#vectoraeromotive

Candid Conversation: The Vector Saga

At long last, here we are. The last post of what I have termed the Vector Saga. This was the post I wanted to do for a while, but couldn’t as I didn’t have the WX-3; well folks, it’s finally time. So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn, a drink or maybe a monaka, as I tell you the story of Vector Motors. This is... the Vector Saga.

Early Days

Vector Motors is an American car company founded by Gerald “Jerry” Wiegert, based in Wilmington, California. The company was known to manufacture supercars and the like.

The company’s roots can be traced back to 1972, when Wiegert teamed up with renowned automotive designer Lee Brown to create a company known as Vehicle Design Force, which would manufacture a vehicle known as The Vector. 

Literature at the time stated that The Vector would be available with a DOHC Porsche engine (among various other engine options) and a pricetag of $10,000. The first prototype (shown above) was showcased in 1972, however, this version of the car was non-functional.

Birth of the W2

Wiegert then went back to the drawing board to design a further few iterations of The Vector, resulting in the W2. The W2 took its name from the founder of Vehicle Design Force, Jerry Wiegert, as well as the number of turbochargers intended to be in the car. The W2 was first showcased at the 1976 Los Angeles Auto Show as a non-running prototype; Wiegert attempted to market the car to potentially put it into production, but these never came to be due to insufficient backing and the financial downturn. As such, Wiegert opted to continue refining the car. Perhaps rather appropriately, Vehicle Design Force was renamed in 1977 to become Vector Aeromotive Corporation.

Numerous other prototypes followed, and the first functioning version of the W2 appeared in 1978. Powered by a 5.7L Chevrolet small block V8 with twin turbochargers, the W2 was claimed to be able to hit 230 mph (370 km/h). Over time, the car went through numerous running tests and was displayed at various auto shows worldwide, usually with color scheme changes and other detail improvements. The car managed to reach a top speed of 242 mph (389 km/h) on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

As time went on, Wiegert continued to push for the W2 to enter production, attempting to generate enough capital for that end. He ultimately generated enough capital in 1989, with the final version of the W2 entering production as the W8. The W2 is still owned by Wiegert but has since been dismantled.

Wiegert’s Big Break

Designed by Wiegert and head of engineering David Kostka, the W8 helped Wiegert to realize his dream: to build his own supercar. His company quickly grew, from a single building and four employees to four buildings and eighty employees. With a design inspired by that of the Alfa Romeo Carabo, the W8s were assembled in Vector’s Wilmington, California plant. Powered by a 6.0L twin-turbocharged Rodeck V8, the W8 was claimed to be able to reach a top speed of 242 mph (389 km/h). The full specifications of the W8s are detailed in an earlier post you can access by clicking here.

As Vector was designing their W8, Wiegert was already planning for a successor, which would be known as the AWX-3 (Avtech Wiegert Experimental Model 3), better known as the WX-3. The WX-3 was first showcased at the 1992 Geneva Motor Show as a non-running prototype design study, but gained a Rodeck V8 engine and a roadster counterpart, the WX-3R, for 1993, along with a repaint to advertise Aquajet, Wiegert’s other company, specializing in personal watercraft. I have similarly detailed the specifics of the WX-3 in an earlier post you can access by clicking here.

Here Comes A New Challenger

By 1993, Vector Aeromotive was running dry on funds and were unlikely to have the capacity to continue on manufacturing automobiles; production of the W8 had also stopped after only twenty-two cars were built. At this point however, a rather unknown company had risen from the ashes and offered to invest in Vector. That company was Megatech.

Megatech was an Indonesian company with ties to Bermuda, a tax haven. The company was owned jointly by Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto, convicted felon and son of Indonesian dictator Suharto, and businessman Setiawan Djody; those were about as shady of credentials as you could possibly get. The company was a subsidiary of MyCom Setco, a Bermudan subsidiary of Malaysian company MyCom Sdn Bhd.

With Wiegert knowing that he’d require some amount of investment or capital in order to manufacture the WX-3, he accepted while he was at the Geneva Motor Show that year. Little did he know that this was one of the worst decisions he’d ever make.

Shock, Horror, a Hostile Takeover

With investment now secure, Wiegert could freely produce the WX-3... or so he thought. Because behind the scenes, Tommy Suharto was working behind the scenes to enact a hostile takeover of Vector. Wiegert then received a call to an urgent meeting at the Geneva Motor Show, and flew back to California, and it was here that he knew he screwed up big time with his recent investment.

