SPECIAL PROJECTS:
Re-discovering & Transacting 5 Lost Vectors After 25 Years In Storage! A Modern Day Barn Super Car Barn Find!
At Rare Cars Only, few chapters have matched the gravity of placing five of the most important survivors from Vector’s fragmented legacy into the hands of their next caretakers. Our earliest car enthusiast memories are grounded in our day dreams and distant memories of growing up idolizing the obscurity and intrigue that the Vector Aeromotive company brought forth into the world. Now, we’ve became a part of the timeline. Thanks to our friends Matt Katz and Jake Welty, Rare Cars Only was successfully able to re-discover, negotiate, and manage the sale of 5 lost Vectors, 4 of which have not been seen in over 25 years. As the final owner of the Vector company, Randy Welty’s role in its last chapter is often overshadowed by the louder narrative of Gerald Wiegert’s conflict with Megatech, yet his impact was far more consequential than history tends to acknowledge. After purchasing Vector outright from Megatech in 1994/1995, Welty became the sole proprietor of the company, with Megatech out of the picture, and Lamborghini reduced to temporary technical partners rather than a controlling force. What followed was a genuine attempt to revive the marque which included renewed racing ambitions, evolving M12 development, plans for new models, and early discussions that hinted at broader technological advancement. His entrepreneurial drive stretched far beyond supercars; the Jacksonville Cyclones logo found on the rediscovered GT2 race car belonged to his own soccer team, a subtle reminder of how deeply interconnected his ventures were. Though some of his goals never reached full fruition, Welty’s stewardship prolonged Vector’s life at a moment when it otherwise would have flickered out entirely, preserving a legacy that might have vanished years earlier without his determination.
Our journey with these cars began with the 1998 Vector SRV8, the lone functional prototype and the final machine to wear the Vector badge. In 2021, we reached out to the owner of this unicorn in the hopes to learn more about its whereabouts, and possibly, make it available for sale. As it turns out, Jake Welty, the former owner, and the son of Randy Welty, the final owner of Vector, still had the car, as it was his 16th birthday gift, and at the time, he had no intentions of moving on from the vehicle. Its bright-yellow, wedge-cut bodywork hides the only American-built Chevrolet V8 ever fitted to a Vector chassis, a one-off engineering pivot intended to rescue the brand from its stalled M12 program. As the last road-registered Vector, and the final Vector ever built, it stands as the bookend of an automaker that lived on ambition as much as machinery.
Beside it, we within the same lot of five re-discovered rarities, the Falconer V12-powered 1998 Vector M12 ASR GT2 Race Car, a frantic, single-example effort built from a pre-production shell to keep Vector relevant in IMSA. Powered by a Diablo-derived 5.7-liter V12 and hastily converted for GT2 regulations, it earned notoriety through its appearances at Sebring, Las Vegas, and Road Atlanta, all in 1998. Today, its raw welds and uneven paneling aren’t flaws…they are forensic evidence of a company fighting extinction in real time. Until our re-discovery, Jake’s willingness to sell, and our friend Matt Katz following through with the purchase and project, this race car has not been seen since 1998 in public. The race car went through a series of alterations over the years, starting its life in white with a body that appeared much more similarly to that of a standard M12 in Sebring. Following its Sebring outing, where it was entered by Jon Lewis and achieved a 44th result with Bill Eagle behind the wheel, the body was heavily modified, and the car was raced yet again by Eagle in Las Vegas with a 21st result, after being entered in by American Spirit Racing. The car planned to race in the 2 Hours and 15 minute Homestead race, but did not attend. The next appearance, the car was finished in black paint, still with its modified body, and was entered by Jon Lewis into the 3 hours and 45 minutes Road Atlanta, and was raced by Bill Eagle and Randy Probst to a 19th result. The final race, which would have been the 1 Hour 45 minutes Minneapolis race, the car was painted back to white in its current livery shown today, but never attended the race. Bits and pieces of the original body were auctioned off in 2020, but the original car was only re-discovered in 2025.
Then came the trio of M12s restored from long California hibernation.
