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Vector avtech is back
The name Vector is a blast from the past, but just how far in the past is a question of when you stopped paying attention. Over the span of three decades, this American supercar company managed to produce some 20 cars—André Agassi bought one and then returned it about a week later—before finally shutting down.
Or, as it seems, the company was just recuperating. At the L.A. auto show, a new Vector was unveiled, the Vector Avtech WX-8 HPV. HPV stands for "hypertech performance vehicle," or, in the company's words, an "ultra-super-exotic."
How Much Faster Is Ultra-Super-Exotic Than, Say, Plain Old Exotic?
Despite the company's past failure, Vector is again promising huge performance. Zero to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds, the quarter-mile in 11.3 at 138 mph, and a top speed in excess of 270 when geared to run at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Power for these feats of strength will come from a 7.0-liter V-8 producing up to 750 supercharged horsepower, and an automated manual transmission with an unspecified number of cogs will transmit power to the rear wheels.
Vector has always claimed "aerospace technology for the road," and this latest venture is no different. The instrument panel is machined from billet aluminum and stuffed with F-22 Raptor fighter jet switches and spacecraft circuit breakers. If you must have an ultra-exclusive fighter jet for the street, may we recommend the Lamborghini Reventón instead?
For a company to fail as spectacularly as Vector did and then come back with a product that looks and—on paper—sounds exactly like the car it could never get off the ground or out its doors in any significant quantity seems—shall we say?—rather precipitous. The release, let alone the car itself, is unfinished and contradictory, quoting a top speed of "260 to 270 mph" but changing that claim to "in excess of 270" a few paragraphs later and alternately referring to the car as the WX8, the WX-8, the A-WX8, and even the WX3 in a couple of different spots.
We'd like to see Vector and founder Jerry Wiegert succeed this time around, but things seem to be off to a familiar and foreboding start.
notice headlamps from the Toyota Supra
I think they will never produce a car
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