American Racing Equipment Inc. is a high performance after-market wheel manufacturer started during the American muscle car era.
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"Romeo Palamides, an early drag racing innovator,Grandfather of Jet Racing, designed and crafted leading edge, high strength-to-weight magnesium drag racing wheels for his dragster. It was the early years of hot rodding and street enthusiast interest in the lightweight, higher tech wheels was overwhelming. Romeo's vision, working from Jim Ellison's small machine shop in San Francisco with engineering innovator Tom Griffith, evolved into America's leading aftermarket wheel company. In 1956, they formed American Racing Equipment"(http://www.americanracing.com/company.asp)
Platinum Equity investment group acquired American Racing Equipment Inc in June 2005.[1]
American Racing became famous with the Torq Thrust wheel that, although first applied on the dragstrip, became a popular street racing wheel. The Torq Thrust was specifically designed with a "tapered parabolic contour" spoke, as opposed to a semi-solid modular design, to increase brake cooling and simultaneously decrease wheel mass.
The American Racing Torq Thrust wheel is considered by some as the most famous muscle car wheel of all time[2] and is sometimes credited as starting the entire custom wheel movement.[2]
The Baja was one of American Racing's first aluminum truck wheels and remains a great seller to this day. It is a one piece 8 hole design and comes in either a polished or chrome finish. This wheel is still extremely popular with trucks, Jeeps and other off road type vehicles and is available in many sizes, offsets and lug patterns.
The Libre, sometimes known as the "daisy" wheel, was a 4-lug, 4-spoke wheel popular with sports car racers, often seen on MGB's and Datsun 510's. Each spoke appeared to bulge slightly in the middle, giving the wheel a robust appearance. These were cast in magnesium for racing and in aluminum alloy for street use. American Racing eventually sold the Libre molds to Shelby American, who marketed the Libre under their own name. Some 13" Libres have raised lettering on one spoke reading "SCCA", indicating wheels that were specially made for SCCA's Spec Racer program.
The 200S used the "daisy" spoke of the Libre in a 5-lug, 5-spoke design. The 200S was popular with Corvette owners and street rod builders.
The LeMans was another 4 and 4 design, cast in sizes and fitments for sports cars such as Alfa-Romeo. Each tapered spoke was wider at the hub than at the rim, giving a lightweight appearance similar to Ferrari wheels of the period.
This was AR's take on the 4-lug, 8-spoke British Minilite wheel for sports cars. The main difference was that one side of each spoke was relieved near the hub for lug nut clearance. with the other side of each spoke continuing to the hub circle. These were cast in magnesium for racing and in aluminum alloy for street use.