The 1997 Vector M12 chassis 009, finished in its original teal over matching leather, represents one of the cleanest surviving examples, its Lamborghini-sourced V12 and Peter Stevens–penned lines finally given the preservation they deserved. This example has not been seen in public since its exhibition at the 1997 or 1998 Mexico Car Show, and is the only M12 to be finished in this color for the entire world.
Another example, the 1999 M12 chassis 014, is a bit of a battered survivor, still bearing scars from the infamous final-day employee joyride. The car completed only 800 brutal miles, but on the same day Vector went out of business, an employee promptly drove the car into a ditch during a drive. Despite this, the car remains a sub-1k mile Vector M12 that with just a bit of touching up, becomes a 25 year freshly restored barn find like no other.
Completing the set was 1996 M12 chassis 003, the gloss-black company car once driven by Randy Welty himself, its paint lightly chipped from years of being the only M12 regularly exercised in public. This example was hardly photographed throughout its lifetime, and was shown in public during the 1996 Mexico city car show. The car also once was shown during a minor league baseball game outside Jacksonville. During the 7th-inning stretch, Randy Welty piloted his black M12 onto the warning track and fired t-shirts out into the crowd.
Throughout the mid-1990s, Vector changed hands multiple times as financial instability deepened. After Gerald Wiegert was pushed out in 1993, Megatech, through its holding company V’Power, became the majority shareholder, placing Vector in a small Florida facility and relying on Lamborghini engines for the hastily redeveloped M12. Production faltered, and by November 1996 only five updated M12s had been completed before cash flow collapsed. In 1997, another investor, the Bahamian firm Tradelink International Limited, acquired an option to take control, allowing ten additional M12s to be finished before Lamborghini engines ran out. Meanwhile, Lamborghini itself underwent a major transition, as in 1998, Audi AG purchased Lamborghini from Megatech, ending the Indonesian-backed era entirely. This acquisition further complicated Vector’s survival, as its already tenuous access to Lamborghini powertrains became unclear. By the late 1990s, Vector was stranded between shifting owners, V’Power, Tradelink, and the newly Audi-controlled Lamborghini, ultimately leaving its handful of employees, unfinished SRV8 prototype, and stalled production line in limbo. The only thing that could be done following this was to re-discover the brands creations 25 years later, and bring them back to life! Transferring these five machines meant safeguarding the lost chapters of an automaker that dreamed far past its means. For us, placing them wasn’t simply a transaction…it was ensuring that history, however chaotic, doesn’t disappear. It was our honor and privilege to be a part of Vector history.
Be sure to follow the Matt Katz, who showcases his incredible of cars through the Caretakers Collection online to stay on top of all of the details and updates as the restoration, preservation and exhibition of these 5 incredible cars takes way!
Our Luigi Colani Article For Rare & Unique Vehicles Magazine!
German industrial designer Luigi (born as Lutz) Colani demonstrated somewhat of an unconventional approach in his styling career which began in the 1950s and lasted up until his unfortunate passing in 2019 at the age of 91 years old. Luigi's vision and creations impressed other designers, automakers, and the public, however, due to the obscure nature behind most of his automotive ideas, they were often left out of the mainstream industrial design industry, and consequently, were never actually put into production. Colani designed seemingly everything during his career, ranging from cars and trucks, all the way to things such as cameras, ballpoint pens, kitchens, pianos, and much more. Colani's automotive design studies, aerodynamic projects, concept cars, and prototypes always demonstrated ideas that appeared to be quite outlandish in comparison to the typical everyday road car. Colani's designs in every category would eventually go on to become some of the most interesting creations in the world, leaving many to sit and wonder just exactly how he came up with these ideas in the first place, and hoping that we could see some of these some of these unique features today. Born in the year 1928, Luigi Colani gravitated toward's design from a very young age. Colani's journey all began while studying sculpture at the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Berlin until the late 1940s, when he began doing research on aerodynamics at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris-Sorbonne University) in Paris, France.
