Among kyusha wheels, there are a select few that stand apart from others, usually because of unique design or construction.  Generally they are the result of new ideas thought to be cutting edge.  When time passes and that new idea never catches on, those designs become extra special.  The Volk C1 may be THE prime example of this, and that puts it in a special class of Kyusha Shoes.

In the late seventies and early eighties, several small players experimented with plastic and composite auto wheels, but Rays Engineering was the first major manufacturer to actually market and sell one.

Kind of…

I’m not sure we can truly call the C1 a composite wheel.  With 3-piece construction, the shell sections were conventional aluminum.  The wheel centre used both aluminum and carbon fibre – bonding a simple carbon fibre sheet over cast aluminum.

Aluminum certainly would have provided the majority of the strength, but you must credit Rays for the effort.  At the time, carbon fibre was basically reserved for high-end motorsports and the aerospace industry.  The way Rays Engineering saw it though, metal was on its way out, and the C1 was heading the future.

The blurb reads…

“Every field, from electronics and information processing to biotechnology, is advancing at almost unbelievable rates.  It’s only natural that the automobile industry, representing as it does a concentration of industrial technologies, should have its share of breakthroughs.  Twin cams, turbo intercoolers, midship, and mechanisms that were once found only in racing cars are now on the spec sheets of ordinary family cars.  In the midst of all this activity and competition, Rays Engineering has taken the time to exam the cars we drive from every aspect, including basic wheel construction.  Our policy is “Consideration of the whole car, with an emphasis on competitiveness.” Advanced functions eliminate unnecessary ornamentation, and the potential for increasingly advanced functions is limitless.  Aluminum and magnesium are already out-of-date as materials become more sophisticated, and the car of the Future must make use of these new materials.  Keeping this in mind, Rays Engineering presents its aluminum/carbon composite material.  State-of-the-art technology and the superb craftsmanship of our artisan spirit now brings the research and performance of racing cars to the streets.”

Rays Engineering was quite proud of the C1… and also of this somewhat wordy blurb they crafted.  It appeared in large-scale on the wheel box, in the small manual/pamphlet that came with the wheels, and even on the wheels themselves.

Wait. “This aluminum wheel…” I smell a contradiction.

I guess even Rays realized that this wasn’t quite a real composite wheel.  Still, I’m not sure there is any other wheel like the C1 period… never mind ones on “Racing Cars.”

Rays used little spaces on the wheel front and back to broadcast its pride in the C1.  Phrases like “CFRP + AL”, “Advanced Technology Design”, and the Rays slogan, “Artisan Spirit, We Are Obstinacy”, are visible on the wheel both front and back. (I’m still not sure how being obstinate is braggable… Japanglish fail?)

And this is there too.  “Super Aero Dynamic Wheel.”

You might be wondering to yourself, “how is a flat dish wheel like this aerodynamic?”

The answer is – with a couple of accessories that even today, look like they’d be good props for a sci-fi film.

Yes the C1 truly is a contender for king of Kyusha Shoes.

It’s easy to miss at a glance, but the small holes drilled in the wheel face are not identical on each wheel.  A set of four includes two pairs of mirror image wheels – specific left and right sides.

An available “Aero Cap” and “Cooling Fin” ring are also asymmetrical and directional.

The cap, is the simpler of the two pieces: a wide flat cover to replace the standard cap.  It barely reaches the vent holes on the wheel face, and covers only the air-tight wheel mounting nuts and hub relief.  Given that, and despite good-looking directional cut outs on the caps face, it likely only functions to reduce drag in comparison to the standard cylindrical centrecap,

The larger Cooling Fin ring though may have real aero effects.  It claims to provide brake cooling, pulling air from behind the wheel face and under the car outwards to either side of the vehicle.

It does so with aggressively ramped, directional blades on it’s back side that pull air through the narrow gap between the wheel centre section and the outer shells.  The piece is quite fantastic looking, both front side and back.

As noted earlier, the C1 wheel debuted in 1985, and available to pair with it, was a carbon fibre steering wheel that carried the same name.  Like the wheel, it also had an add-on accessory.  The steering wheel got a soft foam centre cover and horn button dubbed a “Safety Pad”.

As you would expect, both items commanded a fair bit of yen relative to other products.  Sales may not have met expectation, or other issues may have been realized. It appears that production only lasted for one year.  That makes both C1 products an ultra-rare find today.  The carbon fibre face of the wheels though, often does not age well, suffering rock chips, cracking and peeling.  Finding a set like the one pictured here is a huge challenge.  Many thanks to Pontus in Sweden for sharing!

