Vector W8 Twin Turbo and other toys.

[only1ian]

cherryowen said:

I never thought I'd see a Vector in Readers' Cars! Just wow!

I remember as a teenager back in the 80's I bought an American car magazine from Smiths because it had a Vector W2 on the cover, and I thought "WTF is that"!!?? It was a fascinating feature, the car looked awesome, I'd never heard of a "Donovan" V8, and included an interview with Weigert.

However, much more importantly, the centre-spread was this photo:-

A topless girl is getting in the way of the car porn

[fernando the frog]

this car is completely new to me! it's ugly (but in a 70s/80s good way), also love that fighter jet interior! absolutely awesome

ps please make a thread on the juke and the toyota!

[Vectorw8015]

J4CKO said:

A base C6 has 400 bhp and doesnt weigh much more, I would have thought it should have the legs on your Juke, if not the Vector !

You have to remember that Chevrolet measures horsepower at the crank on a bare engine no accessory drive. That combined with parasitic loss in the drive line and the Corvette actually puts down closer to 300 hp at the rear wheels. If you had not noticed in my photos there is a yellow one sitting in the background. That is my girlfriends C6. They are not that fast. The Juke is at the wheels as shown in the photo of it on the Mustang AWD dyno. Big difference.

Horsepower for the Vector was measured at the rear wheels by the factory. It is what is actually being put to the ground by that car.

[Vectorw8015]

ST565NP said:

Pictures from Goodwood FOS 2007 :

John Dicks car 007 looks Black in color on cloudy days, get her out in sunlight or the flash of a camera and you will see that she is a very deep pearl blue. She was sold a year ago and is now located in the UAE.

[Vectorw8015]

Baddie said:

Reading that Wikipedia page the W8 produced max power at 5700. From memory the Donovan in the W2 was a 5.7 litre revving to 7500 rpm. Account for the difference between 242mph and R&T’s estimate of 218 based on gearing?

Was interesting they chose a de Dion rear axle.

R&T did a base calculation to come up with 218 mph and did not take in to account tire growth. The cars actual top speed is 242 mph. Many years ago Top Wheels Magazine brought their 5th wheel along and verified it.

Issues that arose during production, the insurance institute contacted vector and would not condone the 242 mph top speed stating that they would not insure the car in the United States based on the top speed. Vector was forced to change the literature to state 200+ mph as our core audience was America.

[Vectorw8015]

Bay Harbor. Getting ready for their show.

[Vectorw8015]

A rare sight. A Vector parked in Nissan's Egg. A place Nissan never lets any cars in to other than their own. A few of us were invited to a private showing of our cars to Nissan's design group.

[Vectorw8015]

A few of her out on the road, on the way to Turtle Creek for a show. Camilo Pardo behind me in his Ford GT at the time.

[Vectorw8015]

[Gameface]

Any pictures with the lights up?

[lotuslover69]

Love the Vector W8


Only in America would you build your countries first Super Car, then put an Automatic in it

Would be one of these in my dream garage for sure.

[thepeoplespal]

A Vector on the front page of a car magazine while on holiday in Spain (circa 1984 IIRC and I'm nearly sure it was Performance Car - Clarkson had a back page column) cemented my obsession with cars and a 4 to 5 monthly car magazine habit as well as a weekly order for Motor for many years.

[Vectorw8015]

lotuslover69 said:

Love the Vector W8


Only in America would you build your countries first Super Car, then put an Automatic in it

Would be one of these in my dream garage for sure.

The reason for the automatic was acceleration and Horsepower. There were no transaxles that would handle the power she was capable of. Also every time you shift a manual with a turbo you loose power between shifts due to the turbo spooling down and back up again. In the Vector it is constant linear acceleration. Today you almost can not find a manual gear box in a supercar. They are all automatics. Bugatti Cheron, Veyron, Ferrari's are all paddle shift boxes, no longer a 3rd pedal. Porsche's etc. So she was ahead of her time.

[RemyMartin81D]

Wow. A vector on PH awesome.

The factory adjustable boost on the dash is beyond cool.

Jesus wept. Want.

[Glasgowrob]

tell us more about the mil spec components being used?

seems an utterly bonkers over the top approach in a good way

[Vectorw8015]

Dr G said:

Loafer said:

soo... How close to 242 have you got in it

I was thinking the same; totally understand rarity, value, and attachment will all have a factor but the temptation to do a top speed or runway event of some sort must be huge.

I use to work for Vector.

With my car early on, several times.

[Watchman]

I only have one question regarding the Vector and that's to ask why the engine was mounted transversely. I can only think of three obvious other cars that used transverse engines - Miura, Stratos, and Noble M12/400... and I don't really know why you'd use one over the other anyway.

[The Ors]

Hairymonster said:

She's facing the wrong way.

Better?

[Gameface]

It's a great car but I do not believe that top speed.

[z06tim]

Thanks for posting Vectorw8015. It's great to read about your car on PH.

Here's a few more of "J83007" when she was in Sinsheim museum back in early 2007.









I always wanted to learn more about the construction. The aluminium honeycomb sandwich panel structure was pretty advanced for the time, and I'm guessing inspired by the aviation industry, and cutting edge aircraft such as the XB-70 Valkyrie and B-58 Hustler.