Our picks for the most rockin rollers in the automotive kingdom.
A short history of the wheel, that annular enabler of travel, commerce, and posturing:
3500 B.C.: First documented use of wheels on chariots
2000 B.C.: Spoked wheels used on Andronovan chariots
1000 B.C.: Celtic chariots feature iron rims
1887 A.D.: Dunlop develops the first pneumatic tire
1924 A.D.: Ettore Bugatti uses aluminum wheels on the Type 35
2005 A.D.: Human folly manifested in 34-inch chrome wheels
Despite much evidence to the contrary, wheels do more than just collect brake dust. Wheels are highly functional and critical in ensuring a vehicles sex appeal, which ultimately sells most of the cars on this list. Sometimes wheel designs can be more iconic than the cars they carry, such as those found on the AMG Hammer from the late 1980s. Consumers look to wheels as a way of personalizing their vehicles, and manufacturers offer an abundance of different wheel styles per vehicle at a premium, as do aftermarket companies that move billions of dollars in wheels every year.
Stamped-steel wheels, usually bedecked with hub caps or wheel covers, are cheap and strong. Aluminum and magnesium wheels, apart from allowing designers greater flexibility in producing a total vehicular design, are lighter than their steel counterparts; a lighter wheel reduces unsprung weight, which pays dividends in ride, handling, and fuel economy. Its not surprising that some of the hottest wheels are attached to some of the hottest and most expensive cars on the market. Not all are exotics, though. Here are our picks for the hottest 10 factory-offered wheels as voted on by the Car and Driver staff.
10. 2008 Volkswagen GTI
Volkswagen needed to do something about the inherent cutesiness of the fifth-generation Rabbit if enthusiasts were going to take the GTI seriously, regardless of its mechanical and performance credentials. Making a car look tough is most easily accomplished by slamming it on a set of big wheels, and this is the route VW chose. The GTIs rollers arent just large, at 17 inches in diameter, but are also large-looking, accomplished by glomming a bunch of metal onto the wheel faces. The result is a tough-looking wheel that provides the cred to back up the GTIs moves.
________________________________________________________________________________________
9. 2008 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Porsche could stick a set of wheels modeled on cowpies on a GT3 RS, and theyd still be transformed into something sexy by context alone, but <st1
lace w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Stuttgart</st1:city></st1lace> did it right with a set of spidery rder, available in black or bright orange. Porsche was one of the first manufacturers to understand the aesthetic possibilities of contrasting wheel colors and used them to devastating effect on the black/orange and orange/black GT3 RS. Under the glossy paint are lightweight aluminum wheels wrapped in the kind of expensive, sticky rubber that helps generate 0.99 g on the skidpad.
________________________________________________________________________________________
8. 2008 Infiniti G37
Infiniti and Nissan clawed their way back into the black with a blend of products as strong on style as they are on performance. The G37s big cast aluminum wheels feature spokes carefully contoured to showcase the four-piston brake calipers and large-diameter rotors. Infiniti succeeded in fitting a set of wheels that few customers, even enthusiasts, feel compelled to swap out for something more sporty-looking.
________________________________________________________________________________________
7. 2008 Lamborghini LP560-4
Lamborghini, being an exotic Italian carmaker, is allowed to do things like name its wheel styles. Sculpted from aluminum, the basket-weave Cordelia is one of three available wheels on the LP560-4. Lamborghini has a long history of outfitting its outrageous cars with love-em-or-hate-em wheels, but this fitment offends no one. Strong and light, this classic wheel style has been attached to racing and tuner cars for the past several decades. The glow of polished aluminum is a welcome alternative to the glare of chrome and looks just as good standing still as it does at the LP560-4s claimed 202-mph top speed.
________________________________________________________________________________________
6. 2008 Lotus Exige S
Mechanically optimal designs tend to be modest and beautiful, and this wheel is no exception; give a dozen engineers requirements for maximum strength and minimum weight, and 11 of them will give you something like this. Hewed from aluminum, they are featherweight rims for a flyweight car. Apart from looking incredibly bitchin, the matte-black finish does a fine job of masking matte-black brake dust, which aggressive brake pads shed like dandruff.
5. 2008 Audi A5
Saab and Porsche popularized the twisted-spoke aesthetic, and Audi makes it its own with the opposing push/pull propeller look. Cast in aluminum, these wheels provide the illusion of fairly thin spokes, visually lightening the stylish, solid-looking A5. Movement implied in the spokes is an echo of the A5s fluid, dynamic lines. Each pair of fan blades actually comprises one solid, beefy spoke, allowing these none-too-light wheels to carry their share of the nearly two-ton A5.
