The Vector Avtech WX-3 was arguably the most impressive American supercar of its time, featuring a mid-mounted engine capable of up to 1200 bhp, futuristic styling, and of course, a price tag only affordable to the lucky few.
Sadly, the Vector Avtech WX-3 would never make it past the prototype stage, the tumultuous tale is told below in more detail, but there was one functional prototype made, and it’s now being offered for sale.
Fast Facts – The Vector Avtech WX-3 Prototype
- The Vector Avtech WX-3 was an American supercar prototype featuring a mid-mounted engine capable of up to 1200 bhp, futuristic styling, and a high price tag. It was intended to be Vector’s most advanced model, rivaling the McLaren F1, but never reached production.
- Vector, founded in 1971 by Gerald Wiegert, struggled to transition from prototypes to production. Their most successful model was the Vector W8, with 17 units produced. The company faced financial challenges typical of automotive startups like Tucker and DeLorean.
- The WX-3 prototype featured a lightweight aluminum honeycomb chassis, carbon fiber and Kevlar body, and a twin-turbo 7.0-liter V8 engine. It had advanced suspension, disc brakes, and an unusual three-person bench seat.
- After being kept by Wiegert for years, the sole functional WX-3 prototype was sold in 2019 and underwent a $300,000 restoration. It’s now being offered for sale by RM Sotheby’s with an estimated price of $1.3-1.5 million.
The Turbulent Tale Of Vector Aeromotive
Vector has a history that falls very much inline with the tumultuous happenings at other unique North American automotive start ups, like Tucker, Bricklin, and DeLorean. There never seemed to be enough time or money or production volume, and the story ended in a familiar maelstrom of financial chaos and burned investors.
The Vector Avtech WX-3 prototype is a great example of the American firm’s design language, it’s unique when compared to its predecessors but clearly influenced by them.
The company that would become Vector was originally founded in 1971 as Vehicle Design Force by young engineer from Dearborn, Michigan named Gerald Wiegert.
Over the course of the 1970s and into the 1980s the company would release a number of wildly futuristic supercar prototypes, and change their name to the name of their first prototype – the Vector.
A number of cars were shown at major motor shows and covered in period magazines, and on the automotive TV shows of the time. This all attracted a surge in interest from the American public.
What Vector struggled, sadly, with was the process of getting cars into series production and selling them to that same American public.
The company’s most successful car, perhaps arguably, was the Vector W8 which debuted in 1989. 17 were made and the combination of futuristic styling, exceptional performance, and true scarcity made them a hit among those who could afford one.
The interior design was unusual to say the least, with seats for three in a bench configuration. This was planned to be changed to the more usual two bucket seat layout for the production cars.
The next production car released by Vector would be their most controversial, it was called the M12, and if on hearing one you could have sworn it sounded like a Diablo v12, you would have been more right than you knew.
The Vector Avtech WX-3 Prototype Shown Here
The Vector Avtech WX-3 was to be Gerald Wiegert’s pièce de résistance, a supercar that was faster and more advanced than anything else in the world, with the exception of the McLaren F1 that was in production over in England.
The WX-3 used a version of the W8 chassis, a lightweight but very stiff monocoque with an aluminum honeycomb structure requiring approximately 5,000 aircraft-grade rivets. The body was made from carbon fiber and Kevlar and featured styling that was pure Vector – not the same as its forebears but clearly related to them.
The engine used in the WX-3 was the twin-turbo Rodeck 7.0 liter V8 said to be capable of 1,200 bhp in its maximum state of tune, and 1,000 bhp at the level of tune it was at in the prototype. Power was sent to the rear wheels via a heavily-modified General Motors Turbo-Hydramatic 425 automatic transmission.
Power is provided by the the twin-turbo Rodeck 7.0 liter V8 said to be capable of 1,200 bhp in its maximum state of tune.
The Avtech WX-3 was given advanced independent suspension front and rear, as well as four wheel disc brakes, though perhaps this all goes without saying, and inside you would find an unusual bench-style seat that could accommodate three people rather than the supercar average of just two.
The world would first see the car at the 1992 Geneva Motor Show, a year later the $765,000 USD price tag would be announced. To put that into context, it would be approximately $1,663,279 USD in today’s money.
Sadly, due to the tumultuous series of events that beset Vector around this time, the Avtech WX-3 would never make it into production, with just a single fully-functional example built. This car was personally kept by Wiegert for many years in his own collection, perhaps a sign of how much it must have meant to him.
Finally in 2019 he would sell this car along with one other through a brokered deal to a US collector. It was then sent off for $300,000 USD worth of restoration work by Miller Motorcars of Greenwich, Connecticut.
No other supercar has ever quite looked like a Vector, and it remains a testament to American supercar design.
This work included restoring the mechanical systems and installing a new interior that better matched the exterior color.
The car is now being offered for sale by RM Sotheby’s in mid-August in Monterey, California. The price guide is $1,300,000 – $1,500,000 USD and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.
Images: Zach Brehl ©2024 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
