The recent derailment over in “The Official Hubless Wheel hater thread” reminded me of a car-versation a car buddy of mine and I had a while back. Some wheels are simply inseparable from their somewhat more famous bodywork. A car is nothing without it’s wheels, and the designers of the truly great car designs understood this and the wheels become almost icons or logos for the car itself.
My buddy has an '86 928 (shown here) which is what sparked the conversation, but even more distinctive are the 993 Turbo wheels; simply unmistakable, and ironically, the only other place they really look even remotely right is on the 928.
One of my personal all time favs tho are the Bugatti Type 35 wheels. You can catch those things a mile away.
Are those Bugatti wheels originals? I always thought for some reason they were aftermarket… they look cool but way to modern. Which makes it even cooler if they are originals I suppose.
One of these TT-wheels, I can’t decide which are more “iconic”
The type 35? Those are the only wheels I’ve ever seen on 'em, but I’m no expert. I think they are “correct” which is probably why they stand out to me.
Those are great too - remind me a little of the Bugatti’s.
I don’t think I’d ever seen those particular Countache wheels. Well, I probably have and just don’t remember, but it looks like they tossed some F40 sauce on them. The ones I recall have bigger punches without all the frilly detailing.
And your Saab pic didn’t show up, but I saw the file name in the reply. Those tri-copters are unforgettable!
Ahh, yeah, it might not be those exactly, I too only have mental image of 5 circles inside the wheel so I just figured those were it, first pic when googling countach… Perhaps God is not always in the details
Speaking of God, although not His biggest fan, gotta throw out a RIP to Leonard Knight. That’s was one inspiring dude.
Nice! I hadn’t seen that. I wonder where the idea came from? I remember years ago some semi trucks had mileage counters in the hubs that stayed level like that, but probably the designers were inspired by something else.
The BBS wheels on the VW GTI Mk2 - the mesh ones - are pretty synonymous with that car. The later CH models did a good job too. The recent ‘Hufeisen’ food processor wheels never really did the trick…better on a Lambo Countach.
The Audi 8 spoke wheels on their bigger cars always was a good, geometric, clean look.
Also like the wide-hub 5-spoke BBS on the AMG cars from M-B, they look perfect on a slammed E55.
Torq-Thrust D: I’ve been a sucker for the originals for as long as I admired things that go. And few cars look as good with them as the OG GT-350…although I saw a long hood 911 built for rally with a set and it looked nothing short of incredible.
I also like a lot of the Japanese tuner wheels, I fell in love with these Weds as an undergrad. After I graduated and had a few checks hit the bank I scoured the internet to find a couple sets of them used (had been out of production for a while). You should have seen some of the reactions from the Ford die-hards though…“Are those words on a STANG???!”
Yeah, they did. Except they weren’t Minis, they were EMPI wheels. I always wanted a set for my Ghia, but never had the extra coin available.
I priced a set of Minis for my '88 Ford Escort (North American) about a year ago; $580 per corner… granted, they would have been a “custom cut” because of the odd offset, but still… $580 each!!!