1996 Vector M12 Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day

• With the V-12 heart of a Diablo and wild styling, the Vector M12 is the 1990s supercar you never knew existed, and it's up for auction on Bring a Trailer until April 22.
  

• It was born from the ashes of the wild Vector W8; of 14 production M12s built, perhaps only a dozen remain.

• This example was reviewed when new by Top Gear. And yes, those signal lights are borrowed off an original Mazda Miata.

What's powered by a 60-degree V-12 but is more than 100 times rarer than a Lamborghini Countach, has the same designer as the McLaren F1, and was built in (checks notes) Florida? It's the Vector M12, the followup mid-engine supercar to Jerry Wiegert's ill-fated, F117-inspired W8. With fewer than 14 production versions made, and two of those now reportedly destroyed in crashes, it's one of the rarest exotics of them all. Now here's your chance at showing up the Lamborghini Diablos at your next '90s-themed car show.

Pick of the day at auction site Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) is Vector M12 production chassis number four, presented with just 4400 miles on its odometer. It just so happens to be the example featured on the old version of BBC's Top Gear, and if you'd like to see a young and poodle-haired Jeremy Clarkson review this very car, you should check it out. Suffice to say Clarkson has both good and bad things to say about this low-slung American-Italian supercar.

The M12 was born from the ashes of the fall of Vector, one of those what-might-have-been tales of American supercar ambition not unlike that of the Cizeta-Moroder V16T. The late Jerry Wiegert dreamed big, working for years to bring his vision for an aerospace-inspired performance machine to production. The closest he got was the wedge-like Vector W8, its exterior and interior design intended to evoke the F117 Nighthawk stealth plane. It entered production in 1989 with bodywork incorporating carbon fiber and Kevlar, and a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V-8.

Unfortunately, like Icarus, Vector flew too close to the sun and fell to earth. The story is complex, but a combination of some well-publicized teething issues and a hostile takeover attempt by a primary shareholder called Megatech resulted in Wiegert losing control of his company. He later sued to get his designs and copyrights back.