Are you sure? The used to be with the same owner for years before they were confiscated by US Marshals and auctioned off. I will call the owner of the yellow 012 and see what he knows about 001.
A few more from the 2009 Car Show in Celebration, FL Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
do you have the original link to the page on photographer bill moore ? I cannot find the event and photos.
Newest issue of Autoweek has a picture of the white W8 at a car event in Detroit last week. I thought the white W8 went to Japan? Also the responses in the magazine or funny - someone claiming to have seen one in pieces in someones garage.
Almost... White in MI was owned by a Japanese collector, but resided in CA until it moved to MI. The other was in CA until a legal issue ensued, and the owner brought it to Japan in an attempt to sell it for 1MM-ish. Easy to tell the two apart, the one in Japan has grey vents on the engine cover, and the one in Michigan has black vents. The one in Michigan also has a different mirror with wholes in it, that route into the cabin. The other one does not. The other main difference is the one in Michigan has a blue tint, whereas the other has an orange tint to the white. There are no other white W8's. ---------- I can promise that White 015 wasn't in southeast Michigan recently, however, it has attended several shows in Northern Michigan recently. I think it is unlikely that 008 is in Michigan.
I could have sworn there were two white/gold pearl W8s, but it's been a while since I've looked into that, and I will defer to your resources.
Sorry, I didn't see your post until just now. I don't have any pictures of this show on my website. I dug these out of my files. These are all that I took of the Vector except for one interior shot of the steering wheel and dash which I didn't post here.
Boyne Thunder friday night car show (july 11th) Cherry Fest car show in TC Possibly was at the st. Ignace car show too... maybe something else that I'm forgetting.
This has been bugging me for a loooong time... There was a yellow M12 in Miami in the late 90's that was a rental car at one of Miami's various fly-by-night exotic rental places, now long gone. I would always see it on display at the rental place - it barely moved. Last time I saw it it was in 1999 parked on one of Miami Beach's main streets behind a yellow Diablo during a very packed Superbowl weekend (it was played in Miami that year). The crowd that formed around those two cars was insane. Since then I've been really dying to know the history of that car - how in the world a Vector ends up as a rental car and what happened to it afterwards. Many Fchat and Google searches haven't revealed any info which seems odd as these cars seem to be well documented.
WOAH!! I didn't hear about that. Is it the guy who recently sold it that was murdered, or the original owner? Chris
1st owner was a pharmaceutical mogul in Texas. He sold the car to a person in Florida that destroyed the car by taking it to a Porsche dealer for "modifications and service" who did ghastly things to the car, he sold the car just before he died from cancer. The car was then sold to an owner in California who found that the car did not run well due to the previous owners dealings at the Porsche repair center. He then bastardized it further by taking it to the next logical place for service, His favorite Hummer dealer, who promptly pulled the engine out and rebuilt it with god knows what for internals, since he did not get any assistance from any of the original Vector team. This owner felt he knew more about the car than the original build team, his work can be witnessed by a great video of it on youtube where is backfires and sputters as it goes down the road. By the way several people from the original Vector team were in contact with him the entire time he just didn't want to listen to anything they said. He then gladly sold it to a person in Spain or Italy where it currently resides. Its current owner has however visited members of the original Vector team in California and has been working with them to undo many of the items that were done in haste. This car will eventually be brought back to original condition by its current owner. No one died. But that is not the case for one of the Japanese owned cars. Its original owner was a Keri Tzu boss who was murdered. The car sat for sale on a used car lot in Japan for years because no one wanted to be associated with it for fear of retaliation or mistaken identity and wind up dead for being associated with its original owner. Eventually it was sold and it has a happy current owner in Japan who has worked from time to time with some of the original Vector team to service items on the car.
The car the Vector boys copied their design from Iso Rivolta's Varedo by Ercole Spada 1973 Image Unavailable, Please Login
I must be getting my stories mixed up I was thinking somebody owned both a yellow diablo & a yellow M12, and he got murdered. I could be completely wrong though.
Well the rental car place who owned the yellow M12 also owned a yellow Diablo so at least that part is correct. I have no idea about the murder part though...
Thanks. Glad to hear it's still around. That thing had some serious presence parked on the street. Almost made the Diablo look docile!
Autos of Interest - 1998 Vector M12 Vector prototype from LA Auto Show 1972. Is there confirmation that the Vector was inspired by the Varedo? I see lots and lots of Bertone Carabo influence. http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2009/07/02-bertone-alfa-romeo-carabo-concept/Bertone-Alfa-Romeo-Carabo-2.jpg LS
Gerry said he was inspired by jet fighter aircraft & IMO the most obvious influence is the Countach really oddly, the later Isdera looks to have been inspired by the Vector shape Image Unavailable, Please Login
There was no Countach when the Vector Prototype came out so difficult to say what influenced it. The W2 and later W8 details may owe some to the Countach but also the Detomaso Pantera. The Project 112 and Vector Prototype literally look like the offspring of the Carabo (another Bertone project) and a fighter plane. LS