At this meeting, Vector’s board of directors, under clear influence from Megatech’s bosses, requested Wiegert to resign from his role as owner and take up a role as a designer for the company. Wiegert vehemently refused and went into a meltdown, firing all his employees, hiring armed guards and changing all the locks at the Vector offices. It was this that ultimately led Wiegert to be fired from his own company, and he was subsequently accused of mismanaging company funds.

Megatech’s Early Days

With Wiegert out of the company, Megatech now had free rein to do whatever they wanted... or so they thought. Megatech had intended to produce the WX-3 now with Wiegert’s absence, but could not do so as Wiegert had continuously filed lawsuits against the company regarding them producing the car and protected the design of the WX-3 with patents (and by extension, the W8). As such, Vector had no car to produce, nor did they have a designer to design one for them (they had fired Wiegert whom they had originally intended to be the designer).

Around this time however, Megatech acquired Lamborghini from Chrysler Corporation on 31 January 1994 for $40 million. As such, Megatech relocated Vector’s offices from Wilmington, California to Green Cove Springs, Florida, allowing Vector and Lamborghini to share office spaces in the US. With Megatech having acquired Lamborghini, the company decided to merge both Lamborghini and Vector traits into one car. In order to continue the Vector lineage, Vector hired Peter Stevens, one of the engineers on the McLaren F1 project, to design their new car.

The Unholy Hellspawn

That car was the M12. The M12 combined traits of the stillborn WX-3 and the Lamborghini Diablo into one package, with the overall exterior design by Stevens being essentially a loose copy of that of the WX-3’s design (as the design of the WX-3 was protected by patents). The M12 also used the same 5.7L V12 as the Diablos of the time as the Rodeck V8s used by the W8 and WX-3 were somehow too expensive for them to afford. The first M12 produced was also painted in a patriotic red, white and blue color scheme with the American flag and other patriotic symbols all around.

The M12 was ultimately released in 1995, priced at $189,000; apparently the folks at Megatech thought that a $50,000 premium over the Diablo was enough to salvage the company’s investment. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t.

The M12 received scathing reviews from those who could get their hands on one, with noted automotive journalist Jeremy Clarkson writing that the quality control of the M12 was “on par with that of a Bulgarian power station”, with doors which didn’t fit properly, a reeking gasoline smell, a “bonkers” seating position and air-conditioning vents which couldn’t be properly pushed into the car. Autoweek magazine went even further, giving the M12 the unenviable award of the worst car they had ever tested.

The devastating exposure of the inefficiencies of the M12 made Megatech jittery, and it was time for their next course of action. In an attempt to shut critics up, Vector’s management elected to venture into the world of motorsport, with the logic that if Vector could score wins in motorsport, the company could be elevated within striking distance of the top high-end car manufacturers at the time, such as Ferrari, with Vectors finally getting the respect they deserved. The category Vector decided to dip their toes into was the IMSA GT Series, in its current form now known as the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. To do this, Megatech called for the assistance of the now defunct IMSA GT team American Spirit Racing, who modified a pre-production M12 chassis into a race car.

The Vector Goes Racing

That car was appropriately named the Vector M12 ASR GT2, run by American Spirit Racing. The car was fitted with race-specification suspension, brakes, weight reduction and a larger rear spoiler and front airdam. Little modification to the 5.7L V12 was required as the power produced by the engine was within regulations. With close to no prior testing, the M12 ASR GT2 was soon shipped off to the first round of the 1998 IMSA GT series: the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Sebring was a circuit noted to be able to shake cars apart due to its bumpy surfaces, and deciding to debut the car at this circuit was likely something Megatech didn’t think thoroughly through. With Bill Eagle and Dorsey Schroeder at the wheel of the M12, ASR attempted to qualify against competition such as the Porsche 911 GT2, Saleen Mustang GT2 and Honda (or Acura in this case) NSX GT2s; the M12 ultimately qualified a lowly 33rd out of 48 cars. On the day of the race however, Sebring lived up to its name, shaking the M12 apart and out of the race after just 16 laps; the car’s listed classification is 44th.

