The Vector was the first real American full blown supercar, with huge output & out of this world looks...originally based in Wilmington, California, this marque's history can be traced to Vehicle Design Force which was founded in 1971 by Gerald Wiegert. Gerald Wiegert should be praised for his persistence in the quest for creating a supercar to rival- & even beat established European supercars such as Porsche, Ferrari & Lamborghini, all this by means of making the Vector special in it's own way, by taking the route of adopting the military jet fighters' methods & hardware some times, & thus, he used to say that his cars are not merely fast cars,they were jet fighters for the road. Weigert started his project / dream (as merely a small sportscar) in 1971 with the help of a man named Lee Brown (who left Wiegert later) by introducing "The Vector",& the car was a "Motor Trend" magazine cover feature the following year. It was not before several years, that a real attempt at the supercar concept was taken by Wiegert, exactly in 1978, in the shape of the impossibly famous W2 Twin Turbo. This car was loved by magazines, fans, & nearly every one, but still, & like the first "Vector prototype", it was never put into production, not to mention the fact that the extremely optimistic performance figures publicized about it (230 mph+ !!) gave it a bad name . In the end of the 80's, the W2 was ready for production eventually, thanks to a financial backing that came from public stock offerings, & when in production, it's name was changed to the "W8 Twin Turbo". Seventeen cars were sold, far less than the projected 25 a year production run. With 600+ horsepower, it was a direct competitor to the Lamborghini Diablo & the F40, although in a remark given by Car & driver magazine, as the one that tested both of them (seperately), the magazine noted that Ferrari out-engineered Vector. The W8 sadly had some technical niggles, especially in the heating & transmission departments. But nonetheless, it still has it's charm, even till today, although many see it now as just a dated & angular design. Wiegert intended to update the W8 with the WX-3, a more softer & civilized model, but problems with the Indonisian conglomerate who were the new shareholders then lead to him being taken off of his company, the one he created from the outset. Wiegert has then kept a low profile, toying with producing Aqua Jets & other things, until in the November 2007 Los Angeles auto show, he introduced his newest Vector creation, the WX-8 "hypercar". Again, big numbers such as 1800 horsepower & 260 mph began flying in the air, whereas one of Vector cars' specialties, good looks, was compromised, due to a strangely mixture of 90's Toyota Supra headlights & Camaro front that were the highlights of it's front design. Till date (February 2008), still there are no news of what will happen to the WX-8. Restyled? Put into production as it is? Abandoned? Only time will tell- but one thing for sure, all Vector lovers wish Mr.Wiegert all the luck.*****************Updated news on October 6th,2008:******************New, restyled WX8 breaks cover with a much more modern headlights design- work is well under way for planned production by 2009. (check out pics section to view more photos).