provides much more fun than any of the others did.

From a maintenance perspective, I have a 14 year old car that has cost about $2000.00 to service over its life time. Most of that being fluid changes, a battery and a couple of small items. Let me know if you find another $450,000 car that can claim that over its lifetime.

I know people that have sent their McLaren F1's back to the factory to be returned to perfect condition for the tune of $85,000.00. Ferraris need a $7500 service every 7500 miles. So if the Vector is such a bad car, why has it held up so well and cost so little to keep in perfect running order?

The car was amazing for its time. Built to last the life of the owner. I will enjoy this car for the rest of my life. As I continue to collect other toys, I will always cherish the W8 as my favorite.


Oh man , i dont know. Back in the day in sunny South Fla, I knew of 2 Vectors, one that was owned by a guy who was a dealer on Sunrise and used to tool around in it occasionally. I saw that car broken down 2x on the side of the road, and I spanked him hardcore in my Porsche. Then a second which was yellow with Ostrich skin interior, and it also never ran right at all. Being 6ft tall I tried to drive it, and could only fit inside with my head tilted completely sideways. Put it this way, my Countach which I had at the time felt like a Cadillac compared.




Ah yes, Wayne's infamous W8. One of the few W8's that has been so poorly maintained and unbleieveably modified by a Porsche dealer in Florida. That poor car has been so neglected. It had several problems while under Waynes ownership. He modified it endlessly assuring it never ran for more than 200 miles, Strange items were added to the car like an HKS EVC. (it already has one from the factory integrated in to the display controls) why it needed to have 2 is beyond logic. Wayne put a floor jack thorugh the side tunnel of the car, painted it with POS paint because he was unwilling to have it repaired properly. He contacted me on his death bed and I attempted to purchase the car from him so that it could be properly restored. Well needless to say he was not keen on me getting a hold of that car. He actually sold it for less money than I offered him to another individual. To this day that car is still a mechanical mess due to all of the retarded modifications done to it. So that car is a bad example.

Michael Jamaloodeen, who owned Auto Panache had 014, I am unaware of any issues with that car. It was sold by him to a Texan who had the car in his collection for many years with no problems at all. He eventually sold the car to another person who resides in Florida. The car needed some general maintainance after a few years of sitting in the previous owners collection without a lot of use. The current owner drives it on a regular basis and has not had any issues with the car. So I am a little mystified as to your claim that its is a bad car. It did have an issue with its EVC and was not producing any boost when the current owner purchased it. So it was putting out about 300hp with no boost. The current owner repaired the issue with the assistance of David Kostka and it is now producing its intended output. I am not sure how long that car was running without boost. It is possible that Auto Panache had not realized that the car was not functioning properly and never said anything about it. But the car is working properly at this time. No boost could have lead to fouled plugs and put the car on the side of the road. Other issues I have seen are owners running HOT plugs in them and that will create a lot of problems. There is only one spark plug that will work in a Vector and that is a Bosch W5DP0.

I know where all of the W8's are and the history behind each car. There are 2 W8's that were neglected, 012 the yellow car is one of them, the other was purchased by an owner that loved his W8 and he returned it to David Kostka to be restored. For a nominal fee David returned the other W8 back to factory original and that car became a daily driver for its owner who enjoyed every mile he has put on that car.

I still stand by my statement that it is one of the best built hyper exotics on the planet. I am more than happy to take close up photos of the body seams on my car and compare them to any XJ220, EB110 or Mclaren F1. All cars built for the same purpose. My best friend had a Countach, and the panel fit and finish on that car was terrible compared to the Vector. I was recently at my local Lamborghini dealer looking over a couple of Gallardo's and even the Audi produced cars have poor panel fit with seams that have uneven gaps. The Vectors seams are straight and even front to back. Not a single panel has an uneven gap on my car or any other Vector that I am aware of.

.................

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if the car was/is so great why was it such a HUGE flop, and remembered so poorly by 99% of people?




The car was a success, but the owner of Vector made a bad decision to allow an investment group to come in, they leveraged their investment in to a hostile takeover. They then proceeded to trash the company and its owner.

Unfortunately when you develop such a car it is very costly to do. It took Vector $30 million to develop and produce a total of 20 cars. By comparison it took Bugatti the same $30million to produce its first prototype of the EB110.

Magazines were not allowed to test a running Bugatti until it was fully developed.

