Vector W8 Twin Turbo and other toys.

[Vectorw8015]

Hi everyone, I have a 30+ year career in the automotive industry with my career starting out at Vector Aeromotive in Wilmington California. I also am the only Vector employee with one of the 17 production W8's. Several of the owners are friends of mine and its a fairly tight nit group. I have been a ASE certified master Mechanic since 1989 in 9 categories. I have several other cars, from a Supercharged 2015 Toyota Tundra making 550hp to a Nismo Edition 350z and even a Cobra kit car in the stable. Daily driving resides with a Nissan Nismo Juke RS that is tweeked to put down some decent numbers. I am in the process of starting a new project with another member out here that is already pretty famous amongst the group, but more on that later. [url]


|https://thumbsnap.com/8wr5gHHf[/url]

Edited by Vectorw8015 on Monday 11th February 17:18

Edited by Vectorw8015 on Monday 11th February 17:21

[Vectorw8015]

I have a very extensive collection of memorabilia on the car. I have tried to collect everything the cars have ever been featured in or on. I do have the Top Trumps card with the Vector on it. But a ton of books and magazines that the cars were featured in from around the world. [url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/YBbRoT7u[/url]

Edited by Vectorw8015 on Monday 11th February 17:31

[Vectorw8015]

[Vectorw8015]

The Juke has a 14 PSI turbosmart blow off valve, a large intercooler, a large CVT cooler as its the AWD version. A Injen 2nd cat delete down pipe, an Injen short runner cold air intake, and a few other goodies along with a UpRev tune on a Mustang AWD dyno.

[Vectorw8015]

griffin dai said:

How much power/torque is it running now? I’ll be tuning ours but nothing mad like the Saab, I went a bit too far there and it went bang So probably just a remap 3” system and bigger IC. It’ll be half her car and she’ll cut my balls off if I blow another one up

Love the Vector btw!! I’ve never seen one in the flesh

The Juke puts down 210 All Wheel Horsepower. This works out to just about 300 engine horsepower if you back out the AWD and then run Front Wheels only it is close to 275 hp at the front wheels.

It puts down 240 lbft of torque at all 4 wheels. Which for a 3100 lb car is pretty decent. I have no problem keeping up with C6 Corvettes and 392 Hemi Challengers and Chargers that are factory stock.

[Vectorw8015]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for all of the questions and kind words. I will try to answer as many as I can.

1. How does the car drive compared to a modern supercar. It is still faster than most with a top speed of 242 mph. The only problem we have these days is there are no longer tires made for the car, the old tires wont handle a high speed run any more. Options; New rubber in a different size, which means new wheels. Or wait for Coker Tire to get the molds from Michelin for reproduction tires. We have about 2 more years before that can happen.

The car handles very well with 1.25g available on the skid pad with proper suspension set up, it is fully adjustable. She corners very well. As a daily driver she is more comfortable than many of her modern contemporaries. But she is built for short people. At 5'9" Jerry and I were about the same height. We both fit well in the car. Get to 6 feet tall and you hit your head on the sunroof. Sorry tall guys she is not for you.

She is as usable as any modern supercar. which is to say long drives are great, but I wouldnt take her to Walmart.

Due to her value and rarity she does not get out of my garage much. She goes to a couple of car shows each year and is one of the only Vectors that really gets out much. Car 001 and PP002 also get out of their garages for the occasional tour.

She is a lot of fun due to her rarity, its nice to talk cars with someone who actually knows what she is. You constantly get the " OH THATS A KIT CAR" from people who dont know what she was and dont take the time to look at the level of finish. The car is better built than 99% of the cars on the road.

She puts out 650hp and 649 lbft of torque at 8 lbs of boost and 1200hp 950 lbft of torque at 14 lbs on 110 octane fuel. Boost is driver controllable. But it is easy to turn up boost and kill an engine if you dont follow fuel requirements.

These are all factory numbers. My car is 100% original and probably the best example on the planet. Ron's car may beat me by a point or two at a concourse show though.

She is officially a Historic vehicle.

[Vectorw8015]

Gameface said:

Has one ever run anywhere near 242mph?

Yes every car was verified prior to delivery.

[Vectorw8015]

S100HP said:

Any comments on the dash...

All of the switches and circuit breakers are MIL-SPEC. Same part numbers out of an F14 or F16 cockpit. The electroluminescent display was out of the 117A Stealth fighter.

[Vectorw8015]

Watchman said:

I recall it had a Chevrolet Donovan engine... whatever that was (for us in the UK, info of that type wasn't forthcoming), and had a roller bearing crank.

Since the age of the internet, I read something about them being a drag racer engine company but www.donovanengines.com website doesn't seem to be responding for me to confirm.

Actually the only car with a Donovan block was W2. All of the production W8's have Rodeck Y-Blocks. They were much better than the Donovan. Improved webbing int he cam valley etc.

[Vectorw8015]

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:

Didn't a Vector play a part in 'Rising Sun'? (the sean connery/wesley snipes film from the 90's) Red from memory.

I just want to know if it's actually any good?! Does it handle? just how quick is it in reality? Tell us more!

Yes car 003 was used in the movie Rising Sun. 0-60 moph 3.9 seconds, 12.0 seconds in the 1/4 mile at 129 mph. Top speed 242 mph.

[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]

[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.

[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.

[Vectorw8015]

dleamon72 said:

Hi, greetings. In the late 1990s I visited a subtle but high end modifications shop in North Hollywood or possibly Chatsworth. In the shop was a white Vector that was a lot like yours. The shop owner gave me a brief tour of the car and mentioned some rather cloak and dagger modifications planned for it. Could I have seen your car?

Most likely you saw car 008 at Steckman Brothers Racing? The only other white Vector (008 has gold flake in the clear and my car 015 has blue pearl in the clear coat. )

My car was in a private collection and never saw the light of day until I purchased her from her original owner. When I pulled he out she had an inch of dust covering the car from being in storage for 8 years.

Edited by Vectorw8015 on Monday 18th February 12:42

Edited by Vectorw8015 on Monday 18th February 12:43