Wheels of fortune
It seems pretty nuts these days, but back in the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s, there were a huge number of cars of all shapes, sizes and performance levels all launched with one crucial component that was largely identical. Yup, they all had a similar style of wheel.
Now, we don’t mean they all had wheels that were round. No, the pattern on the wheels was largely identical. Can’t imagine that happening today.
The design actually originated in the US, where it was called the Magnum 500 and became famous on numerous muscle cars of the era. It was made by the Motor Wheel Corporation of Lansing, Michigan, which presumably thought all its Christmases had come at once.
The design was emulated in the UK by Rubery Owen & Co Ltd of Darlaston, South Staffordshire. Indeed, the company’s name was used for the wheel design (Rubery Owen-style).
This company was a big name in UK motoring circles, but nevertheless in the same way as the Motor Wheel Corporation, it ended up producing rims for numerous car makers. Blimey, is it 25 December again?
And as we’ll see, the RoStyle/Magnum wheel certainly added a certain presence to any car it adorned.
1. Ford Capri (1969-’74)
Ford was having huge success in the United States with the Mustang, and it wanted to match that success with something of the same ilk but smaller to suit European roads. So, it came up with ‘The Car You Always Promised Yourself’ in the shape of the Capri.
As with the Mustang, buyers lapped it up, wooed by its combination of muscle-car looks and low running costs provided by its Ford Cortina underpinnings. The Cortina oily bits had been developed over a number of years, so were pretty reliable, too.
Ford Capri (cont.)
And as if to enhance the muscle car link still further, Ford came up with a sporty GT model, which had funky-looking RoStyle wheels as standard.
In 1971, Ford also developed a Capri Vista Orange Special, which was based on the GT model and had a boot spoiler, RoStyles and rear window slats. Only 1200 were made.
2. Rover P5B (1967-’73)
The P5 was actually a pretty long-served member of the Rover range, having been launched in 1958. So, when the P5B came along in 1967, it was a bit of a last hurrah for the model, which was looking and feeling pretty long in the tooth.
So, what do car manufacturers typically do when a car is coming to the end of its life? Yup, they throw all the toys at it, plus usually a whacking great engine, which in the case of the P5B was the Buick-designed 3.5-litre V8 that would become synonymous with Rover products over the next couple of decades.
Rover P5B (cont.)
The P5B can been differentiated from lesser models because it has a couple of foglights below the headlamps, the 3.5-litre badge on the boot and, of course, cool-looking RoStyle rims.
If ever a car was designed to make you feel like the Kray brothers while just meandering to the shops, the Rover P5B is that car.
3. MGB (1962-’80)
The Swinging Sixties were in full flow and MG needed a car that would capture the attention of the groovy generation. The old MGA wasn’t going to cut it, so it developed the new MGB, which was actually a mixture of modern thinking and traditional mechanicals.
You see, the MGB ditched the old body-on-frame construction of its predecessor and had a unibody layout, which was aimed at greatly increasing its crash safety.
MGB (cont.)
However, under the bonnet were old B-series engines that had first seen the light of day only a couple of years after the dust had settled from the Second World War.
Still, the car was popular and soldiered on until 1980, and while many owners specced their roadsters and coupés with chrome wire wheels, everyone knows that the coolest examples are the ones fitted with RoStyles…
4. AMC AMX (1968-’70)
Back in 1968, there were only two US-made two-seaters on sale – one was the Chevrolet Corvette and the other was this, the short-lived AMC AMX.
The AMX (short for American Motors Experimental) was a two-seat development of the four-seat Javelin coupe, and featured a number of engine options ranging from a 225hp 4.8-litre V8 up to a 340hp 6.4-litre V8. Performance was pretty startling in the larger-engined model, so gave the Corvette plenty to think about.
AMC AMX (cont.)
You’d think the fact it had muscle car performance with genuine sports car handling would be the best of all worlds but in fact this merely served to confuse both journalists and customers, who couldn't work out what it was supposed to be.
Still, there was one thing everyone could agree on: the chromed Magnum 500 wheels set the styling off a treat.
5. Chevrolet Chevelle (1967-’72)
The second-generation Chevrolet Chevelle was available in loads of body styles, including four-door saloon, two-door drop-top and even an estate, but it’s the two-door coupe we focus on here.