The same goes for Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche. Those companies wont let a Magazine touch or test their babies until they have all of the bugs worked out and the cars are a rolling showcase. Usually they have taken 7 cars to DOT for crash testing here in the U.S. and they have run hundreds of thousands of miles on preproduction cars to make sure they are ready for their world debut.

Unfortunately we did not have the luxury of having 20 to 30 test mules that we place millions of miles on before letting the press get their hands on them. So there were 2 magazine articles that did not help Vector out. One tested the original W2. This car was literally the first mock up of what the car was going to be. Only built for the purpose of showing potential investors what the concept was. But with no other test car to offer curious automobile writers, Jerry would take a prototype and let Magazines test the only car that we had. It was still far from complete and no where near developed. So it had teething pains. Go ask any automotive manufacturer to let you drive their concept that is sitting on a revolving pedestal at an auto show. Usually they are only clay and plastic sheeting, let alone a running physical vehicle.

So Jerry was brave enough to allow the press to play with a one off concept car. It backfired on the company. We did not have the luxury of sending out cars to the press after a lengthily development program. So they tested development cars that were still being put through their paces.

Vector had standing orders and a long list of buyers by 1992, The hostile takeover destroyed the company, the Indonesians tore the place apart a long ugly battle ensued and the Indonesians ended up moving everything to Florida except the people who built the cars. What they produced was a complete abortion known as the M12 which was given the distinct title of the worst car ever tested in the history of Autoweek.

People who don’t know what actually went on with Vector, associate the M12 abortion with the Vector Aeromotive car company, which it actually was not built by. It was built by Mega Tech LTD. No affiliation what so ever with the original All American Car Company.

Unfortunately people base their opinions on rumors and BS lies. Hey I read that on the internet on in a magazine, it must be true.

Hey the Pontiac Grand Prix won Motor Trends car of the year award in 1986, it must have been a great car. Oh there were 27 safety recall notices on it, but hey GM had spent the most advertising dollars that year with Motor Trend, so magically something had to become car of the year.

Many people out here on the Internet type BS remarks and people assume that they are telling the truth.

The Vector just happens to have fallen victim to this type of hype.


Dont get me wrong, I am not stating that the Vector is rolling perfection, but it is an excellent car. The one thing that amazes me is that every article ever written about the Vector complements the vehicle on its fit and finish. The only item that any magazine has ever said negatively was that the car overheats. So on that single item the Vector has some how become the most unreliable supercar ever built.

What is scary is that every person on earth praises the McLaren F1. But it is one of the scariest cars I have ever driven, the ass end always wants to become the front end of that car when driving it. The president of BMW purchased one of the first F1's and promptly spun it in to a telephone pole totaling the car. Many other McLaren owners have done the same thing. The car is light but the rear end is heavy and the handling is unforgiving. Maintenance on the car is atrociously expensive but its the ultimate supercar. The XJ 220 has ageing pains, the fuel bladders go bad in that car along with many other problems that cost owners tons of money to maintain, but its still considered one of the fastest cars on the planet today with no negative press. EB 110's are wonderful cars but parts are difficult to obtain only Dauer has the remaining parts and to obtain them will cost you your left arm and your first-born.

Ferraris need expensive ridiculous maintenance to keep them on the road, yet for some reason everyone praises them as one of the best exotic cars manufactured today. How many people would accept taking any other car in every 5000 and 7500 miles for $2500 and $7500 services and call that a good deal for something you have just spent $200,000+ dollars to purchase? Yet those cars are not considered unreliable?????????? In this day and age of the 100,000 mile tune up on a Toyota, Ferrari cant make a car that will run longer than 7500 miles without a major service?

Own a Ferrari or Lamborghini for 14 years and only put $2000 in to maintaining it and see how well it runs after that time frame with that amount spent on maintenance. The Vector runs flawlessly and still looks new.
How does that make it the worst Supercar ever built? I'm not sure. But for the 17 owners that have them 98% wouldnt sell the car to save their own lives. They all love them.

..................

Tell us more! Where did the founder come up with $30 million!? Where is he now?



The $30 Million was raised both publicly and privately. Unfortunately the private investors didn’t see a return on their investment. For that matter neither did the public investors.

As for the where is he now, that is an easy one. Jerry still sits in the 400 N Marine building in Wilmington CA. He has not seen any success since Vector. Mostly some neat ideas generated, but they went no further. He was attempting another exotic car, but it was a far cry from the Vector W8. It has failed to generate much interest. The Vector was his swan song. Never to be duplicated again.