So while the wording claimed that aluminum and magnesium were “out of date”.  It didn’t take long at all for Rays Engineering to return to aluminum.  Leaving composite behind, they turned focus to new construction and forging techniques for metal wheels.  Now, three decades later they have not returned to composite wheels and instead are wildly viewed as the master of aluminum wheel forging.  They have left other (probably lesser) wheel builders to experiment with alternate materials.

Perhaps now, some of those other builders think they have composite wheels mastered… maybe sometime in the future someone actually will produce a composite wheel that can compete with aluminum in all regards.  In the meantime, I think Rays Volk C1 is as close as we’re going to get… even if it is more than 30 years old.

Again, many thanks to Pontus Ekman of Sweden, for sharing this beautiful set of never mounted C1’s with us! Boxes and all, this is perhaps the most jaw-dropping shoe find we’ve ever seen.

When I saw this advertisement in a 1986 Parts Catalog, I thought it was one of the most beautiful wheel ads ever.  A visually striking aero wheel, splashing water, the bb Auto brand that was always a bit of a mystery… and some of the most difficult to translate/poetic Japanese I have ever read.

My liberal translation reads…

Differentiate the moment.

Beauty.
It subdues all.

Beauty.
It makes anything fascinating.

It is a beauty you fall in love with, and the car steals your soul.

Go, Turn, Stop.
bb wheels accentuate every moment with the car.

When the two arrows slowly turn, the beautiful design and rotating look takes people’s breath away. The wheels quiet, hidden power is awoken. Aero fins draw a radial arch, pulling air away from the body. Brake cooling & aerodynamics improvement, show extremely good performance. Furthermore, a lean, athletic design offers compatibility with both rigidity and light weight.

Tremendous function is hiding behind the beauty all the time, reticent, as it should be. As great as the beauty is, we miss that the function is a greater beauty on its own.

Beauty is certainly a subjective term… and eighties standards of beauty don’t necessarily apply anymore, but the bb wheels have a unique simplicity that makes them highly sought after today. “bb” also sometimes known as Buchmann’s, was a German coach-builder/tuner that started operation in 1974, and did all sorts of really awesome stuff before formally closing up shop in 1986.

Really awesome stuff?

How about putting a Porsche 928 front end on a 930?  Yes that’s cool… especially since no one had put an Odyssey front end on an S13 by that time.

“bb” was more than cosmetics though.  They specialized in adding luxury and performance to German cars.  Things like back seat refrigerators, and telephones in the dash. They were also, notably, probably the first to engineer keyless entry, and electronic steering wheel controls: two great things that “bb” gave basically every car owner today.

And to you and me, Mr. Buchmann gave the “bb” aero wheel. Or is it the arrow wheel?

In Japanese catalogs, the wheel generally appears simply as the “bb Auto bb” or the “Buchmann’s bb”.   There is no mention of the word “arrow.” If you want people in English to know what you are talking about however, you best call them “bb Arrow” wheels, as that seems to be what they are best known as.

By my records, 1986 is the year they appeared in Japan, and that is a bit surprising since 1986 is also the year that “bb” in Germany closed it’s doors.  If the German “bb Auto” was no longer operating, I’m a bit confused about what bb Auto in Tokyo was doing in 1986 and beyond.  Perhaps Mr. Buchmann saw the power of the Japanese Wheel League and wanted so badly to be a member that he gave up on Porsche, luxury, and actual automotive inventions to pursue wheel heroism.

The wheel though, or one of similar design, did come equipped on the bb Porsche Targa Turbo White 8 years earlier in 1978, and some source say the design itself was on the table in 1974 when brothers Rainer and Dieter Buchmann launched the company.  The ‘bb’ may very well be the very first single element asymmetrical aero wheel. It wasn’t until 1975 even, when aero covers began life in racing, fit to cars like the Group 5 Porsche 935.

The origin earliest productions of these wheels is unknown, but from 1986 to at least 1988, the wheels were manufactured in Japan, and came with the critical JWL and VIA certifications.  They were however, sadly not available in the 16 9J and 16 10J sizes that the bb Turbo Targa White wore in 1978.  6.5J is the max, though they did come in relatively large for the time diameters of 16 inch, and with a good variety of PCD… although not the Porsche friendly 5H PCD130.

It’s a mystery as to who did the actual casting, but it doesn’t seem like it was any of the major Japanese players. If I’ve seen an inspection sticker like this before on another wheel, I can’t remember it.

In terms of construction, the wheels are also unique in that the arrows on the wheel face are removable, each being secured by two studs that fit through the aluminum face and secured by a nut behind.  Thanks to Jason for sending in these pics.

Given its history, and seemingly very limited production the “bb” is a premium find today.  Perhaps because of the brands association with German cars, the bb wheel seems to be more common in Europe or North America, than it is in Japan where I would place it in the ultra-rare category.