Image via Complex Original
The economy may be stalled, but the number of people working on their own cars and engines continues to grow. This is especially true of the attention Americans are lavishing on their wheels. According to the most recent industry numbers, wheels and tire sales boomed last year, growing their slice of the $28 billion specialty parts market.
The industry might be new, but wheel culture is not. People have been tricking out rims in this country since the wagons went West. But rims didn’t become big business until the mid-’90s. That’s also when “rim inflation” exploded, taking us into the current world of 32-inch rims. It’s a world that earlier generations of car and wheel aficionados could not have imagined.
The story of how modern wheels blew up past 30 inches is a long and complicated one. Which came first: big wheels or big rims? “You’re going to get a different story from everyone you ask,” says David Zuckerberg, a pioneer in the development of donk culture.
Veteran observers say that the pendulum is beginning to swing. “I see standard sizes falling back and settling in between 18 and 22 inches,” says Quincy Jonathan of Victoria Tire & Wheels, the Los Angeles showroom that has been in the business since 1965. “It’s already starting to go down, and I’m seeing a lot of 24 inches right now.”
Whatever the size of the wheel, more people around the world are taking wheels seriously. The Asian market is growing, with China seen as the next big customer. We recently spoke to some custom car experts about how wheels became an art form, and what we can expect in the future.
Pre-Combustion Engine: Before The Car, There Was The Wheel
Tony Thacker, British-born custom-car veteran, Executive Director of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum: “It goes way back to the days of Marco Polo, when people wanted to gussy up their wagons and their carriages. The impulse to decorate your ride is timeless.”
Mike Spinelli, custom-car critic: “You can go all the way back to wagon wheels in America. People used to paint them. The words, ‘hub cap’ refer to the cap that used to go over the hub of a wagon wheel. The phenomenon is not new.”
1945-1960: Postwar Drag Racing
Spinelli: “The real wheel culture we know today comes out of hot-rodding. There was a store in L.A. called Bell’s Auto Parts. That was ground zero for car culture in L.A., which is the home of it all. When they started racing, they realized there were considerations regarding brake cooling. The one-piece steel wheels were okay. But if you were drag racing, you wanted to get airflow into the breaks, so they wouldn’t melt. That’s where cutting holes in the wheels comes from. After that, they did these things called deep-dish wheels, where they turned them backward—the hub was turned around so more tire would stick out. That was mostly an appearance thing. The first real postwar wheel was the Deep Dish. After that, they made wheels with a wider offset. Then it splits into racing wheels and drag-racing wheels. Most of these kids couldn’t afford expensive racing wheels, so they would use steel wheels. It was all hubcaps that were chromed. The Moon Disc was the next big wheel—it was really shiny. Then in the late 1950s, American Racing was the first company to come up with what we know as the mag wheel. They came up with something called the Torq Thrust. That was the first one with the big fat spokes. It met the three considerations—weight, strength, and brake cooling—but also looked cool. It was the first real cool hot rod rim. Drag racing was abusive on the wheels.”
Jonas Nezvet, veteran wheels enthusiast, collector, and former shop owner in Anaheim, Calif.: “Wheels culture really exploded with the rise of the muscle car. The first heavy-duty steel and then aluminum rims first appeared on the gas-guzzling muscle cars that Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler put on the streets in the ’50s. Back then, your typical Chevy model was not yet cloned into a Pontiac. And there was Plymouth and Dodge putting a lot more muscle out there. And what distinguished the “hot” from the “cold” was not just the big-block engines under the heavy hoods. It was the rims that let you know real quick who was a serious threat and who a poser. If you had American Racing rims, you were the big-time. They kept all that raw power under control.”
Thacker: “After the war, racecars were a big part of developing rims. They had cast aluminum or cast magnesium rims for lightness. It didn’t take very long for guys who were into car racing wanting to put lightweight aluminum rims on their streetcars. There was a company called SoCal Plating even before the war that made ripple-effect discs from aluminum, with shapes on them. These were used on old custom cars back in the day. If you look at a picture of an old Rolls Royce, you’ll sometimes see shapes on the wheel, discs like that. Then after the war, when the GIs returned and settled in California, there was already a hot-rod culture. Guys were changing up the rims on different cars to change the gearing of the car. That was the way in the early race days to change the gearing—to put an 18-inch rim on a car that normally had a 16-inch rim. They would use milk truck wheels, because they were tall.”
