Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com Autoblog http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[eBay Find of the Day: 1999 Vector M12 is still wedged in our inner twelve year-old minds]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/04/ebay-find-of-the-day-1999-vector-m12/http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/04/ebay-find-of-the-day-1999-vector-m12/http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/04/ebay-find-of-the-day-1999-vector-m12/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

1999 Vector M12 - click above image for hi-res gallery

Wow. No, make that whoa. Why? More rumor and myth than car, this here is an honest to goodness Vector M12. And its yours for the taking. Unsure as to what you're about to bid on? Here's the explanation. To those of us that grew on on A-Team and Knight Rider, the Lamborghini Countach was the most positively exotic automobile ever. Forget about reality (and reliability, livability, etc.), our biggest hopes and dreams involved us in a black Countach with Paulina Porizkova and /or Kathy Ireland riding shotgun. Not that we would have known what to do with either the car or the girl, but hey - we were twelve. But there was a dark side.

Vectors. They were like evil spirits. Something cooked up by the government in Area 51 using alien technology. And not just that regular old alien tech - we're talking the crazy stuff. You simply cannot imagine how impossibility AWESOME the Vector W2 was to a twelve-year-old mind. And you should have seen the jet fighter interior. It was like the space shuttle - the evil space shuttle. Then the W8 came out and it was still basically as nasty and mind bending. Then in the mid-Nineties, the M12 showed up, and well, the a little of the luster was lost.

We've heard some abso-fab stories - guns, cocaine, barricading one's self inside a building for 30 days - about what was going on at Vector in 1995. Suffice to say there was a very ugly battle between founder Jerry Wiegert and an Indonesian company called Megatech that hostilely took Vector over and canned Wiegert. As a result, the M12 never got the 1,200 hp twin-turbo 7.0-liter V8 (or the Wiegertian top speed of 250 mph) that was planned for the never released WX-3. The M12 did however get the WX-3's aesthetics, although in reality it was nothing more than a Lamborghini Diablo with a goofy looking fiberglass body, terrible three-spoke wheels, the lowest rent interior possibly imaginable - and it weighed 3,600 pounds.

But never mind all that - you're bidding on an genuine American-Italian hybrid supercar with a 490 hp 5.7-liter V12 that can hit 60 mph in 4.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of 190 mph. And this one has 3.900 miles on it. Not shabby in the slightest. And remember, counting the four pre-production examples, Vector only made eighteen M12s. Unlike the common-as-a-housefly W8 (fifty built). Besides, you know your inner twelve-year-old will never be at peace without a Vector. Happy bidding. A big thank you to Davis for the tip!


Gallery: Vector M12 on eBay

m12_00m12_10m12_20m12_30m12_40

[Source: eBay]

eBay Find of the Day: 1999 Vector M12 is still wedged in our inner twelve year-old minds originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Jerry WiegertJerryWiegertLamborghini DiabloLamborghiniDiabloM12VectorVector M12Vector W2Vector W8Vector WX-3VectorM12VectorW2VectorW8VectorWx-3Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:28:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/19149561/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2009/09/04/ebay-find-of-the-day-1999-vector-m12/19149561/article-detail.xml 19149561 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/09/m12_lead_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/09/m12_lead.jpg <![CDATA[What if... the Vector W8 returned?]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/15/what-if-the-vector-w8-returned/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/15/what-if-the-vector-w8-returned/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/15/what-if-the-vector-w8-returned/#commentsFiled under:



What if, indeed. Many may remember Vector as the American company that attempted to build a world-class supercar but couldn't quite get its act together. The W8 was its final product that actually entered production, though only 22 were ever produced. With a twin-turbo V8 that produced 625 horsepower and a body that only an F117-A Nighthawk could love, the W8 could back up its bark with a mean bite. In fact, a W8 once reached 242 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats with a smaller engine and a very unaerodynamic rear wing. That's right up there with the best terminal velocities of today's crop of supercars.

So what if the W8 returned? Well, Dieselstation reader Stefan Shulze answers that question with a series of high-resolution renderings (click the Read link to view them all). The images show an updated W8 that maintains its Vector styling cues, but appears smaller, almost the size of a Lamborghini Gallardo. While the renderings are just fun, there have been rurmors circulating for what seems like forever that Vector founder Gerald Wiegert is building another car.

UPDATE: Turns out reviving the W8 is a common way to spend one's time, as we found this previous post that shows another attempt at bringing the W8's style into the 21st century.

[Source: Dieselstation]

What if... the Vector W8 returned? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 May 2007 19:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Vector Supercarsvector W8VectorSupercarsVectorW8W8Tue, 15 May 2007 19:04:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/896928/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2007/05/15/what-if-the-vector-w8-returned/896928/article-detail.xml 896928 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/05/tribun_04_silver_1600x1200_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/05/tribun_04_silver_1600x1200.jpg -1 2