Colani found work very quickly after his time in school, traveling from Europe to America in the early 1950s to pursue work in industrial design American aerospace engineering corporation and defense contractor, McDonnel-Douglas, where he served as the Head of the New Materials project group until the year 1953, when his focus was shifted towards becoming one of the most revolutionary designers of all time. Colani's first automotive design experience came to life after being scouted by French automaker, Simca (Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile) back in Paris. It was here that Colani would help to develop and design the 1953 Simca Development Studio Fiberglass Coupe, the world's first European all plastic car body. Following this, Colani became known for his round, organic shapes which he called 'biodynamic' styling. In the year 1954, Colani was awarded with the 'Golden Rose' international prize in Geneva, Switzerland at the Geneva Motor Show for his exterior design efforts on the Fiat 1100 TV. Colani would go on to develop a number of Fiat designs, and into the 1960s, made other design contributions towards companies such as Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen, BMW, and others. Colani's impressive advancements in design quickly led to the creation of his own car, the Colani GT in 1960, which later became available as a DIY (do it yourself) kit that could be built on Volkswagen platform.
After Colani had quickly grown in both success and popularity, this enabled him to develop a studio in the year 1970 near Sassenberg, Germany, where he worked with a prominent design team in order to develop a series of successful projects for an array of respectable companies. One of the more notable projects was his design work on a 1970 Lamborghini Miura, which he called the 'Le Mans Concept'. This was a two-part hybrid car design which he constructed using the original parts from a Miura, including the entire rear suspension. Throughout the 70s, Colani developed a strong relationship with the Japanese market. He traveled to Japan to study and conduct research in 1973, one year after his design work on the 1972 Eifelland Formula One Car. Seemingly involved in endless projects at once, in the year 1976, Colani veered away from cars slightly, and designed the world's first Wankel rotary-powered plastic sports airplane. Colani's numerous car, truck, aircraft, and other various studies were frequently displayed at exhibitions around the world during this time. By the year 1982, Colani relocated entirely to Japan to become a professor in Tokyo. By the year 1984, after doing various design work for Japanese multinational corporation Canon Inc., he was subsequently voted as the number one industrial designer in Japan during the Otaru exhibition. Perhaps his most interesting endeavor came in 1989, Colani's AUTOMORROW '89 exhibition which showcased 12 of his designs around the world at places such as the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Ford headquarters in Michigan.
Through the rest of the 90s until the end of his career, Colani went on to develop some of the world's most interesting, and unique automotive designs and dream cars. Colani was a very busy man, designing cars, trucks, and other vehicles for a wide array of different companies and people. While his automotive design work is at the forefront of this particular writing, it's important to note that there is seemingly nothing Colani didn't attempt to re-style, or create a design of his own for. From ballpoint pens, to piggy banks, cameras, and more, Colani attempted to place his signature styling on almost everything. He even went on to design a literal kitchen sink for German ceramics manufacturer, Villeroy & Boch. Everything Colani touched became clearly evident that it came from his studio, being that he truly developed a style of his very own. Whether it's a pen, piano, lamp, car, bus, or maybe even an aircraft, if Colani designed it, it's bound to be memorable. While we may not be able to receive any new car designs from Colani, we can forever idolize the creations he has left us with over the years.
Our "Story Behind The Collector" Youtube Series!
At Rare Cars Only, connecting with owners. enthusiasts and other experts is simply a part of our research process. In collaboration with Collector Chassis, in our "Story Behind The Collector" series with host Will Sellenraad, we interview some of the world's most prominent automotive collectors, head into their garage, and tour through each of their interesting vehicles while also getting to know each collector. With over 20 episodes so far, you can enjoy viewing each and every one of our collector interviews below. If you have a car collection and would like to have us interview you and become part of our series, feel free to email us at Rarecarsonly@gmail.com.
Whether it's one interesting car, or a warehouse full, our team is dedicated to capturing interesting car collections and individual cars as well. Here are a few of our favorite episodes below.
Exhibiting A 1 Of 3 Jaguar XJ220-N At The 2024 New York Auto Show!
