sub006

Running my Sting Ray in rallies and visiting other competitive events in Southern California, I'd see American performance cars of all makes and models with aftermarket custom wheels.

First thing I did to my 'Vette was put aluminum (street) Torq Thrusts on it. The Konis, Bill Thomas touches, etc. came a bit later.

Anyway, I'd see nice big-window Barracudas, full-size Dodge and Plymouth two-door hardtops and rampback Chargers, but they ONLY seemed to run Cragar S/S "mags". I thought it was because of a unique (and relatively low volume) bolt pattern, but a few years ago I realized it was the same as Ford, and there were plenty of Mustangs and Fairlanes running Americans.

Anybody else remember the above situation? The Cragars were comparably priced with Torq Thrusts, so I don't think S/S wheels were a financial decision.

juiceman03070

Crager hit a high note with the S/S..I bought a 66/442 when I came back from Viet Nam and we left the Olds garage and headed straight for my friends custom shop ...An hour later we were ripping the treads off...
The S/S looked best with a size smaller on front and wider on back.
Oh to be young again ...mt wifes 68 Charger and my olds left us for our first home ...$10,000.00 for the pair...

RAMMAN

I also think looks are the reason the Crager SS is so popular today on restorations, just as it was in the 60’s and 70’s. They are period correct and you can run staggered tire sizes to get the big meats look on the rear.
I have the stock Magnum 500 14” wheels for my Challenger but the proper size tires for them look so skinny. I like the 14” front 15” rear stance look much better.

03 A/E Coupe

The Cragar SS looked good anything, chrome, beefy, the epitome of " I got muscle, see me smoke 'em ".

Seeing a modern day wheel on a 60s - 70s car makes me think - that is so wrong, where's the stock wheel or a Cragar SS ?

leadfoot4

I think the situation, back in the 70s, was that Cragar had a better distribution network. My first new car was a '71 Chevelle SS 454, and the first "mod" was wheels, of course. EVERYBODY had the Cragars, I couldn't find any shops, locally, that sold the American Torque Thrust wheels, my first choice, so I 'settled' for a set of the aluminum Appliance "slot mags", as my local speed shop handled that line.

sub006

Thanks for all the input above. And let me say I think chrome S/S wheels are VERY attractive. And probably the strongest wheels available, though at least as heavy as stock rims.

Cragar started back in the '30s, while American got going in 1956. But American made mag wheels from the start, and the Torq Thrust was available by 1959 or so. Cragar didn't make the S/S until late '63 or 1964 AIR, but they did have decades-old open accounts with long-time speed shops.

Maybe there was a shortage of availability if you were in New York back in the day, leadfoot. I was in Southern California, where Cragars were welded up, but Americans were cast and machined a few hours north in San Francisco, and there were plenty of them in Southern California speed shops in 1965. And in Califonia they were downright COMMON on all models of Chevys from 1955 up, but my original question is "Why not on Mopars?"

Perhaps the speed shops only stocked the Chevy bolt pattern size? Remember how a couple hundred bucks for custom wheels would BURN in your wallet? Maybe there was no way many a young Ford or Mopar driver could stand to wait for a "special order" to be delivered.

As for the staggered look, Ramman, Torq Thrusts came in 4 1/2", 6 ", 7" and 8 1/2" widths in 15", plus a few 14" choices. So that's not the reason.

Now if a tire shop was not careful, they could DESTROY an alloy wheel's rim trying to get a tire on it with mounting equipment designed for steel. Maybe some horror stories spread, helped along by the many custom chrome wheel manufacturers?

I would think pro drag racers would want the weight advantage of aluminum or even lighter magnesium wheels, and young people driving performance cars on the street would follow that example for the "racy" look.

But (just) maybe Cragar GAVE free S/S wheels to Sox & Martin, Dick Landy, etc. and Mopar-driving kids wanted to look like their heroes?

JP426

[Quote/] But (just) maybe Cragar GAVE free S/S wheels to Sox & Martin, Dick Landy, etc. and Mopar-driving kids wanted to look like their heroes? [End Quote/]

I believe this had a lot to do with it, many Mopar drag racers ran the Cragar S/S and Keystone wheels and people wanted to run what their favorite racers had.

sub006

And Grumpy Jenkins "made" Centerline wheels popular with his giant-killer Vegas. Don't know for sure, but they certainly SHOULD have given him as many as he wanted!

And I believe those were two-piece, but still all-alloy LIGHT wheels.

IMO heavy, super-strong all-steel wheels were only necessary for wheel-standing exhibition cars that would drop their front ends down HARD from five feet in the air.

leadfoot4

I'm not sure about a "shortage", but for whatever reason, the AR Torque Thrusts (my all-time favorite wheel) just weren't handled by any of the speed shops here.

"A couple hundred bucks"? The first custom wheels I bought, the Appliance slot mags, were $39.95 each, plus tax!!

I do believe the Torque Thrusts also came in a 10" width, in a 15" diameter.

And YES, the Cragar SS wheels, as well as the identical Keystone Raider, and nearly identical Keystone Klassic, could be tricky to mount tires on. Believe me, I mounted/dismounted MANY of them. The trick, and not a lot of people knew this, was to flip the wheel over, on the tire machine, and do the work from the back side. Too many guys tried to hold the wheel from the front, by placing the "retaining cone" of the tire machine into the small hole between the spokes, where the hub cap sat, and broke that part of the wheel.

sub006

Excellent observations, thanks!

Cragars and Keystones had tough, durable steel rims. The problem I was referrring to is the soft aluminum at the outer edge of American Racing wheels. The steel seating arms designed for steel rims had rather sharp edges that could dig into the aluminum, at "best" scarring it up and at worst rendering the wheel unusable.

Never heard of Torq Thrusts having a problem with center cones, probably because AIR they don't rotate. And maybe TTs simply had more aluminum "meat" in the center area than the "bi-metal" wheels?