Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/12/supercar-maker-vector-has-the.html
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This smells like a case of firing the web developer as soon as you get the layout preview. “I just saved us thousands of dollars!”
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I wanted to see if it was an emergency placeholder made from a screenshot from archive.org, but all they have there is the same placeholder image until you get to May 27, 2013:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130527032826/http://www.vectormotors.com/
Also, a second image in http://www.vectormotors.com/images/
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The address listed for their contact info is also home to AQUAJET - WORLD’S ONLY MOTORCYCLE FOR THE WATER
Google street view also notes that there is some experimental plane called “hydroflyht” right behind the fence which was apparently covered by Jalopnik a while back. They also have a writeup on the bonkers promo videos for Vector.
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Ultimately the design of ultra-high-performance cars must necessarily be two-dimensional, for aerodynamic reasons. Virtuality is a great step in that direction, sort of.
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Wow, that car is so high performance they had to use an instrument cluster out of the 80s! And apparently a supercar transmission from the 80s too. Look at that old school automatic instead of the flappy paddle system you would expect.
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Game-changer: there’s a second image.
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I’m guessing the pitch at the Vector Motors board meeting started like this: “Now imagine if you will, a failed Knight Rider reboot…”
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Curvature of the Earth… what is this madness?
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Fun fact: back in 1994, when the site we see here was first launched, the developer was paid $20k for the job (plus an additonal $100k to secure the very desirable domain name).
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I thought Gerry Anderson made Supercar. I’m not sure I ever saw the show, but I had a Little Golden Book that novelized it.
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I always thought the W8 looked like a Countach.
The WX8 is different from the W8 that the cool dash photo is from. The W8 was a real car with amazing features but also bizarre corners cut. (3-speed auto on an 625hp hypercar? That was bad even for 1989.) The WX8 is vaporware they’ve been hawking since at least 2007. It’s the best 4th gen Camaro with Supra headlights ever:
I do think the back half of the car is super cool though, in a “my teenage supercar fantasies from the 90s” sense:
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I don’t know if you read all those words in the middle, but they imply that this car would easily set land speed records. Yet its styling is clearly based on the 1999 Firebird.
It’s a good thing that the buttons on this page don’t work.
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Wow, I bet that high-tech amber display includes a Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System! Very handy for mowing down supermutants and deathclaws after the apocalypse comes in 2077.
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think of all the time you save by not having to click around for details and stuff like that
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My eyeballs! aGHHHH it burns!!!
well at least they were sure about something
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They look so cool. Unfortunately, they’re total garbage cars under the veneer.
A cardiologist in my hometown has a pair of these; they’re awesome to look at, but read up on Andre Agassi’s attempt to buy a Vector back in the day.
They kept stalling on the delivery, but succumbed to his demand to deliver, only to tell him - ‘don’t drive it yet’
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You seem to be disparaging the pic at the bottom of the post, but those controls are gorgeous. It looks like fighter jet cockpit. Or some dystopian future spacecraft. And I’m just sitting here wondering just how much time and effort it would take for me to recreate that look in my car, and how much my kids would miss me when I’m spending all my time crafting it.
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