Do wheels make the car?

[GT40 Racer (DM)]

I was chatting with a friend today about some Aussie touring cars from the late 60s - early 70s. I found a photo of a race team 'Neptune Racing'- they ran a Mini, a Cortina and '65 Mustang at one stage. I have the Mini and Cortina as Scalextric released them. I was talking to John about finding a Mustang as I don't think anyone did a '65 'Stang. John noticed was the Mustang had steel rims on it rather than the usual wheels.
I thought I could use the Pioneer Mustang and change the wheels to steelies. I figure the body differences wouldn't be as noticeable so long as the wheels were correct.

I think Wheels make the car. Think about it - try and picture a GT40 without Halibrands or a Cheetah with out American Racing wheels or a Trans Am Mustang with out Minilites or a classic Ferrari without the 5 spokes star.

I have seen a few posts of 'tuned' up cars and the tuner changes the wheels such that they don't look anything like the original car. If I am putting aftermarket wheels on a car they still have to look like the correct wheels. A Viper with some fancy blue anodised wheels looks awful in my opinion.

Am I alone in this - anyone else think the wheels make the car? If so what do you think are the most iconic wheels out there.

cheers
David

[War Eagle River]

Well it certainly helps for appearances. Thats about it. Easy enough to make inserts, and with all the 3d capabilities and designers out there, it shouldn't be an issue for the rivet counters to outfit their wheels with whatever suits them. We are racers here, first and foremost…but still find myself trying to get period correct wheels on tuned and modified cars. Suppose it comes down to how far is someone willing to go, and are they going to be bothered by their decisions or what others have to say about it.

[Pappy]

David, I will agree that the wheels make the car if all you want to do is look good going down in defeat. To me this is competition, I don't care if the wheels are period correct. To me the tires make the car.

[Silberpfeil]

IMHO, winning with a bit of "style" makes the Trophy less important than the achievement.

[Pappy]

The fact that we race cars that actually look like cars in stylistic enough for me. I don't care about period correct wheels unless I'm trying to get concours points. When we race in the Michigan 24 we don't care about period correct wheels, we don't even want the cars to have mirrors or windshield wipers because they can break off and can go down into the slot and break a car.

When I race I'm trying to beat you so bad you go home crying to your momma and I want to race against competitors that want to do the same thing to me. That's the way you improve your game. When I get beat I don't get mad, I try to do better. But that's just me.

[Pappy]

I'm not fast yet but I'm still working on it. lol

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Actually, Pappy, the kind of competitive drive you talk about is what destroys slot car groups, and leads to people hating each other. I've been at this a long time, and I have seen it many, many times. Whether that is what you intend to say or not, the encouragement of extremely competitive attitudes is a very bad thing. For myself, the achievement is producing a scale model that runs a little faster than what scale speed would look like. When there is an 800 mph VW Beetle, I'll build it to go crazy fast. Until then, I put correct wheels on a scale model that looks exactly like what it represents.

[Pappy]

I agree, I've been in and out of slot car racing since the early 60's and that's one of the things that destroyed it. A few guys will really work at it and practice a lot and when the other guy's can't compete they just quit instead of trying to get better. But the guys I like to race with are just like me, they want to send me home crying to momma too. lol

A couple more things led to it's demise in my opinion. One was wing cars and the other was the fact you had new things coming out every week and unless you bought them you couldn't compete. This is why I'm against 3D printing of chassis and motor pods. These guys have nothing invested in molds or dies and they keep putting out new stuff and when someone wins with it everyone thinks they have to buy it or they can't compete. Slot It, NSR, Racer/Sideways, ScaleAuto and other major manufacturers all make very good cars and we don't 3D printed stuff.

I have no secrets, I tell anyone who wants to know exactly how I set-up a car. I even tell them to come over and I'll help them, they can use my tire truer or any tool I have. I open up my track anytime anyone wants to practice. I want the competition.

My goal is to build a faster car than Smokeio and out drive him with it. It may never happen but I'll keep trying.

[Barc 1]

That is how wing cars came about.

We all have different reasons for being in this hobby. I am a period correct guy. Not so much bound to wheel style. I really like American five spoke , Porsche five spoke, Lotus and Lola four spoke. The only thing that looks odd to me is if a car that raced with wire wheels is portrayed running steel rims. Everything else , if period correct, is OK in my world.

