(first posted 3/2/2016) Walk around any parking lot today, and you soon realize all but the cheapest cars have alloy wheels. And while each model has a unique design, the designs themselves – like much of today’s cars – aren’t that distinctive. It’s a sad descent from a better past.
Fittingly, the road wheel is a child of the CC era. The first ones appeared in on the 1955 Eldorado, as the Cadillac Saber Spoke. This pioneer aluminum road wheel was the result of a collaboration between Alcoa and the Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Company, who made the wire wheels for the ’53 and ’54 Eldorado.
It took a while for the road wheel to catch on, until it was propelled by muscle-car magnesium, and finally returned to its luxury car roots in the Late Brougham era. Along the way, there were some real gems, including my personal favorite, the Buick Rallye Wheel.
Introduced in the early 60’s, it remained a staple through the 80s, and could even make an Estate Wagon look sporty.
The worst? I honestly can’t think of one, but I’m sure you’ll have many candidates, on both ends of the spectrum.
Bellissimo!
Oh, and as for best: my old neighbors had a brown ’84 (I think?) Delta 88 coupe with American Racing wheels that looked amazing. No pic of the car as it was stolen 25 years ago but the wheels were similar to this.
The OEM 18″ steel wheels on my recently-acquired RAM 2500 (which I keep wanting to call Dodge Ram) were about as uninspired as you can get. They’re already gone, replaced by aluminum wheels. I thought briefly about finding a shop to make me up a set on old-school Dodge pickup wheel centers, but they only went to 16″.
Nice rig! That’s definitely an old school, back to basics truck. Wheel- wise, it could’ve been worse….those at least look rugged and truck-like, if basic. The 20″ full chrome abominations that came stock on my ’05 Rumble Bee made me physically ill everytime I looked at them. You’ve seen my 17″ Torq Thrusts…worked wonders.
Surprised we’ve gone 100+ comments without a mention of the ’67 Corvette “bolt-on” aluminum wheels…..
….or the ’82 Collector Edition wheels they inspired….
The Momo Vega wheels used on Alfa Romeos around 1970-74
The Ford XF Fairmont Ghia “Snowflake” wheel was a pretty smart-looking one for the top of the range sedan, in 15×7″. There were a couple of variations of the wheel used, firstly for the earlier special model ESP which had a gold face and machined lip, then the subsequent Falcon S without the machined face, just painted silver.
Edit: Not sure why the images aren’t loading.
A nomination for worst – has there ever been a good-looking 3 spoke wheel? This is from the 1995-6 HSV GTS.
Ok should work now
XF Fairmont Ghia wheel
Success!
Anyone remember those ‘polycast’ wheels of the late 70’s?
http://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hmn/2009/02/Polycast-Wheels/1767452.html
They often featured nice designs, but I remember seeing a few of them disintegrate. Not necessarily dangerous, but looked awful.
Some of the ones I like:
3rd Gen Trans Am turbo cast – like those in KITT
5 spoke slotted mags, deep dish
Saab 3 spoke super aero
Kelsey Hayes 50’s Cadillac
VT SS Commodore
E34 M5 Turbine wheels
Chevrolet Rally Wheels (5 slot)
Chrysler rally wheels, like those in the Dart GT)
Jeep with the little triangular holes
Range Rover Classic steelies.
This is the 1997 Commodore SS
One of my favorites was this sort of deep dish lacy wheel on Crown Vics and Grand Marquis.
One of my least favorites is these cheap looking wheels on some C class Mercedes
The entire CLK looks cheap (and in many ways, is)…but those wheels are a nice upgrade for older Benzes, especially the W123.
Another iconic design that hasn’t been mentioned is the Porsche “phone dial” wheel. Not my favorite, but memorable.
Least favorite: the alloy wheels on the Mazda MX-3 GS. Really brought down an otherwise decent-looking car.
I’m late to the party on this post, but scads of great wheels mentioned – the “phone dial” is a love-it or hate-it, but I happen to like it, especially on the 928.