We are incredibly proud and grateful to say that we at Rare Cars Only facilitated having this ultra-rare 1993 Jaguar XJ220-N vinyl wrapped live by Phenomenal Vinyl throughout the entire duration of the 2024 New York Auto Show. This 1993 Jaguar XJ220-N is number 003 of just 3 total ‘N’ cars, and it’s the only one of the 3 cars that was not raced, thus resulting in the car wearing it’s original silver paint finish from the factory since the 1990s. This past week, all that changed when Phenomenal Vinyl’s incredible team applied a modernized version of the original 1993 Italian GT Championship livery to the car, which was seen on the two other race cars during the 1993 racing season.
As you can see, the original sponsors such Manifatture Cayenne Viganó and ERG were carefully included, and it truly is a show-stopping result! In the year 1993, the first two N’s, numbered 11 and 12 competed in the 10-round Campionato Italiano Supercar GT, racking up 7 podium finishes with a 1st place result at Vallelunga on May 9th of 1993. The cars were driven by Paolo Cutrera, Vincenzo Bianchi and Paolo Pianezzola, with this car shown here being kept as a reserve car just in case of any mishaps. The N cars continued to race during the 1995 and 1996 season, however, did not see nearly as much success as they did wearing this livery in Italy. Now, in a beautiful matte white with gloss decals, this ultra-rare piece of Jaguar racing history dawns the number 13, following the first two cars (11,12), and we can’t be more thrilled to have been a part of the process!
All three N cars were built to be road-legal, with full Jaguar VIN numbers and were originally delivered to the Top Run race team for use in the 1993 Italian GT Championship. Thank you to the team that made this process possible: Caretakers Collection, Phenomenal Vinyl, New York Auto Show, Speed Transport, BNV Media Group.
Our 1991 JaguarSport Intercontinental Challenge Poster Collaboration with Hive Posters!
We’ve teamed up with Hive Posters and the JaguarSport XJR-15 Registry to bring you an exclusive tribute to one of the most legendary one-make racing series ever: the 1991 JaguarSport Intercontinental Challenge. This poster showcases the top result liveries, all the race results, and every driver who competed in this incredible championship, held at Monaco, Silverstone, and Spa. All first edition copies will be hand-numbered, so be sure to get yours soon!
The XJR-15 was the result of Tom Walkinshaw’s desire to create a race car for the road, the man behind TWR Jaguar’s Le Mans-winning efforts. Following the success of the XJR-9, Walkinshaw worked with designer Peter Stevens to develop the XJR-15, a groundbreaking carbon-fiber supercar derived from Jaguar’s dominant Group C racers. In 1991, 16 race-prepped XJR-15s (plus two backup cars which never saw the track) competed in a high-stakes three-round championship that attracted some of the biggest names in racing. This poster immortalizes the names of legendary drivers like Davy Jones, Tiff Needell, Bob Wollek, David Brabham, Derek Warwick, John Nielsen, Juan-Manuel Fangio II, Kenny Acheson, and more, alongside the results of each race.
It’s an essential collector’s piece for motorsport historians, Jaguar fans, and anyone who appreciates the golden era of racing.A chance to own something like this is currently only available through this collaboration—don’t miss out on your opportunity to own a piece of motorsport history!
Publishing Photos To The World For The First Time Ever!
At Rare Cars Only, we consider it a true privilege and honor to bring automotive history to life by sharing incredibly rare and exclusive content with enthusiasts around the world. We are thrilled to announce that we’ve been given the unique opportunity to showcase a remarkable collection of photographs that, until now, have never been seen anywhere online. These images—featuring some of the most elusive and legendary machines ever built—are being unveiled to the public for the very first time through our platform.
This includes stunning examples of the Jaguar XJ220 S, the iconic Jaguar XJR-15, and much more to come. These are not just rare cars—they're milestones in automotive engineering and design, and we’re proud to be the ones to share them with the world. Every image represents a moment in time that was previously locked away, and now, we’re opening that vault for the global car community to enjoy. Whether you're a collector, a historian, or simply a passionate admirer of automotive excellence, we invite you to experience these rare machines like never before. Stay tuned—this is just the beginning.
