By Jay Harden

Discussion of design and style certainly comes down to personal taste. But I sometimes wonder if Gerald Wiegert had a dream in which a Lamborghini Countach and Doc Brown’s DeLorean met at a bar one night and consumed a few too many gallons of high-test together. The resulting W8 is a mish-mash of angles, scoops, and beep-bop-boop interior lifted straight from a 1990s graphing calculator, and it’s neither as sexy nor as functional as Wiegert surely supposed.

Although these cars are super-rare, with only 19 having been built, I’m not sure that I understand how exactly one justifies spending over a quarter of a million dollars on one. Only 19 W8s were built for a reason — they were overpriced, underperformed, and were birthed from a dysfunctional company rife with drama and instability. Unlike most high-end exotics, Vectors lack a history steeped in racing livery, and simply can’t compete with the big dogs in terms of heritage, design or quality. But they are cool.

So, does dropping $275,000 on this sale make sense? As always, it depends on who you ask. If I wanted to spend big money on a finicky exotic to impress at the country club, I’d probably look for a nameplate that doesn’t require moon boots to pedal. On the other hand, if I were looking for American V8 power, I’d probably go with something a bit more traditional, a bit more celebrated in its Americaness. Of course, if I wanted a little of both, had money to burn, and was looking for that one car that promised to always raise eyebrows, well, I guess I’d buy a Vector.