Vector M12 '1995-1999 (Street plane)

Back in the late 1970s Gerald Wiegert (Vector Motors founder) had a dream. “I wanted to be a fighter pilot,” he told American Automobile Magazine, “but my eyesight’s not good enough. So i’ve decided to build a fighter plane for the street”. That street fighter was the original Vector, a mid-engine supercar, built with aerospace technology and with a promised top speed of over 200 mph. Since then the car has been through several incarnations and the company through several owners. But despite many seatbacks it has survived and the car is better than ever.

The debut of Vector M12 was in Detroit auto show in 1996.

The latest version of the Vector is labelled the M12 after its engine. In place of the original car’s twin turbo Corvette V8 engine is a V12 Lamborghini Diablo unit. The mid-mounted engine drives the Vector’s rear wheels through a five-speed manual ZF gearbox that can trace its history back to the Ford GT40.

The weels are goes with beautiful Campagnolo rims.

Campahnolo rims Vector M12 — Campagnolo rims

There were 18 M12s produced: four pre-production models and 14 production models.

The price ~ 190.000$ – similar to Diablo.

In 2011, two of the 14 production models were both damaged in separate accidents, car numbers #06 and #13, respectively. Car #06 was destroyed in a fire, and car 13 was damaged by flood water in Britain. Car #13 is apparently being repaired in Dubai. It is currently unknown what will happen to car #06.

The M12 production run ended in 1999 when Vector could not pay Lamborghini for the engines. Lamborghini took a W8 as payment, but Wiegert litigated for ownership of that car. The Vector company did not survive.

The M12 was featured in Gran Turismo 2 (the real driving simalator for PS1) ⇓

Vector M12 motorsport spec model

One of the M12 pre-production cars was converted to Vector M12 ASR motorsport specification by the factory, but did not perform successfully due to mechanical problems.

This car would again be converted, this time into the SRV8. Now powered by 5.7L LT1 Corvette heart + 6-speed BorgWarner gearbox. The price was ~100.000$. Prototype was not sent to production anyway because of lack of financing.