Ansen slots. When did they come about?

If you had checked my earlier post, you will see that I mentioned that Ansen made 16s - notably 16 x 10 and this was an answer to a question I posed to some guy by the name of Louie Senter when we were going through old photos at his home four years ago. There was a pair sold last month on 'that auction site'.

 

We could do a short thread on the evolution of the Oddy car, Halibrands no lettering, Halibrands with lettering then the '67 Hot Rod article with the nose dropped and the cragars, ect etc.

 

AWESOME!
I've been buying 14's just for this purpose!
Oops... There goes the decent priced 14's....

 

Here it is, word for word, I added the italics.

"Really rare but Ansen also made 16s - that straight from the proverbial horse's mouth - Louie Senter...."

Also, you will note the ribs around the holes in the color photo of Oddys car.

 

Wow your Maverick looks nice. Props to you!

 

Thanks man! It's a 29000 mile original V8 car. O/T, but I love the goofy thing! Newest car in my fleet by far, ever!

 

You beat me to it....

 

US mags had 5 screw caps...I still have some...So were Shelby brand slots....

 

Oddy's car is about a mile and a half from my house, the current owner Johnny knows everything about it. He also talks to Jim just about every week, maybe I should get him to answer the question of what they are. I can take it if I'm wrong,no big deal here, I'll still sleep at night.

 

Just talked to John and he called Oddy to make sure, they were Halibrands before the chop on the car. He did say he had a set of 3.5 Ansens though, so two things setteled and I'll still sleep well.

 

Glad to know I am not the only whack-job who is kept up nights pondering questions like these! Sometimes I find myself getting out of bed at 1 in the morning to dig out an old magazine, just so I can let some question that has been bugging me go and get some sleep!

 

The lip around the windows is just the easiest way to tell halibrands from ansens, not the only way. the slots are shaped differently too. The early "kidney bean" halis have smaller, more rounded windows than the Ansens, and the later ones like in the photo of Oddys car, are larger and "squarer" than the windows in the ansens. The Ansen window seems to fall in between them in size and shape. The running changes made to the halis add to the confusion. At least the Ansens pretty much retained the same appearance over the years. The Fentons dont look anything like the early kidney-bean skinny halibrands to my eye, as the halis are more "dished" across the face of the wheel than the Fenton Gyros. Nothing says "early seventies" like a pair of Gyros, to me at least.
Funny thing is, Wheel Vintiques (heres a link) http://wheelvintiques.myshopify.com/products/gasser-alloy-cast-02-series
makes an at least passable skinny kidney-bean hali copy, but you hardly ever see them, everybody seems to prefer gyros or faux spindle-mount spokers with the wrong number of spokes for thier "gasser". But I digress...

 

My truck has the Shelby center caps on the front. Never looked for ID on the slots I have. The rears are wide 15x8, 15x6 on the front I think.

I always likes slots, but for some reason I don't like them on my truck...

Matt

 

My old C/Gas '55 with polished Ansen Sprints ,,15 x 10's w' M&H slicks on the rear ,,15 x 4's w' 560 x 15 VW Mitchilins on the front,,,,i've had several Ansen Sprints over the last 40 years or so ,,never saw any with the 5 screw on caps ,,,mine all came with pop in caps from the inside ,,metal ones in the '60's ,,plastic ones in later years ,,

 

I just mounted a set on my '61 Suburban, and I'm probably going to find some for the '73 Duster when it gets to that point.
Boy Wonder is going to get the lowered/shaker-hooded '01 Dodge Dakota, and he wants to paint it suede black and mount 5-slots on it.
Truly a timeless design!

-Brad

 

this is a set of ET's LOVE the look of slots!!!!

 

i has a set of uber rare ones! largest you could get!

thats right 16.5x9.75! i think there are wider ones though for the 15's

also ironically i just scored a set of the smallest you could get! 13's! skinny fronts and wide rears!

 

These rims have been on my car since 1968, US Indy 15x8.5. The center caps are still the original ones. [not in picture]

 

Damn, that looks good.

 

Thank You George !! "Trouble"

 

I've owned a couple pairs of 16x10 Ansens. I just picked these up and they appear to be 16x11. Back space is 4.5", front space is 6.5" and the hub area is about 3/4" thick.

 

NICE they look good with the 11.75 slick the the that combo gives it a great side bulge NICE !!!!!

 

my ansen sprints 15 x8.5 have a place to screw in the caps, but the 15x4s do not, you need a set that pushes through...

i do not know who sells reproductions caps, ive been looking for original ones with no luck, but i havent been looking that hard i guess..

 

I worked with Louie Senter (the Sen in Ansen) a few years back and he told me 1963

 

Ok, for my money this is definitive. This is the ad from November '67 Hot Rod. I also looked at October '67, and the other issues back to early '66, Ansen advertised in EVERY issue, no mention of the Sprint. Also note the wording in the attached ad, "Ansen launches stage II the sprint." Pretty clear, these wheels came to market in Nov. '67. Considering magazine lead times, its POSSIBLE they may have been available a month or two earlier, but I would think they probably had the ad copy ready before the wheels would come to market, and timed it accordingly. I also found an ad introducing 14" sizes in June '68.

The "Nite Rim" referred to in the ad is the five-spoke.

 

Just a suggestion, as '63 keeps coming up, but doesn't seem to jive with any of their advertising. Maybe '63 is when he STARTED working on designing a 1-piece, cast aluminum, slotted wheel, and it took 4 years to come to the market? Doesnt seem unreasonable.

 

Don't know. I didn't question it at the time. We were just talking about wheels and that is what he said. It appears that he has quoted that to others over the years as well.

 

Back then there was a fog but it wasn't the fog of time. maybe the fog of the time.

I'm going to guess and this is just a guess that it is going to be pretty hard to find an ad for Ansen Sprints prior to say '66 or '67 if you don't have a magazine or wheel catalog earlier than that.

Slots became real popular in the later 60s and earlier '70s with the van craze. Doesn't mean that no one produced them prior to that. its kind of like acid didn't become popular until the '60s but it was around in the '30s. I guess that brings us back to my first point being "the fog of the time."

 

I bought my first set in 1969,, so pretty sure they came out before then

 

Hmmm. Ok, so you operate this company making widgets. You take an ad every month in THE industry oracle, pay big bucks for it, and you have come up with this brand new widget but you dont bother to mention it in you ads, that you are already running and paying for advertising other products, for FOUR YEARS? Does that really sound plausible? Rhetorical question...