plus fees: WX3-R: 500.000$ https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/az19/arizona/lots/r0162-1993-vector-avtech-wx-3r-roadster-prototype/737576 WX3: 615.000$ https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/az19/arizona/lots/r0163-1993-vector-avtech-wx-3-prototype/737578
Guys, just as an FYI, over my ~30 year career as a VC/PE investor, I've accumulated some interesting unsolicited business plans. One of them was from Gerald Weigart, circa 1992. I just ran across it along with bunch of other interesting literature, and sent it all off to the AACA library, figuring that was the only entity that would be interested in it. Sort of an interesting piece of history. The business plan came with a VCR video and a Hotwheels car.
Weigart was raising money for Vector, and this was the business plan with history, projections, product roadmap etc. Kind of arcane but an interesting behind the scenes peek at Weigart's vision for the company. I hope the AACA library will archive it and make it available; it's a pretty small universe of folks who'd be interested!
Owner of a W8 has posted on Pistonheads here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=47&t=1792894
Congratulations to ol' Jer for selling his leftover prototypes in Arizona at the RM auction. Even if he didn't make a million selling the cars when they were new, he makes a million selling two (slightly) used ones. I am confused by the prices announced, was it $650,000 for the coupe with the premiums? And how much for the roadster with the premiums? Who is the buyer,Mr, Singh, an entraprenurial pioneer or major collector? Is the next Vector all electric? Seems to be a great way to avoid the smog tests and the Teslas prove powertain isn't that important to early adopters. I wish Amazon would just take some small change out of their pocket and fund it...and it woiuld give Jeff Bezos a one-up on his rival Elon Musk whose electric sports car is still a pipe dream (well, one was delivered, to outer space...)
I have known Jerry since 1970 when his ex-girlfriend in Bad Axe, MI said I should look him uo when I reach the Coast. I always remember at some auto shows, he would dress in a jet pilot's flight suit and have a fetching Miss Vector. I am glad after all these years he sold two prototypes at auction for roughly a million. It wasn't the ay he wanted to become rich but hey, he achieved his dream, sort of...
This car should be born again. If there isn't an manufacturer for it there should be a component car that brings this cars stunning shape back to the road.
I have seen a few reports on Social media that state Gerald Wiegert has passed away. I can't find anything on mainstream media. Can anyone confirm if this sad news is true? I hope not but if it is so, I am very saddened to see this. RIP Jerry (if true)
I've seen the same reports. Cheers and condolences. W8 pic from Crystal Cove, June 25, 2005. Image Unavailable, Please Login
My rough draft,,,anything to add? Jerry Wiegert:A Man Who Tried.... I remember when I was moving from Michigan to California in the late '60s, a girlfriend said "Ya oughta look up a guy I know from Bad Axe, named Jerry Wiegert. He was gonna go to California and build his own car," I'm writing this because now we're 50 or more years down the road and I hear Gerald Alden "Jerry" Wiegert born July 12, 1944 - died January 15, 2021) I don't remember if I looked up Jerry right when I first arrived out on the Coast but I sure as hell noticed him at the LA Auto show. He had a lifesize prototype (or maybe it just was a painted clay with blacked out windows) He was wearing a fighter pilot's suit and there was a Miss Vector to show you,yes, indeed this was an American exotic if there is such a thing. Ferrari should be nervous, right ? Especially with speeds of 175 mph mentioned. The car kept showing up at various car shows, each time a different color, each time changed in detail. There was talk of turbocharging and supercharging. Whatever technology was new , he tried to figure out how to work it into the car. He got some prototypes running and I remember he took one to a European show and some car magazine challenged him to run it against some European "supercar" at an airport runway. The Vector caught fire. Jerry sluffed it off as sabotage, that the Germans wanted an American challenger to European cars to lose. It was him against the auto world. But he eventually got it into limited production, between 1989 and 1993, but only after selling the firm to an Indonesian cartel run by the son of a dictator. The production version had a Lamborghini engine, which made you wonder why is a Lamborghini-engined American car needed if there is still Lamborghini? Maybe for the extreme wedge-with-curves styling? Only a few were made, under 20 I think.. At one point, I went down to his "Bat Cave" type headquarters in San Pedro, near the Los Angeles dock area, and visited him and it was like visiting the Wizard of Oz's shop, this project and that one strewn about, not just cars but some little boat --the Aquajet--that could have beat the Jet Ski if he had gotten backing sooner. The Indonesians left (actually their money evaporated when the dictator father of one of them left office) but Jerry fought and retained control of the Vector rights and every time I saw him there was always a future Vector being planned. Each year, at the LA Auto Show, long after he was showing his cars there, I would ask "what happening?" and he'd immediately go soto voice, whispering that he couldn't tell me the details yet but there was an investor....'nuf said. Mum's the word. capitsch? I was proud as punch for him a couple years back when I heard he sold two WX3 prototypes, one of them an open car, at an Arizona auction. . The auction company was RM Sothebys and the price of one car was $615,500. Together the proceeds total over $2 million. I was proud for him because he had persevered all these years and was now a multimillionaire. And new comes word he has died in mid-January. I know, with newer automakers like Elon Musk in the headlines, who is an automaker almost as his side job (he owns rocket maker Space X) Jerry Wiegert's 's automotive accomplishments will amount to little more than a footnote in American auto history--but, ******** it, to us car enthusiasts, he was a giant because he stuck to his guns. Godspeed, Jer.
I got the prices wrong. The second car auctioned was $500K so together the proceeds were just over a million. Still every American's dream is to be a millionaire. it's just that a million ain't hat it used to be.
Bitzman, a nice piece. Just one thing the W8 the most famous Vector and the original production car was made before the Indionesian era and did not have a Lambo engine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_W8 It was the M12 that the Indionesians made the second production Vector, which had the Lambo engine and apart from being based on the WX-3 was not really anything to do with Wiegert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_M12 Hope this helps.
Sadly it looks like the news is true. https://www.autoweek.com/news/people/a35239353/jerry-wiegert-obit/ I'll always have fond memories of briefly meeting him at Monterey in 2007.
Jerry Wiegert is the posterchild for persistence in the automotive world. His brand came back from the dead more times than you can count and although the numbers are not impressive he did manage to become an automobile manufacturer. For this I have nothing but respect. Godspeed