________________________________________________________________________________________
4. 2008 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
The most exotic factory Corvette ever to scorch pavement rides on equally exotic wheels. The ZR1 wears aluminum rollers, 19 inches in diameter in the front and 20 inches in the rear; the latter are also a foot wide. Such giant wheels are necessary to house platter-sized carbon-ceramic rotors 15.5 inches in diameter in the front, very similar to those on the Bugatti Veyron; the rears were plucked from the front of a Ferrari Enzo. One of the few available options on the ZR1 is chrome plating for the wheels, a $2000 flag to be flown by weenies proving theyre undeserving of such a vehicle, as chrome plating adds weight.
________________________________________________________________________________________
3. 2008 Audi R8
The R8s nontraditional form took the design world by storm, and what fuels its popularity is honesty, not obfuscation and flame sculpting rubbish. Functional simplicity defines the R8s split-spoke aluminum wheels. Generous airspace between spokes highlights the R8s huge, eight-piston calipers and cross-drilled rotors in the front and four-piston calipers in the rear. The bow of the spokes adds strength and accentuates width, the measurement associated with fat tires, supercars, and other stuff that makes hearts of the automotively inclined go pitter-patter.
________________________________________________________________________________________
2. 2008 Alfa Romeo 8C
The 20-inch rotelle on Alfa Romeos jaw-dropping 8C are like bespoke cufflinks on a tailored shirtthey bring a little bling and serve to highlight what theyre attached to. Although the wheels might be heavy-looking, they are made from forged aluminum and so are decently light for their size. In a design age of hard lines and crisp transitions, the 8C is a sexy, curvy delight, and its wheelsessentially five Cs radiating out from the hubexpand on this philosophy.
________________________________________________________________________________________
1. 2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
To make the F430 (currently the cheapest sled from Maranello) capable of lapping Fiorano as fast as an Enzo, Ferrari transformed it into the 430 Scuderia. The power-to-weight ratio was shifted around by adding 20 ponies and pulling out pounds, about 220 of them. Unsprung weight was attacked by installing carbon-ceramic brake rotors and lightweight 19-inch wheels. Theres no fat to trim off this wheel style, similar to that of the wheels on the Porsche GT3, and the gold color helps paint a realistic picture of the cars quarter-million-dollar price.
Thoughts?
A short history of the wheel, that annular enabler of travel, commerce, and posturing:
3500 B.C.: First documented use of wheels on chariots
2000 B.C.: Spoked wheels used on Andronovan chariots
1000 B.C.: Celtic chariots feature iron rims
1887 A.D.: Dunlop develops the first pneumatic tire
1924 A.D.: Ettore Bugatti uses aluminum wheels on the Type 35
2005 A.D.: Human folly manifested in 34-inch chrome wheels
Despite much evidence to the contrary, wheels do more than just collect brake dust. Wheels are highly functional and critical in ensuring a vehicles sex appeal, which ultimately sells most of the cars on this list. Sometimes wheel designs can be more iconic than the cars they carry, such as those found on the AMG Hammer from the late 1980s. Consumers look to wheels as a way of personalizing their vehicles, and manufacturers offer an abundance of different wheel styles per vehicle at a premium, as do aftermarket companies that move billions of dollars in wheels every year.
Stamped-steel wheels, usually bedecked with hub caps or wheel covers, are cheap and strong. Aluminum and magnesium wheels, apart from allowing designers greater flexibility in producing a total vehicular design, are lighter than their steel counterparts; a lighter wheel reduces unsprung weight, which pays dividends in ride, handling, and fuel economy. Its not surprising that some of the hottest wheels are attached to some of the hottest and most expensive cars on the market. Not all are exotics, though. Here are our picks for the hottest 10 factory-offered wheels as voted on by the Car and Driver staff.
10. 2008 Volkswagen GTI
Volkswagen needed to do something about the inherent cutesiness of the fifth-generation Rabbit if enthusiasts were going to take the GTI seriously, regardless of its mechanical and performance credentials. Making a car look tough is most easily accomplished by slamming it on a set of big wheels, and this is the route VW chose. The GTIs rollers arent just large, at 17 inches in diameter, but are also large-looking, accomplished by glomming a bunch of metal onto the wheel faces. The result is a tough-looking wheel that provides the cred to back up the GTIs moves.
