The Cragar Timeline 1930: Cragar founded by Crane Gartz and Harlan Fengler to make automotive cylinder heads. The name Cragar is derived from the first three letters of "Crane" and the first three letters of "Gartz" 1955: Cragar assets are acquired by Roy Richter's Bell Auto Parts Company. 1964: Cragar Equipment Company founded by Roy Richter. 1964: Cragar S/S? Super Sport Wheel introduced and quickly gains a prominent position in the custom wheel industry. 1965: Car with Cragar S/S? wheels wins the Sports Car Division of the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb Race. 1967: Cragar introduces their new Cragar Wheel Care cleaning product, designed to help keep your "Mag" wheels in top shape. 1969: Cragar, Dodge Motor Company and Car Craft Magazine introduce yearlong nationwide contest where a new Dodge automobile with Cragar's Swinger Wheels is to be given away. 1969: Ground is broken on 90,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Compton, CA. 1969: Cragar introduces their new "Cool Blue" Headers. Designed by racers and engineers, these new headers set the standard for maximum performance from a custom exhaust system. The top names in racing including Prudhomme, McEwen, Snow, Nancy, Johnston and Burkhart all turned to Blue Power for maximum horsepower. 1970: Cragar establishes S.A.E. guidelines and specifications for one and two-piece aluminum wheels. 1970: New Super Trick Wheel is introduced. 1970: Cragar S/S? Wheels are used by pace car at the inaugural California 500 at the new Ontario Motor Speedway. 1970: Cragar shocks the competition with the introduction of the new Cragar Super Power Package. This new high performance Distributor and Capacitive Discharge Ignition combination is designed for the strip or street. 1970: A new world land speed record of 622.407 miles per hour is set by Gary Gabelich with his rocket engine powered Blue Flame outfitted with specially designed Cragar wheels. 1971: Tom Shedden succeeds Roy Richter as President of Cragar Equipment Company. 1971: Cragar voted Pro-Stock Sponsor of the Year. 1972: Cragar Five-Second Club founded for first sixteen 'Top Fuel' dragsters that take the 1/4 mile strip in less than six seconds.1972: Tommy Ivo becomes first member of the Five-Second Club. 1972: Cragar is voted Manufacturer of the Year by Car Craft Magazine. 1974: Frank Bradley becomes last of sixteen members of the Five-Second Club. 1974: Cragar equipped cars win 302 of 377 eliminator victories in major NHRA, IHRA and AHRA sanctioned events. 1974: Cragar S/S? Wheels are now used by many amateur and professional custom car exhibitors. 1975: Roy Richter announces semi-retirement. 1975: Cragar founds new Five-Second Club for the 'Funny Car' drivers running the 1/4 mile in under five seconds. 1975: Don Prudhomme becomes first member of the 'Funny Car' Five-Second Club. 1975: Cragar equipped drivers win 22 of 24 drag race World Championships in NHRA, IHRA and AHRA.1978Roy Richter announces retirement. 1981: Tripp Schumake becomes last member of 'Funny Car' Five-Second Club.1984Kenny Bernstein first Funny Car driver to break 260 MPH barrier. 1989: Cragar celebrates its 25th anniversary 1992: Kenny Bernstein becomes first Professional Drag Racer to exceed 300 MPH (at 301.70) in a sanctioned 1/4 mile run. 1996: Kenny Bernstein sets elapsed time record of 4.598 seconds in a 1/4 mile run. 1996: Kenny Bernstein wins Top Fuel Points Championship on Cragar wheels. Is the first person to win both Top Fuel and Funny Car Overall Championships. Both were won on Cragar wheels. 1999: Cragar celebrates its 35th anniversary. 1999: Cragar licenses Weld Racing the rights to produce and distribute Cragar forged aluminum wheels. 1999: Cragar licenses Carlisle Tire and Wheel Co. to produce and distribute Cragar steel wheels including the nostalgia line and wire wheel line. 2000: Cragar finalizes a license with Performance Wheel Outlet to design, develop, market and distribute Cragar one-piece cast aluminum wheels. 2001: Cragar licenses Playing Mantis the rights to include Cragar wheels on a new Cragar series of Johnny Lightning die cast replicas. 2001: Cragar licenses Racing Champions/Ertl to produce a line of Cragar branded 1/18th scale replicas and 1/18th to 1/25th scale model kits, all featuring Cragar wheels. 2002: Cragar licenses Model Rectifier to produce a replacement wheel kit for replica vehicles. 2002: Cragar licenses Georgia Marketing and Promotions to produce replacement wheels for 1/10th through 1/43rd scale die-cast replicas, as well as 1/24 and 1/43rd scale die-cast vehicles with Cragar wheels.
