Keystone “Cops”

Are you kidding me? I heard something about certain magazines not wanting to run photos of nice muscle cars because they had Keystone mags or Cragar wheels in place of factory rims.

Back in the real muscle car era, when GTOs, Cobras and Super Bees were new, nobody wanted a car with factory wheels. In fact, it wasn’t rare for a car to be driven home from the showroom and have aftermarket wheels mounted the very next day.

The wheels that the factories put on these cars were a lot sexier than the OEM wheels of the ‘50s, but the wheels that companies like Keystone and Cragar sold were sexier yet. And as the muscle car decade marched on, the designs got even better. No one cared if a car made in 1964 was wearing a sets of 1968 Cragar wheels.

So, if collectors of muscle cars truly want to reflect the way that muscle cars were “dressed up” in the ‘60s, they really shouldn’t be too concerned whether a car has factory rims or whether the rims match the vintage of the car. The car hobby used to be about having fun – not about making rules.

The next time a “keystone cop” at a car show reads you the law about factory wheels, ask him the American Graffiti question, “Where were YOU in ’62?”