Hurst and the GTO
The relationship between George Hurst and Pontiac was firmly established in the early 1960s. Pontiac was the first to offer Hurst's stout three-speed floorshifter, and Estes and Wangers had urged Hurst to develop a four-speed shifter, which he did in 1961. Pontiac immediately put it in their order book. When the GTO arrived in 1964, itwas equipped with the Hurst lever, and every manual gearbox GTO built until 1974 was stirred with a Hurst stick.
When Hurst decided to build aftermarket wheels, he constructed them with the same bulletproof engineering that went into his shifters. In the early 1960s, aftermarket wheels were prone to breakage because in the manufacturers' zeal for light weight or styling, lateral load capabilities were less than adequate, and many wheels failed, often causing accidents. George Hurst chose to build an unbreakable wheel.
Hurst built his wheel center out of forged aluminum alloy with heavy-duty steel rims. The rims featured a load-distributing stabilizer plate welded to the rim, and by riveting and welding the center section to the rim, the wheel was virtually unbreakable. Dubbed The Dazzler by Hurst because of its zinc diachromate coloration, the Hurst wheel could be personal-ized by choosing one of twenty-four different combinations of beauty ring finish, rim bead design and center spoke finish. The Hurst wheel wasn't cheap, priced at $69.50 less lug nuts in the Hurst catalog, but then Hurst was selling safety, construction and styling. The wheels were assigned individual serial numbers for theft protection, and Hurst issued an unconditional guarantee against wheel failure because of faulty design or manufacture.
The Hurst wheel was introduced to the public, tied into the GTO. Because of the Name the Tiger contest conducted by Hurst, Pontiac and Petersen Publications, publishers of Hot Rod and Motor Trend, the GTO was chosen to pace the Motor Trend Riverside 500, and the wheel was introduced at a large press bash in Los Angeles on January 5, 1965, mounted on several GTOs, including one dressed out as the pace car for the race.
Although the wheel was superbly built (it was certified for race use by the NHRA), very handsome and highly advertised by Hurst, the wheel was one of Hurst's few marketing failures.
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