The Buick Rallye and Olds Super Stock are probably my favorites, along with the 8-lug Pontiac wheels – can’t see anyone doing something that unique again. Honorable mention? The Chevy “Rally” wheel. Tons of old Chevys have them and they look good on almost anything.
How exactly did the Pontiac 8 lug wheel work – what were the lugs bolted to? They’re right out at the rim, and that seems like you’d have a huge face plate…
It was a finned drum, and the wheels (with no center section) bolted to the outer rim of the drum.
Thanks for the answer – I had envisioned something like that but didn’t have a good photo to go by. So I guess disc brakes were out of the question if you had these.
@cfclark: I don’t recall the last year the integral drum wheels were offered (’66?), but they didn’t overlap much, if at all, with the availability of front discs — except the Corvette, GM didn’t offer discs at all until MY1967. Obviously, to convert to discs, you’d have to get four new wheels and possibly new spindles as well as the brakes and other conversion stuff. Why you’d want to is not obvious unless you were building some kind of street rod and really didn’t care about originality (in which case you probably wouldn’t start with a car with these anyway, unless you were going to pull them and sell them).
Torq thrust wheels are my favourite American wheels. My ex’s 68 Cougar looked bad ass with these, like a CEO with brass knuckles.
Rostyles are my favourite English wheels, my favourite music teacher Mr Watkins had them on his red Holbay Hunter & my brother & 1st boyfriend with a car on 1600E Cortinas.
Never cared much for the plain Centerline wheels despite being a muscle car fan.
The “crosshatch” wheels on the MG Maestro, horrible wheels for a horrible car
Nice line. “CEO with brass knuckles” really gets the point across .
You gotta love how some people go off topic, and throw in “aftermarket ” wheels, when the QOTD is “factory” road wheels. Unreal. 🙁
Anyway, these rims, like Saturn itself, are lame as hell… I HATE alloy or performance wheels with NO lip or dish… They might as well be hubcaps.
These thing look worse than Pep Boys ricer wheel covers.
Great car… LAME factory alloys.
BADASS… Pontiac Trans Am GTA meshies
VERY COOL… Buick GNX mesh alloys.
Always loved these, they are so old school JDM, with a nice lip and aggressive design…
The factory 6-spoke alloys on the 1981-82 Datsun 280zx.
Ford Escort XR3, 1980, European version
Capri II Ghia versión. Good elegant look.
These aluminium wheels are still very atractive.
Only in 13 x 5’5″,
Everyone born 46-56 will remember the fast cheap modification – chrome reverse. I really learned about wheel geometry and the right “touch” when replacing spindles and wheel bearings. Looked great, though, despite the drawbacks.
I think the best looking rims to ever exist are the Mopar Rallye rims produced from the mid ’60s to late ’70s, especially with the chromed outer lip ring.
Second place goes to the ’92-95 F-150 special rims.
Worst goes to the Renault 2CV rims. They had an odd bolt pattern that made them impossible to replace, were oddly heavy despite their size, and were/are impossible to get tires for in America (again) because of their size. Not to mention they’re just… Bland.
Isn’t that Snoopy’s dog food bowl?
I was going to agree with this comment, and then I noticed it was my own.
I’m my biggest fan!
Although small Renaults had 3 stud wheels these look like Citroen 2CV wheels. As they don’t have a large center hole they don’t fit on some tire mounting machines or balancing machines. The balancing is not really an issue as a 2CV does not go fast enough for the balance to matter. I speak from experience. The small square center hole is used to hold a captive nut that accepts a bolt to hold the hubcap on “fancy” models. if the captive nut come loose there is no easy way to remove the hub cap.
Were they late 60s? I think 1970 was the first year for them.
I agree, supurb wheel design.
I thought they originally showed up on the Imperials and 300s in the 1960s, though I might be wrong. They were most popular on the Dart/Duster, Challenger, ‘Cuda, and some versions of the Aspen/Volare twins, so that might be where you got the ’70s association from.
