Wheel fetish series
In the 70’s, it was still the norm to see cars, factory equipped with steel rims and chrome hubcap.
Those with alloy wheels were either top of the line models or cars from very expensive marques.
Of course, the aftermarket industry saw this as a lucrative opportunity to develop wheels to enhance the performance (by lighter rolling weight), handling (stiffer structure) and looks (sportier design) of the stock automobiles.
One of them, was a wheel manufacturer known as, ATS of Germany.
The alloy wheel they designed and designated as code# 55151, is one of my favorites.
These were fitted on special VW 1303 LS Cabriolet of the 70’s.
1303’s have better suspension utilizing MacPherson struts,
and the ATS alloy wheels made the suspension setup even more responsive.
The VW 1303 was the last of the German made classic air-cooled VW Beetle.
ATS classic wheels were appropriate German made equipment on this classic icon!
1:43 by Paul’s Model Art from my shelf of classic VW’s.
8 comments:
Hi Erwin ,
Wow! What a piece of priceless tresure to behold.
I really salute you because not many of us today would pay such attention into detail & appreciate the art of rims.
Very nice & detail casting from Minichamps & congratul...
PS :I in fact did my comment on your last nite but the network jam & hang half way.
Cheers ,
Kin.
Hi Kin,
Thanks much! I'm so happy when Minichamps did this Beetle with these wheels :-) it is those details which make miniatures more special.
Appreciate the comments :-)
Cheers,
Erwin
Bautifull classic car & rim. PMA made a good work. I say it one more time - love Your photos Erw!
Thanks Marc!
Glad you like the feature and photos :-) Appreciate it!
hi Erwin,
i like these VW more, and of course the wheels set are identical to the real rims set. After all PMA never short cut in producing the models replicating the 1:1 scales and when i first look at the picture and i've thought it's 1:18 scales..haha.
Hello Danielh,
PMA does know how to replicate them well. Their 1:43 are my favorites :-)
Thanks and glad you like the wheels as well.
Cheers!
Erwin
very interesting the ATS approach to PMA.
and very nice the ATS wheeled beetle.
in fact, the simple 5 spokes design is the better for classic cars.
ciao amigo
Hola Amigo!
The ATS wheels is typical of the 5 spoke wheels famous at those times. You're correct very fitting for this vintage of automobiles. Even Ferraris of an era has 5 spoke wheels that are nice to look at.
Gracias!
Erwin
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