Is it time to re-appraise the Vector W2?

Continuing on our theme of unloved cars this week, let's talk about the original Vector W2 Prototype.  Of course when I was a tiny kid in the 80s, I thought the Vector was the be-all end-all of supercars.  It was the topic of many breathless schoolyard conversations and sketches in the margins of my notebooks.  But as time went by, it has become sort of the Jean Claude Van Damme of supercars--just a punchline to a bad 80s joke.  The sort of thing that we look at today and say "wow. did we really think that was cool back then??"  Putting aside the 3 speed automatic transmission, I think the time has come to perhaps re-appraise the car on stylistic grounds.  Although I agree it will never be a "timeless" car, I think it's now getting old enough to appreciate it as a period piece, and a successful execution of the design trends of that time.With the later iterations of the design, the car became increasingly overstyled and needlessly complex, in order to compete with also-vulgar Lamborghini Diablo.  But I think the original prototype has some really wicked, menacing proportions, and cool detailing.  I love the fighter jet look imparted by the shut lines and tight panel gaps. The design borrows heavily from Bertone (the Athon -also from 1980- comes to mind), but creator Gerald Wiegert added his own Art Center-trained, American flavor to the mix. I think the way the organic fender flares relate to the chiseled belt line of the car is particularly well executed and unexpected. Perhaps we should look past the later Vectors, such as the disgusting M12, and appreciate the intent behind the original car --to make a home grown super-exotic with the latest technology and the most extreme styling that was cutting edge at the time.

Comments

[dave]

I still have my purple vector t-shirt and poster signed by Gerald Wiegert from the 1990 NY Auto Show. The original still looks great -- dated, and a little fussy in places, but the proportions are spot on.

[Bradley Price]

That's awesome, Dave! Thanks for sharing.

[Spannerhead]

I agree with your assessment and think it's time for a reappraisal too. You're right; the car looks EXACTLY like the sorts of cars I was sketching on my notebook paper in elementary school with nothing more than a ruler and a pencil. And they were awesome.

Didn't Andre Agassi buy a W2? And what's with the triple-jointed windshield wiper? Tech goodies galore.

Car and Driver did an investigative article sometime in the mid-'90s on Wiegert's involvement with the operation and the hostile takeover that pushed him out and led to the awful, awful M12. I'll have to dig that up.

[nsk]

I agree that the W2 is a bad ass looking car, but I see its design as more of a "look what we thought was cool back in the '80s" as opposed to an era-defining style.

That said, I believe that quality engineering and execution is essential to good auto design, and this car falls totally short due to its poor build quality and iffy choice of mechanicals. Cars are meant to be driven AND looked at. If it can't be driven in regular road conditions, it becomes a piece of static sculpture rather than an automobile. Then it's judged on a different level, but not - in my view - as an automobile.

And the original Diablo design was far from vulgar. Like the Countach, early models were the truest to the original designer's intentions; later ones became bastardized.