What once was is cool again, and never is that more evident than in the world of custom cars and clothing fashion. Shoes, pants, shirts, jewelry, hair styles, it is super common for fashion trends of the past to come back to life decades later. The same goes for custom paint jobs, wheels, and overall themes of hot rods. I for one love it when I see a car that reminds me of my childhood. As much as I love modern builds, there is something about the styles of the 1980’s that does it for me in the street machine world. I love gold Moroso valve covers with T handles, Centerline wheels, cool graphics, and big and littles with the right stance. I mean who doesn’t, right?
The answer must be that everyone is ready for some of the old to come back, because there are several companies who have brought back old designs in the last year. I’m still working on Moroso to bring back their Gold, Blue, and Silver valve covers, but so far that isn’t working. I’ll have to start a campaign or something.
But what has come back, and is making me incredibly happy, is the Centerline Wheels Auto Drag and Convo Pro. Yep, the originals are back! I remember growing up with my dad’s 1968 Camaro having Centerlines on it. It had been Cragars before that, but the Centerlines did it for me. My Camaro also had a set of Centerline Auto Drags on it at one point in its life and I really want them on it again. There are plenty of other styles that could, and maybe should, come back but these two have been the talk of the town since Centerline announced their return.
So which one of these would you most like to put on your hot rod, street machine, Pro Streeter, or Muscle Car? Are you and Auto Drag or Convo Pro kind of guy or gal? Or is there another wheel, like the gold Monocoques below, that you would love to see make a comeback so you could put them on your ride?
Let us know what you think and which one you would most like to see.
ive had autodrags on the 78 vette with the 454
for almost 25 years–15×5.5 fronts with 205/70s
and 15×9 rears with 275/60s. its period perfect
and looks like an early 80s prostock wet dream…
My dad was a 70s drag racer. There is no other wheel than the Autodrag. Honestly it’s pretty timeless.
Thanks for this article. It was really interesting and knowledgeable. Keep doing this great work. Thank you.
Auto Drags, I had a set of Progressive look a likes on my ’73 Dart Sport (first car) back in the ’80’s, although the Dart Sport was packing a 225 under the hood, everyone thought I was running a 340.
Monocoques, all day long. In my part of the world, all the poser street junk ran the Centerline auto drags, but a real race car would have Monocoques. What I’d really like to see come back are Cragar Super tricks from the 70s. Or the Motor Wheel Fly.
Bogart Wheels, they have some great looking Super Trick and Fly replicas.
Bogart would be the logical one to bring back Monoque wheels, too.
If I did buy a new wheel / tire combo for my ’66 Dart, it would be a bit of an unusual choice, but not an unheard-of one on muscle cars: I’d go with Minilites Mags.
I rocked Centerlines back in the 80\’s on my 1970 RS Camaro. I made the decision to keep them on when I restored the car a couple of years ago just to be different than everybody else. I thought I was doin\’ my own thing but now I find out I\’m trendy!!
I lusted after Centerline “warriors” back in high school. A buddy of mine had them on his 67 Chevelle in the late 90’s. Another friend owns that car today and it still has them on it. He really wants to update it with a modern wheel, but the Centerlines still look mean!
Monos
Monocoque wheels were my favorite growing up. Seeing the Stock/Super Stock/Modified cars wearing them just added flare to them.
A friend has monocoques on his B/G Anglia, it looks good, personally AutoDrags for me (wonder how’d they look on my MGB)?
Thank you Bangshift for continually bringing back so much nostalgia. Such great content everyday.
Had 2 sets of Monocoques. One polished set, sold to a friend. I had gold anodized Monocoques on my 68 Camaro drag car in the very early 80\’s. Loved them. So many great vintage wheels. The S/S Cragers in the 70\’s, Motor wheel flys or a nice set of polished magnesium Hildibrand Anglia spindle mount wheels. Difficult to choose … Loved the Monocoques … My vote
Keystone Klassics, Cragar SS’s, Autodrags, Cragar SST’s, Champ 500’s. I like them all and would put them on my cars. As long as they are 15 inchers.
Add in American Racing Torque Thrusts and Ansen Slots.
Not For Highway Use Super Tricks. My goal would be a street car with as many 80s Not For Highway Use parts as possible. Gasket V-Gate on a slick shifted top loader. Dominator. 2″ primary headers.
I love the center line auto drags I had them on my 67 Chevelle back in 1980-90s with pro tracs front runners and mts on the back
Planning on running auto drags on my 69 GTO. Its odd you referred to gold Moroso rocker covers cause I have set for my car also.
Centerline Auto-Drags all the way. I was never able to warm to the Convo’s, though. That said, my 69 Dart wears Weld Pro Stars. I’ve always thought they had a great resemblance to Motor Wheel Fly’s. If I was bucks up enough to build a 73-74 Duster Pro Stock replica, I’d take the chance on bead blasting a set of Pro Stars and powder coating them a flat grey. Last time I saw a set of Fly’s on EBay, they got bid up to somewhere into vintage Ferrari territory.
Keystone Classics, Crager SS, and Crager Super Tricks please
Super Trick wheels…not the Centerline clones
Keystones, or Cragars, in the 13″ 4-lug style. My first hot rod had Keystone Klassics, my upcoming project (Pinto) would look killer in them too!