The styling followed the pony car trend of long bonnet and rearward-oriented cabin, and the Chevelle was extra cool because it featured pillarless windows.
Chevrolet Chevelle (cont.)
Engines ranged from a 3.8-litre ‘six’ to a 7.4-litre V8, and of course there was a sporty version – the SS (Supersport), which featured a ‘power scoop’ bonnet and which was available with the Magnum 500/RoStyle wheels. Too cool.
Later cars also had ‘cowl induction’, which was basically a vent that opened in the bonnet to provide extra air. Chevy marketed it as being ‘like a second wind to a distance runner’.
6. Jensen Interceptor (1966-’76)
There really was nothing like the Jensen Interceptor in the UK in the middle of the 1960s.
For a start, it had looks that could simply be described as stand-out, especially with that wraparound rear window, and secondly it had a whacking great V8 engine under the bonnet.
There was no other car that looked or sounded like it.
Jensen Interceptor (cont.)
It was available with manual or automatic gearboxes, and tests of the time reported that it would do 0-60mph in just 7.5 secs, but that it would also do only around 12mpg. Oof.
The car was undoubtedly a long-distance cruiser in the ilk of an Aston Martin, but no Aston has ever been fitted with something as cool as RoStyle wheels, which appeared on the early Interceptors before later cars with larger engines were fitted with alloy rims.
7. Vauxhall Ventora (1972-’76)
The FE-bodied Vauxhall Ventora was designed to make you feel a bit special.
If you had a Vauxhall VX4/90 back in the early 1970s and your neighbour turned up in a Ventora, well, they were definitely doing better than you, because their motor had a full 3.3 litres of six-cylinder silkiness up front.
Vauxhall Ventora (cont.)
All was well with the world inside the Ventora, too, because it had bucket-style front seats, wood veneer on the dashboard, extra gauges including a rev counter and a large centre console between the front seats (in the early ’70s, this was undoubtedly A Good Thing).
The engine was a smooth operator as long as you kept it below 4000rpm, and the handling was safe and secure, although the sheer heft of the engine up front made the Ventora prone to understeer. Still, most buyers would never take it fast enough to find out.
8. Ford Mustang Boss 302 (1969-’70)
Racing improves the breed, or so the saying goes, and the Ford Mustang Boss 302 is a great example.
It was launched as a high-performance smallblock variant with a 5.0-litre V8, a size dictated purely by the fact that Ford wanted to take the car racing in the Trans Am series, which stipulated a maximum engine size of 5.0 litres.
Ford Mustang Boss 302 (cont.)
The design was undertaken in secret, and the name came about when designer Larry Shinoda was asked what he was doing and replied: “Working on the boss’s car.”
The car also featured lowered and stiffened suspension, front disc brakes and various aerodynamic addenda. Oh, and of course, Magnum 500 wheels, which instantly made it faster. Maybe.
9. Mini 1275 GT (1969-’80)
It was a bit of a shock when British Leyland executives pulled the covers off the Mini 1275 GT back in 1969, because it looked significantly different from the original car.
The square-edged front end certainly split opinion. Still, it was designed as an eventual replacement for the Mini Cooper ‘S’, so it’s probably just as well it looked different.
Mini 1275 GT (cont.)
Under the bonnet was a 1275cc engine that belted out a thundering 59bhp, but the fact that the entire car weighed roughly the same as a box of teabags meant performance was pretty lively. It was certainly in keeping with the car’s roller-skate handling.
The Clubman was launched at the same time but was always a separate model, so it’s just as well that the GT was marked out by a GT badge on the grille, 1275 GT stripes along the bottom of the doors and, of course, RoStyle wheels.
10. Range Rover (1969-’96)
The name Range Rover has become synonymous with luxury travel, but it wasn’t always that way.
Indeed, the first-generation Range Rover was actually a fairly simple, spartan vehicle, albeit one that felt significantly more plush than the equivalent Land Rovers of the time.
Still, the company got something very right with both the car’s styling and how it was pitched, because it appealed to everyone, most importantly those with more than a few brass farthings to rub together (the Range Rover was launched before decimalisation, wasn’t it).
Range Rover (cont.)
