The Bridgestone Potenza R.A.P., despite all appearances, is one of the more unique wheels listed on this site. To the eye, it is nothing more than a run of the mill steel wheel with a heavy coat of white paint. On the scale, it is a full on race wheel.

Born in 1984, the concept was for an affordable competition wheel. Considering gymkhana and rally regulations, sizing options were mild at best with 6″ being the maximum width. While the wheel appeared identical in design to many factory steel wheels, it was in fact aluminum. Who even thought an aluminum wheel should be constructed this way?

The barrel was a standard aluminum barrel, but the center was formed from aluminium plate and welded in place. In 1985, the result was a very light wheel for a reasonable price.

Sub 4kg weight for any wheel is something to write home about… never mind for a wheel that cost about 30% less than race wheels from other brands at the time. Thirteen by 5.5J and 14x6J were the only options however, and white was the only colour.

This original R.A.P. was dubbed the Potenza R.A.P. 038. Decaling on the wheel and center cap read, “Rally Tuned – Ultra Light Wheel,” and it was in fact that. Produced until 1987, the R.A.P. 038 design was revised slightly and named the Potenza Super R.A.P. for 1988.

The two designs are often confused, but this image shows clear differences besides decals and center caps. The revised design allowed weights to come down. Instead of 4 kg fourteen inch wheels, there were 4kg, fifteens. Fifteen was as big as they got though, and 5X100 versions were added to accommodate the host of Subaru and Celica drivers (15 6J +38). Tuner Tommykaira as well, chose to fit the wheels on their M12 March. These came in grey with a unique M12 center cap. Otherwise, all wheels were white although many have now been re-finished in other colours, or even have lips polished.

The wording on the Super Rap is especially outlandish given its mundane appearance.  “Maximum strength and minimum weight.” “Racing Tuned – designed exclusively for racing created.” “Super R.A.P. – created to balance maximum strength & minimum weight for racing.”

Given that there is no differentiation in the Japanese language between “R” and “L” some people refer to the wheel as the “Super Lap” thinking that is likely what Bridgestone intended.  My thought is that Bridgestone is and was an international power house and would have known the difference.  Either way, R is on the wheel and not L. R.A.P. is likely an acronym for something, what exactly though, I’m not sure.

The Super R.A.P. stayed in production until what looks like 1998. Over a decade of production, makes it a fairly common wheel today, although both uniqueness and lightweight make demand high.  Nice complete sets of either wheel will often sell in Japan for as much as 90000円。Quite commonly lesser examples go for half or even one-third of that price, but for 6J or narrower wheels that can still feel like a pretty price!

More than ten years ago, I stumbled upon my first Walter Wolf Racing wheel. At the time, I was browsing on an obscure Japanese message board. The wheel was fit to an AE86. Given the amount of weird romaji and Japanglish on the faces and center caps of other Japanese wheels, “Walter Wolf Racing” was easy to ignore. I remarked to myself that the wheels were cool, but never bothered to look deeper into it to see if there was real meaning behind the words.

It wasn’t until I aged and grew into motorsports a bit more, that I realized the existence of a seventies Formula 1 team that shared the same name. Then in 2013 I came across the name again. This time it wasn’t in relationship to wheels or motorsports at all though. Instead it was on my evening news.

Could the Walter Wolf attached to Walter Wolf Racing be the same Walter Wolf wanted by Interpol with a rumoured bounty on his head? Yes, they are one and the same. That’s one clue that there is a pretty interesting story that may go along with these wheels.

The allegations of arms brokering, bribery and organized crime that landed him on Interpol’s wanted list aren’t the only interesting part though. Walter Wolf seems like he would better fit a James Bond film, than the ranch he resides at near Kamploops BC. Nevermind that that ranch is 7000 acres large. Walter Wolf: the first Canadian to ever own a Formula 1 team, is an international business man who made millions from nothing.

