Vector
Avtech WX8 Hypercar
The
name Vector is a blast from the past, but just how far in the past is a
question of when you stopped paying attention. Over the span of three decades,
this American supercar company managed to produce some 20 cars—André Agassi
bought one and then returned it about a week later—before finally shutting
down.
Or,
as it seems, the company was just recuperating. At the L.A. auto show, a new
Vector was unveiled, the Vector Avtech WX-8 HPV. HPV stands for "hypertech
performance vehicle," or, in the company's words, an
"ultra-super-exotic."
Despite
the company's past failure, Vector is again promising huge performance. Zero to
60 mph in 3.3 seconds, the quarter-mile in 11.3 at 138 mph, and a top speed in
excess of 270 when geared to run at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Power for these
feats of strength will come from a 7.0-liter V-8 producing up to 750
supercharged horsepower, and an automated manual transmission with an
unspecified number of cogs will transmit power to the rear wheels.
Vector
has always claimed "aerospace technology for the road," and this
latest venture is no different. The instrument panel is machined from billet
aluminum and stuffed with F-22 Raptor fighter jet switches and spacecraft
circuit breakers. If you must have an ultra-exclusive fighter jet for the
street, may we recommend the Lamborghini Reventón instead?
For
a company to fail as spectacularly as Vector did and then come back with a
product that looks and—on paper—sounds exactly like the car it could never get
off the ground or out its doors in any significant quantity seems—shall we
say?—rather precipitous. The release, let alone the car itself, is unfinished
and contradictory, quoting a top speed of "260 to 270 mph" but
changing that claim to "in excess of 270" a few paragraphs later and
alternately referring to the car as the WX8, the WX-8, the A-WX8, and even the
WX3 in a couple of different spots.
Source : caranddriver
