Center line wheels??
 

What year did Center line wheels appear on drag cars?
The wheel I'm asking about is the drag satin Center line wheels.

Thanks
Bernhard

I’ll take a stab and say 77?

I bought a set of these for my Super Stock Chevelle in 1974. They were a fairly new deal at that time.

I think they started up in 72.

I have these on my 68 El Camino. I am not sure if all of the very early ones had these caps that were held on with allen head beveled screws or not. 15 x 10 in rear and 15 x 8 in front.

They closed the doors in April of this year. Corona, California-based wheel manufacturer, Design Infini, acquired the Center Line brand and associated intellectual property.

I believe these are the wheels we are referring to? Very light weight with a brushed finish, needed to be handled with care. I agree with Lynn, 1972 sounds right. Didn't Cragar come along with their own version a little later? Street versions came later also.

Those are Cragar Super Tricks on the wagon and they came out before the Centerlines. Not sure when centerlines came out exactly but really started to gain fame mid 70's. As stated above approx 1974. I don't think they were around in 1972.

I wouldn't be surprised either way; 72 or 74. I know they moved into a new facility in 74, but think they had been producing wheels on a smaller scale befor that. Could be wrong. Lots of fuzzy memories. But, I think those smooth ones (without the exposed rivets) slightly pre-date the "auto drag" with the exposed rivets.

The early ones have both ford and chevy bolt patterns, designed to use beveled lug nuts. Because of the larger center caps, the dual pattern and standard type beveled lug nuts did not show. The later ones (dubbed "auto drag") use the shank type lug, and a small push on cap.

I have auto drags on the Z.

I ran them on a few cars in the late ‘70s through 1990.

Like Lynn said, fuzzy memories!! As soon as I read this I remembered mine in fact were Cragar S/T. Very sorry for the confusion.

The light weight aluminum Cragar Super Tricks were out well before Centerlines and were the popular race wheel from the late 60's through the 1970's. Cragar then released the Super Street Trick which were the steel chrome version with the bolts. I was never fond of those as they looked cheap.

As stated above, Centerline Auto Drags would have been around 1974 and quickly became the hot wheel throughout the latter half of the 70's and into the 80's. I still like the auto drags best of all the solid wheels.

https://image.ibb.co/b0vPf6/001_Kym_...SS_Seattle.jpg
Drag Pic with Cragar Super Tricks 1974

https://image.ibb.co/ki4mSm/IMG_7165.jpg
Same car today with Auto Drags

Those are the wheels.
This was the wheel in the late 70's and early 80's.
This is the wheel we ran at the drag strip and on the street. (Not for a daily driver!)
My friend had one 15 X 4 develop a leak around a rivet of one of the rims. The speed shop was nice enough to replaced the wheel, and never had a problem after.
The wheels have lasted from the early 1980's to 2015 and may be going back on his car after the frame off is completed.
We are trying to find out if they fit the day two mould as well as the early drag car mould?
We have been searching the internet for information but have not been able to get a release date.
I totally agree handle with care. We did not flat tow with these rims and street miles were always with eye open for pot holes.
The car was set up for the strip so carving corners was never a concern as in rim side loading.
Thanks again for all reply's

Bernhard

Love those wheels on your Camaro what sizes and can you still get those new?

Can't buy either of these wheels any longer. As Lynn stated, Centerline closed their doors in April and only some of the assets were picked up by another company who were only interested in the newer lines of wheels. No more Auto Drags or Convo Pro wheels.

Cragar stopped making the Super Tricks decades ago. Best bet is to try and find a good used set like I did. Scour eBay and CL but know that they have already started climbing in costs since many people are hanging onto them now.

Look on Facebook too.
Some one brought a car home with a set of 4 in the trunk.He didn't want them and took a cell phone pic and advertised em for $100.....22 minutes later they were sold.
Things happen real fast on FB today.

I am not a Pro Stock historian, so please correct me if necessary. I would think that Grumpy would have had the latest in Cragar wheels on his cars. His second gen. Camaros had S/S wheels which would have carried through the '71 race season? When he debuted the Vega it had S/Ts which would have been the '72 Pomona Winternationals? If this is fact it would pin point S/T introduction as late '71 to early '72. Any other opinions?

Yes, From what Ive been told, Bill got the very 1st pair of Cragar's spun aluminum rim's and ran them on the front of Grumpys ToyVIII (70 Split bumper Car)

Jenkins 70 Camaro did have the Super Trick Wheels on the front at some point 1971 or so. Like you I'm thinking late 1971 the front runners were available.

Good info on the Cragar S/T's and likely accurate. The original owner of my green Z added them to his car in 1972 by looks of the pictures I have and I do know that he ran Cragar SS from 69 through 71. Likely added the S/T's just after they came out.

I saw a Centerline ad in Chevy Action 1976 and it said to the effect the latest drag wheel on the strip. Did not see any Centerline ads prior to 1976 in any of my magazines.

I would say the Auto Drags out in '75 sometime...but really did not gain a following until 1977-78 or so and that is when I started to notice their ads in all the magazines.

Definitely not an early 70's wheel.

I went through a bunch of magazines last night and did not see any Centerline Auto Drags on cars until about 78 and it was the Pro Street cars which wore them..

Oh what a happy day when I got my C-lines! That was around 1980. I had to buy them one wheel at a time. I had a minimum wage job at 18. Tarp and wood seen in foreground was dad's firewood. He made me park my car in the back lot of the farm so, as he said, he didn't have to look at my car. Guess you can understand my folks were less than thrilled with my obsession?:dunno: My other blue (special paint) SS back in the day. Yep still have it and going to sell it.