Along the way, he also used his power and often controversial methods to drastically change the political landscape in Canada: campaigning to remove one Prime Minister from office (Clark), and miring another in a scandal that contributed to his demise (Mulroney). He gave racing greats like Frank Williams, Bobby Rahal and Dallara some of their first chances in high level motorsports, and James Hunt his last.

Like Hunt, his exploits with the female gender are well documented. To date he’s had three wives (more than Hunt), and reportedly as good as he is at meeting people, “…there’s not a woman in the world that can say [he] paid her.”

Even at 76 he still gets after it, telling a female journalist in 2012, “Sometimes a woman is so gorgeous that you’re in bed with her, you finish and you think, ‘Jesus, it’s too bad she’s not a cigarette. I would light her up and get rid of her!’ ”

That cigarette may even be Walter Wolf brand. He is such a polarizing figure that more than just cigarette’s and wheels have carried his name. He has his own cologne and sunglasses too… all the tools a man needs.

In 1975 he reportedly bought himself a Countach and told Lamborghini it wasn’t quite as good as he had hoped it would be. Struggling horribly at the time, Lamborghini attempted to coax Wolf into buying the whole company by building him a special edition car with his name attached to it. Three Walter Wolf Countach’s were made with 5.0L engines instead of 4.0’s, flared fenders, upsize aero and Walter Wolf badging complete with Canadian flags. The wheels the Countach’s wore though, disappointingly did not carry the Walter Wolf name themselves. (Canadian Lambos on one spoke wheels!? Oh the sorrow I feel for what could have been!)

To our best knowledge, there are only two wheels that ever did carry the Wolf badge. They are the RA-1 and the RA-2. Both were manufactured and sold by Bridgestone. First the RA-1 in the early eighties, and then the RA-2 shortly after. Both are ultra-rare these days. Like memories of the era they represent, these wheels are quickly fading from existence.

Made by Bridgestone in Japan, Nippon-land is certainly the best place to find these wheels despite their European/Canadian heritage. Given its younger age, the RA-2 is probably the easier find of the two. Both were available with either 114.3 or 100mm PCD, but as far as we know, not in a width greater than 6.5J. The RA-1 does present some interesting opportunities for widening though, being a true three piece wheel wheel, and sharing shells with other Bridgestone wheels of the era (not that finding those is a simple task either).

As for fitment and usage… RA-2’s have been seen on vehicles all around the world from Volkswagen’s to Honda’s to AE86’s. Other than my encounter with some very boroi RA-1’s destined for an AE86 more than a decade ago, I have never seen RA-1’s on a car. Wolf himself reportedly had a thing for “those half-Asian, half-European girls who look like, hell, fine …” so I think we can confidently say he’d be happy to see them on an S30, AW11 or EA Civic. If that car happened to reside in the Okanagan valley in British Columbia… all the better.

お久しぶりです。

I should be apologetic, after all, I’m the guy who more than a year ago now wanted your emails… but I’m only one guy, and you all easily overwhelmed me. If you submitted content, and I didn’t respond, be sure that I checked things out and flagged your contributions for a later update. Perhaps now those updates will commence.

How can I not get riled up seeing stuff like these? These Walter Wolf’s and a couple of other equally impressive finds showed up in my email inbox this morning courtesy of Robbie J.

The size of this example is 14 6J +20, and if you know your wheels, they will look intensely familiar despite being nothing like other Walter Wolf wheels. It seems that what we are looking at is a re-badged Bridgstone Preo, which is a pretty awesome wheel to begin with. Clearly those big square center caps and silver coloured bolts add a lot though!

IMO, it’s pretty rare to see interesting stuff on Ebay.  These Bridgestone FVS Super Raps are currently listed though, and for a pretty decent price all things considered.  Not that many of you are interested in simple steel look wheels… but I think you should be.  Weight for these is less than 4.0KG, which puts the reading on the scale under basically anything, including modern lightweights.

Check the listing out yourself HERE.