1960-1970: The Birth Of Chrome
Jonas Nezvet: “As the late-’60s moved into the 1970s, you started to see more flash, and the birth of the wire rim market. This was the era of cross-laced rims like Tru-Spokes. And fat-spoke, deep-dished, reversed-style rims.”
Thacker: “In the ’60s, the entrepreneurship of American and especially the Southern Californian car guys exploded the culture. They were constantly looking for ways to make and sell a product. There was an aerospace industry in Southern California that enabled them to be able to do that. There were materials and suppliers who could do everything—casting or spinning or machining or whatever you needed. So the industry boomed. One of the very first industries was Halibrand. They made aircraft parts and speed parts, like rims and rear axels and stuff like that. They were one of the first companies to take racecar rims and put them on the street. Another major force was Dean Moon, who invented a thing called the Moon Disc. It was a smooth aluminum hubcap spun on a lathe that helped reduce the drag on early racecars. So they become popular both at the early drag races and early Bonneville land speed racing. They’re still making them. There were also a lot of chrome plating shops making stuff for the airlines, so people would take their rims and chrome plate them. The next thing after that was called ‘chrome reverse rims.’ They’d take the center out and put it back on in reverse, chrome-plated. It made the wheel a little bit bigger, made it stick out a little bit more. Then guys like Dean Jeffries and George Barris got into decorating the rims, painting them, doing some of the things owners of the first horseless carriages did. Paint thin lines around the tire.”
Spinelli: “In the mid-’60s, the SST came out. That was sort of the first all-chrome rim that started to get widespread pick-up.”
1970-1980: The Lowrider
Jim Gilpert, Univ. of Mississippi, professor of American Culture, historian of recreation: “In the 1970s, interest in car shows and customized parts like wheels waned due to economic factors such as elevated gas prices and shortages, and the influx of foreign automobiles into American markets. The growth of lowrider culture was the big exception.”
Kyle Waller, California car culture expert: “Traditionally, lowriders have featured whitewall tires. However, it is more common to see small gold or chrome spoke wheels. This is because the wheels’ size allows the car to sit lower while in motion, as they can tuck under the car very easily. The wheels also allow the car to move on three wheels because of the lighter weight.”
Sammy J. Perea, Lowrider magazine: “In the '70s, the new paint schemes of lowriders required something with more flare and flash, which unearthed the wire rim market. They started with cross-laced rims and morphed themselves to a thin, straight-laced Dayton with a few transitions along the way. Someone down the line got tired of the variable-fit oval mounting holes, long-shouldered lugs, and lining up the back spacers every time that you swapped rims for work mode after a weekend of cruising. And more progress was made.
Jon Patrick, blogger: “Back in the 1970s, riding on the heels of the fading muscle car era, the custom van became the ultimate self-expression vehicle: Captains chairs, beds, bubble windows, louvres, spoilers, custom horns, CB radios. And mag wheels.”
1980-1990: The Birth of the Spinner
Jesse Trew, custom car expert: “The spinning rim was originally developed in the 1980s by inventor J.D. Gragg, who is from Tulsa, Okla. He eventually patented spinners and marketed the product under the American Tru-Spinners brand. Initially, American Tru-Spinners wheels were mainly installed on custom and concept vehicles.”
Gilbert: “In the 1980s, nostalgia-driven baby-boomers fueled a resurgence of car-related activities such as car shows and rod runs. These events again featured restored automobiles, street rods, custom-builds, and antique machines. It’s no surprise there were major wheel innovations around the corner.”
Perea: “In the early '80s, the vast majority of lowriders felt that wire wheels defined lowriding. Even with all of the other quality manufacturers of wire wheels, Dayton seemed to stand with their head above the pack due to their unique straight-laced design. This clean design harked back to the 1932 race-inspired wheel, with all of the spokes going straight to the center of the wheel, only being secured to the car with an adapter and a knockoff. Daytons were the epitome of what everyone wanted in a day when rims were generally inexpensive. These high-priced Daytons were not only the cleanest rims on the market, they were a status symbol of wealth and prosperity. Using an adapter and knockoff allowed the rim to sit without the lugs interrupting the elegant straight-laced spokes.
1990-2000: The Wheel Explodes
Cabrera: “The scene was pretty basic back in the early 1990s. When I got involved, 16 inches was just starting to become an option. Then in the mid-’90s, Pirelli put out the 20-inch tire, which set the fuse. Colorado Customs started making wheels, and then the next thing you knew, it exploded. The wheels got bigger and bigger, and selection increased, with more and more companies sprouting up to supply growing demand.”
