Top Gear’s Top 9: throwback wheels on new cars

Obviously a retro car will suit retro wheels. We’ll see that again later in a more… American application. But the same goes for a cutesy little Euro town car. The 1975 Edition pays tribute to the year the original Cinquecento launched, and basically got Italy motoring. Just need a set of whitewall tyres to finish it off. 

Revealed just this week, McLaren’s slapped a set of F1 GTR-inspired five-spoke rims on a 720S. Such a simple design of spoke and hub shouldn’t really work on a such a furiously aero-honed supercar, and yet…

You try to redesign the classic Fuchs wheel at your peril. Porsche’s own attempt with the limited edition 997 Sport Classic was a fine effort, though. Not cartoonishly big or overdone, yet still purposeful and well, downright cool. 

These fabulous monobloc rims aren’t available for UK-spec GT 4drs, which is a travesty. They pay homage to some of the most iconic rims fitted to badass Mercs in the Eighties and Nineties, and suit the burly Panamera rival to a tee. To heck with the unsprung weight.

Choose the middle-of-the-range Alpine A110 spec, otherwise known as the ‘Legende’, and it’ll arrive rolling on a gorgeous set of 18-inch rims which pay homage to the wheels worn by the original Alpine A110 back in the 1960s. They’re a refreshing change from spindly diamond-cut spokes, and like the rest of the Alpine A110, show just how mouth-watering retro design can be, when it’s tasteful, not caricature. 

Steelies. White-painted steelies. Need we say more? The perfect no-bull antidote to an Evoque Cabriolet modified by a dubious tuning house.

When Aston wanted to build a new DBS Superleggera to pay tribute to the DBS driven by 007 in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it realised there was nothing on the shelf that accurately represented the old-timer’s wire-spoke wheels. Q brand was deployed on the double to dream up these incredibly fussy but rather captivating modern rims to fit over the DBS’s gigantic ceramic brakes. Forget an ejector seat or machine guns, the main Bond gadget this car needs is an AKAS - Automatic Kerb Avoidance System.

Ford’s tribute act to the greatest car chase in a boring film drips with attention to detail. From the Highland Green paintwork to the thin slither of chrome that adds an air of menace to its front grille, the Bullitt Mustang is possibly the prettiest modern muscle car. And it’s all set off beautifully by the simple but elegant five-spoke wheels, which dwarf the originals. Mind you, the new version would catch that pesky Charger before the director even shouted ‘action’.  

Alfa’s teledial wheels aren’t as old as you might think – they became an instant icon when they featured on the 156 in the mid 1990s. Thanks to continual reinterpretations on the 8C, Brera, 4C and even the Stelvio SUV, they’ve become alloy wheel hall of famers. The new, ultra-dishy version as seen on the 523bhp Giulia Quadrifoglio GTAm might just be the most outrageous yet.