They used to be humble pieces of steel that attached thetires to a wheel trends have lost their functionality, however. At the other end of the spectrum from 24-inch spinners are those wheels built for all, they were fitted with dog dish- weight racing wheels made from chromed trim ring around the ite materials. Amongoff-road enthusiasts, (NAPSA)—Today’s wheels are the ultimate fashion accessory. car. If wheels were dressed up at competition purposes, like light- shaped hubcaps and maybe,if an owner had a true sense of style, a forged aluminum or exotic compos- outer rim. No single component can change the look of a vehicle faster than a new set of wheels. Wheels competitive rock crawling is the hottest sport going, no matter how contradictory that sounds. Rock People have an amazingly wide racers routinely climb impassable cliffs, stone faces and waterfalls, be delicately styled for agile road use or beefed up to withstand off- choice of wheels, or rims, to maketheir cars or trucks reflect their driving lifestyle. vehicle you own and how youdrive, MTV’s “Cribs” or the Discovery crawlers (and their fans) use steel wheels on their rigs, and thenlit- high school parking lot, the trend tires with what are called bead locks—ringsfitted with bolts that can dress a vehicle up or down; be polished, chrome-plated or painted; road punishment. No matter what there’s a set of wheels out there that will fit your needs—and style—like a well-tailored suit. The number of wheel choices available these days is mind-bog- Channel’s “Monster Garage,” or even paid attention down at the in wheelsis plus-sizing. The 14- or offered with several different types and sizes of wheels. Yet the factory offerings barely scratch 15-inch wheel diameters that were standard just a few years ago look positively puny compared to the 16-, 17- and 18-inch wheels now available for most cars. The proportions of SUVs allow wheel specialized and outrageous custom wheels are churned out every limit” envelope for wheel diameters, going up from 20 to as much gling. Visit any dealership and the car of your dreams is most likely the surface of wheel choices. Truly year by dozens of specialty wheel makers. Parts and accessories to modify cars and trucks were a $27 billion designers an almost “sky’s the erally bolt them to their knobby run throughthetire’s bead. What does this new generation of wheels cost? Traditional perfor- mance wheels in 16- to 18-inch sizes run anywhere from $150 to $400 to $500, depending on wheel type and construction. Step up to 18- to 20-inch rims, and prices go from several hundred to nearly a mused Peter MacGillivray, SEMA’s thousand dollars. Go over 20 inches and add spinners and you're well over $1,000. Per wheel. The wheels introduced at the 2003 SEMAshow will soon appear weresightings of a 32-incher.” magazines also devote a lot of as 24 or 26 inches. “Just five years ago, 18-inch wheels were the talk of our show,” industry in this country in 2002, and consumers spent roughly vice president of marketing and communications. “In 2002, there according to SEMA,the Specialty Sheer size isn’t the only fashion aspect of wheels these days, either. $3 billion on wheels alone, and to do so they need sturdy wheels that won’t crumble under high-torque punishment. So at tire stores and specialty automotive shops. Enthusiast car space to products coming out of the SEMAshow, and new wheels Equipment Market Association that represents the automotive A kaleidoscopic array of finishes is At SEMA’s 2008 trade show in Las Vegas, the group estimated ishing, plating and painting techniques, so you no longer have to on their factory wheels—if that. ket are wheels known as “spin- Web, and SEMAhas put together wheel they're mounted on. So if a turers and retailers on its own Web site, www.enjoythedrive.com. can look like they’re spinning even you needis a set of new tires to go specialty aftermarket. that of the 1,500 vehicles on display, barely a dozen weresitting That translates to nearly 6,000 custom wheels—and around 30,000 lug nuts. That number doesn’t even include the hundreds of wheels that were on display in the various manufacturers’ booths. As anyone who has seen the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, watched available, thanks to modern pol- opt just for mirror-like chrome. The hottest designs on the mar- ners,” which feature hubs or hoops that spin independently of the brightly plated or polished wheel isn’t dazzling enough, your wheels whenthey’re stopped. All this doesn’t mean that will figure prominently in their coverage. The most convenient way to search for new rims is on the Internet. All the wheel makers dis- play their latest designs on the a list of the major wheel manufac- Finding the right set of rims is as easy as point-and-click. Now all with those wild wheels, but that’s anotherstory altogether.
