The original
The five-spoke started as a drag wheel. American Racing advertised the flared five-spoke in Hot Rod in December 1959 — cast magnesium, sold to racers who wanted weight off the car, at eighty-eight dollars a corner. The Torq-Thrust name and the formal launch came in 1963, and the wheel turned up under Don Garlits' dragster. By May 1965 there was an aluminum version for the street. Magnesium was light, but it pitted, cracked and corroded, and a casting could carry porosity nobody could see.