Spinelli: “In the early ’90s, the tire technology changed so you could do these huge rims. There was also a new technology called ‘CFC,’ so you could design cheap prototypes. Then in the late-’90, SUV rims were coming out that were 20- and 22-inch, and people started putting them on cars. People started lifting their cars just to put on the bigger rims.”
Evan “Evo” Yates: Atlanta-based founder of Impalas N Caprices, a national custom-car club, owner of the custom-car clothing line Carma Brand Apparel: “Wheels really blew up, I’d say, in ’98 or ’99. Until then, people were on 15, 16, 17, maybe 19 inches. I remember seeing my first set of 20-inch Lorenzos and thinking it was the most outrageous thing I’d ever seen. How could the spokes not snap in half? Ca$h Money started the bling thing around the same time. What changed custom car culture were the larger wheels and skinnier tires. You couldn’t do one without the other. If you didn’t have a skinner tier, you couldn’t use a bigger wheel. That changed the complexity of everything. Things that would blast me years ago are regular now. Everybody started upping the size. Giovanni and Pirelli. Neeper and Niche were both made by MHT and they both were pretty big in the ’90s. Another form of wheel you can't forget is the Dayton wire wheels (like on the low-riders). Those were huge for a while on all cars and still are on the low-lows. They made tires that, at first, didn’t look drivable. Right now, I’m on something that even six years go I would have thought, ‘ridiculous.’ If you go back to old Outkast songs of the 1990s, you hear, ‘don’t ride 18s if you don’t have a wood-grained steering wheel.’ Eighteens were a big deal. Then spinners were big. But now they’re just big in Florida.”
Carl Webb, of Red's Miami, the world's largest truck and auto customizing center: “The real story of the donk—a passenger car that has been lifted and has 22s or larger wheel—began in Liberty City (Miami) circa 1993. At this time, ’71 through ’76 Caprices and Impalas were known as glass houses on the West Coast. On the East, they were called a Chevy. People in Liberty City started switching their Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Delta 88s for the forgotten ’70s Chevys. They were customized by using 30- or 50-spoke Cragar, with Vogue tires. Reds with our lowrider background started switching them to 16-inch Dayton 100 spoke knock-off wires, with a new low-profile Vogue. In late 1994, 20s were released. Red's started tinkering with the idea of building donks and Chevy pickups with the big rims. By the time we rolled into late ’95 and early ’96, donks were really popular, with big motors, custom interiors and paint, audio, and 16 and lows. After the 16 and lows got played out, we pulled out a ’71 donk with 20” Azevs and Michelin tires, owned by Emilio, who worked at Reds Hydraulics, to the Lowrider show in 1997. After that, the donk was the talk of the town and was made popular throughout the U.S. As time passed, people still wanted bigger rims to fill wheel wells up. In 1998, 22s came out and took the market by storm. The first person in Miami to put 22s on a donk was a customer named Chris, with a dark-green ’72 Caprice with a full race motor.”
2000-2011: It’s All Business (Thanks, Spree)
Jess Trew: “Spinning rims gained the name of 'Sprewells' when [former NBA star] Latrell Sprewell was featured on an episode of 'MTV Cribs' in 2001 showcasing a car with spinning rims. The rims featured were created by the company Davin Wheels. This TV appearance greatly popularized spinners, and afterward, people began referring to spinners as 'Sprewells.'"
Juan Cabrera, longtime manager of the Krome Dome, a cult Houston custom shop: “There are hundreds of companies now. It’s a very, very competitive business. Because of that, you’ve seen prices come way down. But I remember when it was $3,500 for 20-inch tires alone.”
Michael Berenis, from the Tampa Sports Car Examiner: “The world record for biggest rims is a set of 50-inchers on a custom Oldsmobile Cutlass. Typically, 100-spoke or 50-spoke is used for average size rims from 13-inch up to 24-inch. For 50-inch rims, either the wire spoke must be stronger, or there must be more spokes, because the arch is expanded and will not be as strong. Either way, you need to accommodate for the larger radius of the wheel, or it will simply be crushed by the weight of the vehicle.”
Yates: “Now you have 32s and everything. You’ve got these multi-piece staggered wheels by Forgiato, which changed the game. Now, across genres, everyone wants those. Today, certain cars have met their limit as to what will look good. If you have a new Charger, you probably shouldn’t do more than 24s. There are not that many vehicles you can bolt on more than a 30. It’s going to plateau. It’s going to be more about the fit, the materials, the design of it. It’ll go back to where it was in ’96 or ’97, when you had to have a good wheel style. For a while, it was only size. And I’m glad that’s changing.”