________________________________________________________________________________________
9. 2008 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Porsche could stick a set of wheels modeled on cowpies on a GT3 RS, and theyd still be transformed into something sexy by context alone, but <st1
lace w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Stuttgart</st1:city></st1lace> did it right with a set of spidery rder, available in black or bright orange. Porsche was one of the first manufacturers to understand the aesthetic possibilities of contrasting wheel colors and used them to devastating effect on the black/orange and orange/black GT3 RS. Under the glossy paint are lightweight aluminum wheels wrapped in the kind of expensive, sticky rubber that helps generate 0.99 g on the skidpad. ________________________________________________________________________________________
8. 2008 Infiniti G37
Infiniti and Nissan clawed their way back into the black with a blend of products as strong on style as they are on performance. The G37s big cast aluminum wheels feature spokes carefully contoured to showcase the four-piston brake calipers and large-diameter rotors. Infiniti succeeded in fitting a set of wheels that few customers, even enthusiasts, feel compelled to swap out for something more sporty-looking.
________________________________________________________________________________________
7. 2008 Lamborghini LP560-4
Lamborghini, being an exotic Italian carmaker, is allowed to do things like name its wheel styles. Sculpted from aluminum, the basket-weave Cordelia is one of three available wheels on the LP560-4. Lamborghini has a long history of outfitting its outrageous cars with love-em-or-hate-em wheels, but this fitment offends no one. Strong and light, this classic wheel style has been attached to racing and tuner cars for the past several decades. The glow of polished aluminum is a welcome alternative to the glare of chrome and looks just as good standing still as it does at the LP560-4s claimed 202-mph top speed.
________________________________________________________________________________________
6. 2008 Lotus Exige S
Mechanically optimal designs tend to be modest and beautiful, and this wheel is no exception; give a dozen engineers requirements for maximum strength and minimum weight, and 11 of them will give you something like this. Hewed from aluminum, they are featherweight rims for a flyweight car. Apart from looking incredibly bitchin, the matte-black finish does a fine job of masking matte-black brake dust, which aggressive brake pads shed like dandruff.
5. 2008 Audi A5
Saab and Porsche popularized the twisted-spoke aesthetic, and Audi makes it its own with the opposing push/pull propeller look. Cast in aluminum, these wheels provide the illusion of fairly thin spokes, visually lightening the stylish, solid-looking A5. Movement implied in the spokes is an echo of the A5s fluid, dynamic lines. Each pair of fan blades actually comprises one solid, beefy spoke, allowing these none-too-light wheels to carry their share of the nearly two-ton A5.
________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. 2008 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
The most exotic factory Corvette ever to scorch pavement rides on equally exotic wheels. The ZR1 wears aluminum rollers, 19 inches in diameter in the front and 20 inches in the rear; the latter are also a foot wide. Such giant wheels are necessary to house platter-sized carbon-ceramic rotors 15.5 inches in diameter in the front, very similar to those on the Bugatti Veyron; the rears were plucked from the front of a Ferrari Enzo. One of the few available options on the ZR1 is chrome plating for the wheels, a $2000 flag to be flown by weenies proving theyre undeserving of such a vehicle, as chrome plating adds weight.
________________________________________________________________________________________
3. 2008 Audi R8
The R8s nontraditional form took the design world by storm, and what fuels its popularity is honesty, not obfuscation and flame sculpting rubbish. Functional simplicity defines the R8s split-spoke aluminum wheels. Generous airspace between spokes highlights the R8s huge, eight-piston calipers and cross-drilled rotors in the front and four-piston calipers in the rear. The bow of the spokes adds strength and accentuates width, the measurement associated with fat tires, supercars, and other stuff that makes hearts of the automotively inclined go pitter-patter.
________________________________________________________________________________________
2. 2008 Alfa Romeo 8C
The 20-inch rotelle on Alfa Romeos jaw-dropping 8C are like bespoke cufflinks on a tailored shirtthey bring a little bling and serve to highlight what theyre attached to. Although the wheels might be heavy-looking, they are made from forged aluminum and so are decently light for their size. In a design age of hard lines and crisp transitions, the 8C is a sexy, curvy delight, and its wheelsessentially five Cs radiating out from the hubexpand on this philosophy.
________________________________________________________________________________________
1. 2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
To make the F430 (currently the cheapest sled from Maranello) capable of lapping Fiorano as fast as an Enzo, Ferrari transformed it into the 430 Scuderia. The power-to-weight ratio was shifted around by adding 20 ponies and pulling out pounds, about 220 of them. Unsprung weight was attacked by installing carbon-ceramic brake rotors and lightweight 19-inch wheels. Theres no fat to trim off this wheel style, similar to that of the wheels on the Porsche GT3, and the gold color helps paint a realistic picture of the cars quarter-million-dollar price.
Thoughts?