I think these were 14 inch only, so they were restricted to A B and E body Mopars. The big C body cars had 15 inch wheels and used the 15 inch Road Wheels with the trim ring and the chromed center cap that were pictured above.
Hmm. Good to know. Before this all I really knew was that they all had the same bolt pattern, but that some had a high center cap and some were recessed.
I think the Hemi and 440+6 and possibly the T/A and AAR E and B bodies used 15″ versions of the rallye.
I like these.
These monstrosities found on every other pontiac product from the mid-80s – early 90s.
WORST. EVER.
Those were prolific in the 90s, I hated them then I hate them now
Love those on Firebirds, Fieros and Sunbirds.
Always have, always will.
2nd goes to Cavalier Z24 wheels. NONONONONONONONONO.
I remember being a young child, and seeing one in the neighborhood while my mom drove us somewhere (in an 87 Nova hatchback), and having to ride my bike over there later just to see them up close.
Whoa. You mean you went NEAR it? Braver than me
Can’t forget the asymmetrical center cap!
And a distant 3rd for worst…
I just want to cut off those little three pointed pieces of trash between the three main spokes, every time i see them.
Bad: any wheel with direction designed into it. Are we going forward or backward? It wants to tear a car in half along its centerline.
Re: “Walk around any parking lot today, and you soon realize all but the cheapest cars have alloy wheels. ”
It’s all about MPG’s,(fuel economy) that auto makers are competitively trying to raise… to sell cars.
“Unsprung weight is the weight under the springs which moves up and down as the vehicle rides over uneven roads and leans in the corners. Reducing unsprung weight allows the springs and shock absorbers to be more effective in controlling the suspension’s movement. Additionally, a vehicle’s rotational weight includes all parts that spin including everything in the vehicle’s driveline from the engine’s crankshaft to its wheels and tires. This affects the energy required to change speed as the vehicle accelerates and brakes. As you would guess, reducing the weight of any of these rotating components will enhance the vehicle’s performance because less energy will be required to increase or decrease their speed.”**
**http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=108
Those Honda wheels are pretty close to the ones on my 94 Taurus.
My favorite: the Super Stock IV, optional on 1971 and 1972 Delta 88s only.
These were garbage. Cheap and they looked horrible on every single Rio, because the wheel behind the cover would RUST. Turned me off of plastic wheel covers forever. I hope to get wheels for my Mazda at some point. Plastic covers just scream cheap to me
I like the “Wankel” wheels from my old ’88 Bonneville SE. Mine was black.
I like Lamborghini Miura wheels!
I’ll take steelies with dog dishes. Thank you.
Speaking of steelies, one of the best recent wheels were the aluminum wheels that looked like steelies and hubcaps on the last generation New Beetle. It might have been worth getting the car just for those wheels; they were that cool.
terrific stock wheels on my Corolla iM
I did like the ones that came on my 2WD S10 Blazer….but they were a PITA to keep clean.
Handsome “modern” design that I like.
I would imagine just cleaning one wheel would take longer than washing the car!
A lot of my favorites listed here! The biggest problem that I have with OEM wheels today, is that the MAJORITY of them are flat faced, with no lip and only variations on the number of spokes that they have! I know that this is a function of FWD and aero, but all the previously posted deep dished, classic lipped examples from the past just “roll” me away, LOL!! 🙂
I like the 1988 to 1992 BMW M5 “M-System” wheels with brake-cooling turbine that made it look like the tires have white side walls. Iconic.
Ettore Bugatti’s horse hoof and it’s many permutations. The horse hoof being Bugatti’s design signature from childhood to today.
The Ford Turbines we saw on the ’77 to ’79 Thunderbirds, as well as their Lincoln cousins:
I loved them!
1957-58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham wheels (yes, they are wheels).
I too like Buick’s “Roulette” wheel (Rallye Wheel). Simple with an elegant cool factor. Suitable for whatever Buick they were on.
Ford’s Turbine Wheel a close second.