Cragar Supercharger Kit's ..Developed for industrial diesels in the '30s, 71-series GMC Roots-style blowers were adopted by hot rodders in the late '40s. Although Barney Navarro is widely credited as the first to adapt a GMC blower to a flathead Ford V-8, and pioneers like Tom Beatty and Chuck Potvin eventually developed race-oriented manifold and drive kits to bolt 3-71 and 4-71 huffers to a variety of V-8 engines, it was the 1959 introduction of the first complete and widely marketed street-oriented blower kit for the then-relatively new small-block Chevy V-8 by Cragar that made Roots blowers practical for the average hot rodder.
If I am not highly mistaken, the SST wheel was a street version of the Super Trick wheel. The SST was all steel, and thus very HEAVY. Didn't realize Super Tricks were out in '70. Time flies.
I suspect the Street Super Trick (SST) was brought out to discourage people from using Super Tricks on the street - a mate had some on his '74-ish Challenger, and one split around the edge of the centre, where it is formed round into the bead seat. They were pretty thin material, and looked like they were spun-formed? I think they look great, better than Centerlines (I assume Centerlines were 'loosely based on' the S/T?), and being bolted together, could be stripped apart and anodised. However Centerlines were forged and had a thicker section, creating a stronger wheel (IMHO, for the lawyers out there ), and were far better for the street.
Even though they came on the market in '64, to me they look wrong. Probably because I considered them as a "cheap" wheel when I was growing up in the 70s & 80s, for the guys who couldn't afford Centerlines. I'm sure the guys who were around in the early 60s would disagree; but I have heard they were more for the musclcar crowd back then.
I had chrome SST's on a 68 Chevelle back in 1992, looked cool. I seem to recall pics of them on cars in the 80's.
the sst had a chrome steel rim with an aluminum center, but the center was covered with a chrome tin 'cap'. i imagine that was because the aluminum spokes always had problems with the chrome flaking off. they were introduced 'round about 1980 or so...
Beleive me Cragar wheels were never cheap. There were off brand S/S imitations (Rockets etc.) that were crap and looked a litte different. The S/S wheel, at least in Socal were really popular on everything hot rods, street rods, lowriders & muscle cars. The Supertrick wheel was a racing wheel that said on the wheel "not for street use". The SST was a chrome street version that looked kinda tacky I think this is what you were refering to.
Cragars look good on anything american!(see below) I wish I had put them on my 39 poncho instead of torquethrust.....I have a set for the pie wagon already..........point is these ARE american hot rod/custom car history for over 40 years
OK....Cragar bought "star wires" from the weld wire wheel company in the early 80s.in fact I think they bought the whole company and moved it west...changing the name to STAR wires....strong wheel but not popular with the tru-spoke crowd.I would like to find a really nice pair of 14 or 15 by 6 or 7s for back ups on one of my projects
Because of the problem with the chrome flaking and peeling off the aluminum centers, the S/Ss also came with a polished center and the chrome steel rim. They looked good when new, but were hard to keep highly polished.
What about Cragar Sparklers? I don't recall ever having seen a set....that is, besides in a magazine. Anyone have color photos of these?
greatest wire wheel ever, IMO. strong as shit, looks great on just about anything, but kind'a rare and usually when you find them they're in horrible shape. i have 3 nos 15x7 and 5 decent drivers....still looking for that single nos to match up with these.
"The Cragar Timeline 1930: Cragar founded by Crane Gartz and Harlan Fengler to make automotive cylinder heads. The name Cragar is derived from the first three letters of "Crane" and the first three letters of "Gartz"" It could have been worse, they could have named themselves "Fengar"
i brought this up ,because i cant find a set of skinney fronts...( slots ) well not at a decent price. .got a pair of SSTs not really traditional but they will get me by until i can get something older.
Ehh...I just junked a van that had a set. Unfortunately I was unable to save them. Somebody pinched them.
There's more about the early days of Cragar in the Cragar section of this page: http://www.roadsters.com/wheels/ Dave (602) 233-8400 http://www.roadsters.com/