Edit
Actually, I guess what I am saying is, “ it is a your hobby and run what you want.

[Billy boy]

lindberg models makes a 65 mustang kit,not sure if its the one you need.i have no clue how to link stuff

[Bal r 14]

I do like the cars that look authentic, including the wheels. But, it isn't practical for me. First, a lot of the cars come with plastic wheels and crappy tires and bounce up and down like crazy on my routed track. Aluminum wheels and decent tires are a must. The second and more important thing is that this is very much a niche hobby, especially around here. It is hard to find enough people that enjoy racing slot cars on a regular basis. You kind of have go along with what attracts and keeps people engaged. To most, it is whatever it takes to win. One grandson's Sideways Lambo is missing body panels and has lots of epoxy holding other panels together. But, he doesn't care... it runs fast!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

There's no reason to give up the looks of your car for using aluminum wheels and nice tires. Just insert the correct wheel details into the aluminum wheels. HRW is full of ways to do it.

[Pappy]

I agree, running a crappy car that bounces all over the place is not fun. It's like racing on a crappy track that you have to nurse the car around the track just to keep it in the slot.

[strangebrew]

........I can make my "period correct" cars go PRETTY FAST............😀

[Michael Squier]

If your trying to keep the look of your car to scale yes, wheels do help make the car. A set of blank aluminum wheels really stands out on a well detailed car.
On a full scale car a nice set of wheels can make a car too.

[slothead]

As a solo racer I buy great looking authentic RTR replicas and leave them as is. Most of the cars for my 'dirt' oval are homemade with a focus on traction on the slick hardboard surface. I favor Pro-Track Daytona Stockers wheels and tires without inserts. Appearance wise I put effort into getting the bodies to closely resemble actual top northeast cars without worrying about the wheels. While many dirt cars have nice looking wheels they often stuff foam in them to keep dirt or mud from getting in and making the wheel out of balance. In racing mode you really can't see much of the wheels.

As for racing, when I did it commercially or on a home track with a bunch of guys my focus was on fun and comradery not dominating. If I built a winning car I'd generally leave it in my box the next week and use a newer one to keep it challenging and fun for everyone. I worried more about keeping the guys who weren't winning engaged than racking up wins.

IMHO - racing with toy cars should be mostly about having fun and enjoying who you are racing with. I have 2 cars in a proxy now and all I really care about is how they do relative to each other, and being part of the proxy chat.

[oldskool62]

As with my 1:1 cars I like to chose what style of wheels I fit. A few of my scratch builds have ended up with wheel inserts that I think are cooler than the car it was modelled from.
In saying certain 1:1 car racers have nailed the look with the chosen wheels.
When Scalextric finally release the 80 Z28 street version I will be painting it to be a replica of my real car. A resin body guru from New Zealand made a set of torque thrust D's which will go in my build.

[4380r]

I think Wheels make the car. Think about it - try and picture a GT40 without Halibrands or a Cheetah with out American Racing wheels or a Trans Am Mustang with out Minilites or a classic Ferrari without the 5 spokes

cheers
David

Quite a few GT40s hit the road with wire wheels, but your point is taken.

[GT40 Racer (DM)]

Quite a few GT40s hit the road with wire wheels, but your point is taken.

Yeah I know they look odd don't they. Even more so because those are modern photos and that particular shape GT40 never ran with wire wheels.

What an interesting spin on the conversation parts of this thread has developed into. I have raced against some people who seem to think winning is the be all and end all - sneakily put ball bearings in or gold magnets or repaint motors to make them look like they are for the set class or change the stock gearing or put low profile tyres on a 1950s Grand Prix car - is a little sad really. I don't think having the correct looking wheels means that you will be slow or come last. I understand that some folks treat their hobby as a sport but for me the joy is in recreating representations of classic race cars and then racing them or even just doing laps with some mates.

As for my second question. I thought about it and probably the Ferrari 5 spoke wheels on the likes of the P330 and 512s type cars are my favourite. The Ferrari wheels had it over the Porsche wheels any day.

cheers
David

[Mickey thumbs]

Come on! Everyone knows that the Chaparral had the coolest wheels in the 60’s 😉.