Vector prices are tough to put a finger on. It really depends on the condition of the car. Typical prices start in the very high hundreds to mid two hundreds. But one of the cars just went to Japan to the tune of 1.2million. With only 17 production W8's and two preproduction W8's in private hands and most of the owners unwilling to sell the car at all, me being one of the latter. If someone wants one for his or her collection you are at the mercy of negotiating with whichever owner is willing to entertain an offer at the time. Then you have to decide if the car that is available is worth the asking price. 3-4 of the cars could use some proper care to make them perfect again.

The rest either have been restored by David Kostka to rolling perfection or have been maintained to the nines their whole lives and are just perfect to drop in to that ultimate supercar collection.

Any person looking for one is truly at the mercy of availability and any particular owners moment of financial desperation.

1.2 mill for a vector? Damn thats nuts.



Nothing too surprising to me. Back in the exotic car boom period of the early 90's 2 of them were sold for that price. With only 19 available (17 production and 2 preproduction cars), what is it really worth? To duplicate the car today at todays prices (accounting for inflation)it would cost more than 1 million, so if you have the money and want one bad enough, I guess the price is not to far out there.

In my opinion they are far from being attractive cars, but I knew nothing about the cars, or even cared to learn about it. They just seemed like bad and even more extreme copies of Lamborghinis. I have a new opinion. :thumbup:

http://nthimage.com/photoshoots/Vector_W8_chassis_15.htm



http://i2.tinypic.com/116kff6.jpg

:thumbup: Awesome read! Ever since I was a kid I thought the Vector was the baddest car ever, after reading this it seems as if it could hold it's own amongst some of the supercars of today :thumbup:

One car actually competed in the Players Run last year. Owned by someother guy in Cali.

http://www.playersrun.com/roadrally/d07/Images/48.jpg

I remember seeing the Vector along time ago and thought it was a copy of a Lambo but in the same respect is seems like a great car and can compete with the best.. :)

I remember seeing one in my neighborhood growing up in Miami and thinking it was a clone kit of a Lambo until my father pointed out it was a Vector. We later saw it on the highway a few times and that thing really ripped up the road.

I remember seeing one in my neighborhood growing up in Miami and thinking it was a clone kit of a Lambo until my father pointed out it was a Vector. We later saw it on the highway a few times and that thing really ripped up the road.

Well apparently the M12 basically was a Lambo kit car(based off of the Diablo), though it was not produced by the original owner.

http://www.shorey.net/Auto/Miscellaneous%20Pictures/1996%20Vector%20M12-1.jpg

Man these cars are wierd looking.

This is Ugly....
http://i2.tinypic.com/116kff6.jpg
This is Hot....
http://www.shorey.net/Auto/Miscellaneous%20Pictures/1996%20Vector%20M12-1.jpg

Wierd how the same company made both....

Vector always gets a :thumbup: from me, a true supercar.

That was a great find and read!!

Vectors are awesome!!!
Thanks for sharing G!! :thumbup: :cool:

the W8 is truly a beast, and absolutely incredible in person! I'm glad that the owner of it exists to help set the record straight; he is one of the finest men I have ever met!

magneto112, I highly appreciate you linking to my site, and my photos... I have but one favor.... please don't link any of my 1600x1067 photos to any other hosting sights. you may use 600x800 however, and of course, keep the link up.

thankyou for understanding
- Isaac (Nthimage Photography)

What does 700+ hp look like? what does it sound like?

http://nthimage.com/photoshoots/Vector_W8_15_S2/vector_teaser.wmv
http://nthimage.com 24 HI-Res images online
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_10.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_12.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_14.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_3.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_7.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_8.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_P_3.jpg

http://nthimage.com 24 HI-Res images online

enjoy!

What does 700+ hp look like? what does it sound like?

http://nthimage.com/photoshoots/Vector_W8_15_S2/vector_teaser.wmv
http://nthimage.com 24 HI-Res images online
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_10.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_12.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_14.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_3.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_7.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_8.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/update_15/Vector_W8_P_3.jpg

http://nthimage.com 24 HI-Res images online

enjoy!

Awesome teaser vid!!! :thumbup:
Pics arren't showing for me though.

looks hawt with the lights up.

Awesome teaser vid!!! :thumbup:
Pics arren't showing for me though.
thankyou.

it looks like people are having issues when they have norton internet security in their machines...

other then that, i dont know :sad:

Edit:

some people have various prog's that block referring sites.

FYI, referring sites has absolutely nothing to do with privacy; and such blocks can be disabled

interresting.