Looking for these wheels

Jay DeJong

Jay DeJong

Low Mileage
20200224_135903.jpg
This is my first X1/9, a 1974 I built in the early 80's. I would like to find a nice set of these wheels for one of my current projects. American Racing. Are there any out there?
 
Jay, welcome to the forum. When you get a chance tell us about your current projects.

Back then American Racing made lots of nice wheel designs for import vehicles, which strikes me odd in a way.

I had a set of their four spokes like these on one of my cars:
i-img640x480-15321441866nqyjc248504.jpg

They even offered some magnesium wheels:
AREPainted.jpg
 
Jay DeJong said:
This is my first X1/9, a 1974 I built in the early 80's. I would like to find a nice set of these wheels for one of my current projects. American Racing. Are there any out there?
Click to expand...

How funny, I have a set that I was just going to put up for sale to help fund my Scorpion project. Sending you a PM...
 
My first Fiat also a 74 X, I bought those wheels new from K&G Speed Shop. Loved the look, hated how they mounted with those goofy shouldered lug bolts.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Jay, welcome to the forum. When you get a chance tell us about your current projects.

Back then American Racing made lots of nice wheel designs for import vehicles, which strikes me odd in a way.

I had a set of their four spokes like these on one of my cars:
View attachment 29529

They even offered some magnesium wheels:
View attachment 29530
Click to expand...

A friend of mine still has a set of those wheels in the upper picture on his 1969 Fiat 124 Spider. I think they look good on that car. I have a couple X1/9 projects going right now. Not sure where in the forum to post info about them.
 
This is funny in today's terms, but at the time it made sense. The American Wheels I had (like in the top pic) were 14", although the stock wheels they were replacing (non-Fiat) were 15". In those days performance tires for imports were mostly 13" with a large selection to choose from. There was a decent selection in 14", but less than 13". And in 15" you mostly only had much larger sizes (aspect ratio) for American cars. Especially when going to wider tires, which in those days also meant a taller tire (low profile tires hadn't made the scene yet). So just the opposite of today, you had a better chance of finding what you wanted in a smaller diameter wheel. Keep in mind this was WAY before the concept of "plus one" ever existed. And smaller wheels were actually considered more stylish on small import cars. Therefore the choice of aftermarket custom wheels (particularly wider ones) was also extremely limited in 15" for foreign car lug patterns (very few imports had 15" wheels). So I converted to a "minus one" I guess you would say, in order to get a style and width of wheel I liked and a good choice of tires to fit them. That also allowed me to lower the car without any tire clearance issues, and with it lowered the 14" wheel/tire package still filled the wheel wells fine (the wider 14" tires had the same circumference as the narrow stock 15" tires).

Probably the "discussion" section is a good place to tell us what you are working on, assuming it is Fiat related. If not then I guess the "non-Fiat content" section os better.
 
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@Eastep are these the ones I got off you? On a work trip and mobile so can't upload a pic at the moment, but they look very similar. Can't remember the name of them, Spectre or something maybe?

Edit: going to try and upload a pic on mobile. . .
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Jay DeJong said:
View attachment 29527
This is my first X1/9, a 1974 I built in the early 80's. I would like to find a nice set of these wheels for one of my current projects. American Racing. Are there any out there?
Click to expand...

Well...

These are ANSENS from the late '70's... and many dealers installed these.... at least here in SoCal.

Papa Tony Arrives! BFI 2015.jpg

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They look similar if not exactly like yours. I believe they are marked 13J 5.5 and I run staggered size tires and multiple spacers with longer studs. They originally came with "conical" (bee hive?) chrome plastic caps with a flat face and a cheap aluminum sticker that simply said Ansen. SImilar to these:

images


have some modified Daihatsu caps in flat black on mine now.

I was searching Google looking for more example but could NOT find one other car in the hundred I looked at that had a similar set. AMAZING... as these were once all over the place around here and also cam in a 14 x 6 version. The individual that had several of these passed away about 10 or 15 years ago and all the stuff was sold. He had 6 X1/9's and 4 Saab Sonets!

Tom Marcellino in Dayton Ohio confirmed my thoughts some time ago that these were Ansens.

upload_2020-3-1_0-18-18.jpeg

Page him on this site to see if he's still around.

It would appear that these that were once quite common are now a rarity. I personally love the CD30's but appreciate having these Ansens now more than ever.

HTHs...
 