The M12 would then move to Las Vegas for the second round of the IMSA GT championship, where it also fared poorly; the car qualified second to last, and in the race, the car’s engine overheated and gave out after a mere 2 laps. The car’s final classification was 21st. With two retirements in two races, ASR did not turn up for the third round at Lime Rock and instead focused on the fourth round of the championship at Road Atlanta.

With two new drivers and a new team, the M12 was entered into Road Atlanta by a Jon Lewis and driven by Kevin Allen and Randy Pobst. As usual, the car qualified poorly, qualifying second to last again, and performed even worse during the race, with a gearbox failure retiring the car on lap 43.

From Bad To Worse

With a financial crisis brewing in Indonesia, Megatech’s funds had been reduced significantly, with little money left to do anything for that matter; they needed funds, and fast. To that end, Megatech canceled the GT2 project after just three rounds, and as such, Vector exited the motorsport realm, having made no significant impact to their sales. In addition, Megatech sold Lamborghini to Audi AG in September 1998 for $110 million, ending any hopes for Megatech to dominate the supercar realm. Lamborghini remains with Audi until this day. What Megatech failed to realize though is that this decision would come and bite them in the back. Hard.

Somehow, Megatech managed to conveniently forget that the only car they manufactured, the M12, used a Lamborghini 5.7L V12 engine. With Vector now considered a rival company to Lamborghini, Lamborghini begins to charge Vector for the engines.

In addition to Tommy Suharto having embezzled large swathes of money from the company presumably for his own personal gain, the engine charges that Lamborghini was requesting dealt a crippling blow to Megatech; it got so bad that Megatech was unable to even pay for the engines due to the above factors. This essentially killed M12 production with only seventeen produced. With a severe lack of funds and an appalling lack of any form of competent management, Megatech, in their desperation, offers to Lamborghini an unsold Vector W8 as payment.

Lamborghini actually accepts the W8, but Jerry Wiegert comes out of nowhere and immediately sues Lamborghini for accepting payment of the W8, for the W8 in question was actually his car. Wiegert ultimately won the suit and retained legal custody of the car, but Lamborghini refuses to return the W8; it remains in Sant'Agata Bolognese to this day.

Scrambling For A Way Out

After this spectacle, Megatech, with no car, no engines, no competent leadership and no funds, tried to find a way out of this situation. In a last ditch attempt to save the brand, the company took the M12 ASR GT2 race car and converted it into the SRV8 (shown above).

In what might have been quite possibly the only smart move Megatech made throughout the entirety of their ownership of Vector, Megatech ditched the Lamborghini V12 and replaced it with a General Motors 5.7L LT1 V8 from a Chevrolet Corvette. This was combined with a Porsche G50 5-speed manual transmission along with a transaxle from a Porsche 964. The car was given a mild bodykit in an attempt to spice things up a bit, as well as fixed headlights taken from the Nissan 300ZX (funnily enough like its cousin the Diablo).

The SRV8 was then shown to the public in 1999, and was Megatech’s way of saying that Vector was back and they were going to take America by storm again, in an attempt to get potential buyers to buy their cars. Unfortunately for them, nobody bought the idea, and sure enough, they weren’t going to; just a few days after the SRV8 showed its face for the first time, Vector shut its doors permanently. Vector was then sold to American Automotive, and Megatech has not been heard from since.

Reborn from the Ashes

After some years, Wiegert purchases the ruins of Vector Aeromotive from American Automotive. He then relocates the company from Florida back to Wilmington, California, and renames the company to Avtech Motors, then Vector Supercars, and finally the current name of Vector Motors. Mullings about Vector designing a new car began to surface, and in 2006, Wiegert proved those rumors true by announcing that he was developing a new car: the WX-8.

 Wiegert unveiled the WX-8 in 2007, featuring rather optimistic specifications such as a top speed of 270 mph (430 km/h), 0-60 in 2.3 seconds and somewhere between “over 1250” and “1800+ horsepower”, from either a 10.0L twin-turbocharged V8 or a 7.0L hybrid V8. The car received criticism for resembling a fourth-generation Chevrolet Camaro and use of Toyota Supra headlights. As of 2018, the WX-8 was reportedly still under development, with Wiegert selling both WX-3 prototypes in 2019 in order to secure funding. 

I hope this gives you a better idea about what to expect from this American supercar company. And thus ends The Vector Saga.