For the Chance Takers
Hi Friends!
It’s starting to get hot in Arizona!
Recently, I did a video on my Instagram page talking about a 1990 Vector W8 Twin Turbo that was for sale on Bring-a-Trailer. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about Gerald Wiegert and one of the more unique and interesting experiences I’ve had since I’ve been in this business.
For those who are unfamiliar, Gerald Wiegert was a design/engineering protege who came up through aviation, got bored and decided he was going to create America’s answer to Lamborghini and Ferrari. I’ll be the first to admit, aside from the giant poster on my cousin Ryan’s wall when we were kids, I was not terribly familiar with Vector Motors, but between crazy cars, celebrity marketing catastrophes, terrifying deals with 3rd world dictators, pseudo armed standoffs with business partners and other uniquely ’80s types of shenanigans, Vector was easily America’s most unhinged automotive brand ever.
Ultimately, the reason was “Jerry”. I remember it was a Thursday, I was exhausted, fresh off an event and not really paying attention to what I was doing, when my phone rang. We were in the process of doing something with the famous American flag liveried W8 (I don’t remember what), he found out, wasn’t happy and was calling to tell me all the reasons why. Over the course of our nearly 4-hour conversation, we (and when I say we, I mean he) ran through a laundry list of topics including gun control, North Korea, legalizing drugs, the Vietnam war and essentially his entire life story. It was seriously like listening to the world’s craziest audio book and it was amazing.
There’s no doubt that Jerry made a lot of enemies in his life and I think people kind of either loved him or hated him, but it took somebody fully unique and more than a little crazy to try and attempt what he did and as a result, he’s exactly what being an American is really supposed to be about. Dream big, throw caution to the wind, get nuts, be what you gotta be and do what you gotta do.
Anyway, over the course of the 7 years that Motorwerks has been in business, we have served nearly 200 clients and I see little bits and pieces of Jerry Wiegert in everyone that we’ve worked with.
There’s a certain degree of courage involved with entrepreneurship and it requires taking chances that a lot of people just aren’t willing to take. Especially when starting out and especially with small businesses who oftentimes don’t have the ability to throw things to the wall just to see if they stick.
Guys like Jerry take that a step even further, think bigger, look danger directly in the eye and laugh. Win, lose or draw, those are the guys that change the world forever and for that we owe them.
That’s it for this week…
Darin Roberge