Yes Tony,
Those are the same wheels. They may have been marketed under several brands. The set I purchased new at the time were sold under the American Racing brand. 14's would be great too, if I can find a set in nice condition...may be dreaming. If I can't, it will get CD30 reproductions.
Thanks, Jay
 
Jay DeJong said:
They may have been marketed under several brands.
Click to expand...
Many "brands" of wheels are actually made by the same manufacturer. At one time there were only a handful of wheel manufacturers, despite the hundreds of "brands" on the market. In more recent times many small 'niche' makers have developed, mostly due to better manufacturing processes like CNC machines. And with the more "globalization" of markets in general there are more makers from around the world doing the actual manufacturing, where at one time that wasn't feasible. So it is very understandable that these wheels were sold by different names from different companies, despite being the same wheel.

About 8-10 years ago I had a friend (actually a friend of a friend) that decided he wanted to get into the wheel making market by offering his own designs with what he thought was a unique finish - actual platinum (ya, the ultra expensive metal used for jewelry). So he invested a HUGE sum in giant CNC machines and plating equipment and set out making his own wheels. Naturally the manufacturing cost was astronomical per wheel. The plan was to market the 'rich boys' with more money than brains driving super exotic cars. Lost everything. Unfortunately polished platinum looks just like chrome. :oops:
 
Jay DeJong said:
Yes Tony,
Those are the same wheels. They may have been marketed under several brands. The set I purchased new at the time were sold under the American Racing brand. 14's would be great too, if I can find a set in nice condition...may be dreaming. If I can't, it will get CD30 reproductions.
Thanks, Jay
Click to expand...

Jay... Welcome to Xweb by the way...

So's I was working on a friend's X1/9 today and WHEELS came up and I told him about your post... about 3 pm this afternoon, and remarked that I scanned HUNDREDS of cars on the internet and only found ONE OTHER like mine with these wheels!

So's he said to me... Mike Franze must have 5 or 6 of those at his place...

HA!

Give Mike a shout and tell'um Tom and Tony sent ya...

Mike Franze - Mike has parts for 850’s, 124’s and X1/9’s! Just CALL FIRST!

mike@mktoys.net 661-904-5198
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Many "brands" of wheels are actually made by the same manufacturer. At one time there were only a handful of wheel manufacturers, despite the hundreds of "brands" on the market. In more recent times many small 'niche' makers have developed, mostly due to better manufacturing processes like CNC machines. And with the more "globalization" of markets in general there are more makers from around the world doing the actual manufacturing, where at one time that wasn't feasible. So it is very understandable that these wheels were sold by different names from different companies, despite being the same wheel.

About 8-10 years ago I had a friend (actually a friend of a friend) that decided he wanted to get into the wheel making market by offering his own designs with what he thought was a unique finish - actual platinum (ya, the ultra expensive metal used for jewelry). So he invested a HUGE sum in giant CNC machines and plating equipment and set out making his own wheels. Naturally the manufacturing cost was astronomical per wheel. The plan was to market the 'rich boys' with more money than brains driving super exotic cars. Lost everything. Unfortunately polished platinum looks just like chrome. :oops:
Click to expand...

Hey Doc, (Jay)...

I can't find the history of the TWO men that combined their names to come up with the "AN-SEN" brand but do remember they were indeed ACQUIRED by A/R, or American Racing, or simply American Mags or Wheels. I believe they bought out Ansen to primarily acquire the ever popular Ansen Sprint wheels used on the street as well in drag racing. They probably phased out all the others (such as mine) that were not such a big seller.

They did, and STILL DO... use the Ansen name to describe this style of wheel... the American Racing Ansen Sprint Wheel. This is just ONE posting of many I found, from Summit Racing.

American Racing VNA695765 - American Racing VNA69 Ansen Sprint Polished Wheels


Wheel, Ansen Sprint, Aluminum, Polished, Part Number: ARE-VNA695765, 15 in. x 7 in., 5 x 4.50 in. Bolt Circle, 4.00 in. Backspace, Each $150.99

We're always learnin', huh!
 
Greg (in Conn) said:
Just to close it out..https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/lou-senter/

and back to the American Racing catalogs 1978 + 1979 ;)

View attachment 29640 View attachment 29641
Click to expand...

Greg...

Great to hear from you and THANKS!

I only could remember bits about ANSEN and this article covered it all!

I never knew the "style" of my wheel even had a name... Ansen Spectors!

Lets see now... it took me 15 years to discover there was an access panel in the trunk of '79 X1/9s )on forward) and now it took 43 years to discover the name of the wheels on my car.

Thank God I know EVERYTHING else I need to in this life as I don't think I have enough time left to discover anything more!

HA!
 
The OP has decided to pass on my set of American Racing Spectors, so they are available at reasonable cost if anyone is interested.
 
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