Not only was it a car for all seasons (fashion and climatic), but it was also a car for all reasons, so it was just as adept at chasing sheep across a field as it was pulling up outside a Park Lane hotel, 3.5-litre V8 engine burbling away.
The RoStyle wheels gave the car a simplistic elegance, too, to the extent that a three-door Range Rover looks wrong without them.
11. Sunbeam Rapier H120 (1968-’76)
H120? Sounds more like a chemical compound than anything else. However, if you were to replace ’H120’ with ‘GTI’ you’d have a much clearer idea of what the car actually is.
It had fairly humble beginnings, because it was based on the chassis and running gear from the Hillman Hunter Estate car of the time. However, Sunbeam wanted a coupé model, so the four-seat Rapier was launched, offering a huge glass area and 88bhp from its 1.7-litre engine.
Subeam Rapier H120 (cont.)
It wasn’t nearly quick enough, though, nor did it attract buyers who wanted something sporty, so the H120 was born.
It had a high-lift camshaft, redesigned exhausts and twin Weber carburettors, all of which generated 108bhp. It also had a black grille, a boot spoiler and those all-important RoStyle wheels.
12. Vauxhall Cavalier (1975-’81)
In the early 1970s, Vauxhall could only sit and gnash its teeth as buyers walked straight past its showrooms and into Ford outlets, whereupon they left in a cool-looking Cortina MkIII.
After a few development dead ends, the company settled on building a Vauxhall-badged version of the Ascona from German sister brand Opel. And so the Cavalier came into being, with ‘droop snoot’ front end, and funky RoStyle wheels on mid-level models upwards.
Vauxhall Cavalier (cont.)
The Cavalier also provided buyers with a one-stop shop, no matter what type of car they were after, because it was available as a two- or four-door saloon, a two-door coupé and a three-door Sportshatch.
So not only did it steal sales from the Cortina, but it also pinched potential Ford Capri buyers, too.
13. Ford Cortina (1970-’76)
Ah, Gene Hunt. One of the most memorable cop characters ever.
And it seemed utterly fitting that he hustled around town in Life on Mars, chasing ne’er-do-wells in a bronze Cortina with black vinyl roof.
Very ’70s, and very cool, but we’ll wager he’d have caught even more bad guys if his Cortina had been fitted with super-cool RoStyle rims, instead of the Ford variation.
Ford Cortina (cont.)
RoStyles were fitted to GXL and GT versions of the ‘coke-bottle’ Cortina, which also had the vinyl roof, side rubbing strips and on GT models, a black panel between the tail-lights.
It remains an attractive-looking car to this day. Plenty of people clearly thought so when it was new, too, because it was the UK’s biggest-selling car in 1972.
14. Dodge Charger (1968-’70)
It’s fair to say that when the name Dodge Charger is mentioned, most people will have an image of the second-generation car in their minds (hopefully not with a giant ‘01’ on the side).
The Charger is the epitome of muscle-car style, with long, low looks and two doors. The wide grille and hidden headlights also enhance the mean, moody look.
And the fact that many versions came with Magnum 500 wheels as standard simply enhanced the street-racer style.
Dodge Charger (cont.)
However, the Charger wasn’t actually that successful as a racing car, so Dodge redesigned it and produced the 500 model, which had a flush-fitting grille in place of the recessed one, as well as uncovered headlights.
It also redesigned the rear window to be flush with the roofline, in the interests of aerodynamics.
Thankfully, the Magnum 500 wheels remained.
15. Vauxhall Viva GT (1968-’70)
In the middle of the 1960s, the success of sports saloons such as the Ford Lotus Cortina was such that if you didn’t have a sporting version in your line-up you were nowhere. Even if such models didn’t sell very much, they provided a bright halo for a manufacturer’s range.
So, while the second-generation Vauxhall Viva was entirely capable and worthy, it wasn’t the sort of car to give the adrenalin glands a workout. Until 1968, that is, when the Luton brand launched the Viva GT.
Vauxhall Viva GT (cont.)
This was a two-door saloon with a punchy 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, uprated suspension and various other upgrades.
These included a bonnet with dual air scoops, extra dials, GT badges inside and out, and a deep-dished sports steering wheel.
And, naturally, the essential RoStyle wheels, which completed the purposeful look.
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