I have a set of the Centerline Auto Drags on my 79 Z28. 15x3.5 on the front 15x8.5 on the rear. I still can't believe the company that took over Centerline didn't want to run them.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cll-055351547


https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4423/...a3427b5b_z.jpg

Did you leave out the word "not"? As in not going to sell it? BTW what color blue was the car?

If you're talking about Cragar Super Trick's, they fit the day 2 theme pretty well. They came out i'd say late 70 or 71. As stated by another member, there was a street version (SST) and they were not that good looking (in my opinon)/popular compared to the very popular S/S wheels. Gold Super Tricks are really cool, would love to have a set for my Chevelle.

Centerline Auto drag's are what I call day 3, they came out mid 70s and became popular late 70s, they are more 80s style than 70s.

No, I think I am going to get it ready to sell. I don’t have the time, money nor energy to fix up this car.

This car is Lemans Blue, ( black HT)which in itself, was not a special paint. The reason it is special paint is that it was ordered with a black vinyl top, which, by default, dictated it should have black D90 striping. The OP wanted white D90, so it then became a special paint car.

From my perspective, I would agree that the CL s are not a day II look. Late 70s ushered in gold Morosos, centerlines, tubbing and braided lines. None of which i would characterize as day II .

Well said I see them as a very late 70's early 80's wheel also. Scott Sullivan Nova which won 79 Street machine Nats top award and Hot Rods car of the year was wearing Cragar Super Tricks.

For what it's worth, American Racing Outlaw Is are basically the same wheel with a different center cap.

Similar look, but I think the Americans are a heavier 1-pc cast wheel, not a lightweight race wheel like the centerline auto drag.

I beg to differ. While there have been numerous copycat attempts of the original Centerline wheel over the years...the "Spun Aluminum" design has never been equaled or matched. IMHO, there's only ever been one Centerline auto drag wheel, and all copy attempts have really missed the mark? Probably due to a patent on the original design. :worship:

https://image.ibb.co/mVm95G/IMG_7229.jpg

I do see the differences now. They're a cheaper alternative if you're on a budget (because used Centerlines are like $800, vs. $400 for the ARs), but yeah, the real McCoy is better.

With all due respect, the Centerline is not a spun aluminum wheel. In fact , that is what “ revolutionized” it from it’s Cragar counterpart. It is a forged stamped wheel and its advantage over the “trick” wheel is that the CL has equal metal thickness over the entire stamping and stronger being forged along with the stronger alloy used over itsCragar counterpart.

I was told the halves were forged and then spun in order to achieve the smoothed steps. Maybe that was bad info I got on the process? In either case...they're light and they are still the best looking rivet style aluminum rim out there.

Thanks for the education Bentley. :)

Maybe it was the rotary process that led to me being told the forgings were spun before being pressed. I've seen pictures of the 2 story press used to forge the wheels and it was pretty cool. I'm assuming the pictures and the process details below are the technologies that were used for the Auto Drag and Convo Pro designs?


CENTER LINE'S ROTARY FORGED TECHNOLOGY
Patent # 4,936,129

Center Line has designed a rotary forging press, the only one of its kind in the world, to compress a solid billet of aluminum with 4,000 tons of force, at 300 revolutions per minute. Not only does this process rearrange the aluminum molecules, but it also aligns them in a circular pattern thereby adding strength. As a result, the rotary forged wheel has a much tighter grain structure and is significantly lighter weight than a cast wheel which requires greater mass due to its inherent porosity.

1. The aluminum billet is run through the oven and heated to 900 degrees.
https://image.ibb.co/gcOp5G/Forgings.jpg

2. The nearly red-hot billets are transferred from the oven into the rotary forging press.
https://image.ibb.co/ctmyzb/Rotary_Press.jpg

3. Spinning at 300 revolutions per minute, the billet is compressed into the die with 4,000 tons of force. This process forges the aluminum molecules into a tight grain structure arranged in a circular pattern thereby allowing Center Line to build incredibly light-weight, strong wheels.
https://image.ibb.co/jVd0Cw/Spinning.jpg

4. The beginnings of a wheel in its forged state just as it is about to be removed from the rotary forging press.
https://image.ibb.co/kQBLCw/Spinning2.jpg

5. Next, the aluminum forging must be split-spun to form the rim thereby completing the structure of a one-piece rotary forged wheel.
https://image.ibb.co/fOaNsw/Stamping1.jpg

The Cragar “trick” was spun aluminum. And that is why it was stated to not use on the street. It was fine in straight line use, but repetitive turning would pull the lug nuts through the wheel, along with stress cracks and bending or warping the rim. C-lines could run on the street and tubeless, I don’t believe tricks could run tubeless either?
Listen, I am no expert on these wheels. When I was 18, in 1979, I had the dream job of an 18 year old gear head. And that job was working in a speed shop! Between reading catalogs and talking to reps, I picked up what I know. I was a sponge for this information.:scholar:

I was asking about the Centerline wheels.
We started building and racing in the day 3 era.
I had a memory nudge from my brother. The car was flat towed with Centerline wheels. We did have a rivet failure on one of the 15 X 4 rims early on that was replaced by the speed shop.
The rear center line wheels were not raced on because we did not want to drill them for screws so we ran steel rims out back.
So they held up from the early 80's to today seeing tack and street duty.
I would still drive with care as with any dual purpose wheel.

Chevelle sporting Centerlines early 80's

Note that Jenkins used the chrome bolt on center caps on the'70..

I had tricks on my '62 with tubeless tires. Never had a problem. Always held air.

Verne

Attachment 105821

Grady now owns the Cragars and slicks:blush:

Now that was a sweet 62 Verne. I assume you moved it along somewhere...or do you still have it.

Still have it. Replaced the hood, got rid of the roll bar and it's back on the street with an '09.

Verne