That’s not a jab at Ford’s designers, it’s an entirely accurate description of how
Lincoln’s auto artists went about choosing the perfect wheel design for the company’s teaser concept at
next month’s Detroit Auto Show. The rather massive 20-inch wheels feature a five/five spoke design and multiple
finishes, which can either give the impression of five-spoke sportiness or ten-spoke classiness depending on how
they’re configured.
Instead of designing wheels the old fashioned way, Lincoln designers had their top
six designs rapid-prototyped overnight in six-inch scale in order to evaluate what they look like spinning. If you ever
wanted to know how much thought goes into a wheel design, check out an excerpt from Lincoln’s press release after
the jump. We’ve seen a sneak preview of the dubs and we can say for certain that they’re an extremely bold
design for Lincoln, which hasn’t really been known for its wheel design in recent memory.
[Source: Ford]
“The trend in wheels is to make a statement. And these wheels do exactly that. They have a sense of importance, a
presence, that you find on American vehicles,” he says.
To maximize the perception of the
wheels’ size, Gelardi and Mistry used exposed lug nuts on the secondary spokes, allowing the major spokes to
travel uninterrupted from edge to center.
“The sculpted shape of the spoke dives toward the center
of the wheel, adding visual length,” says Gelardi. “This makes the wheel appear deeper and the tire
wider.” says Gelardi.
The five/five spoke design marries luxury and performance in a bi-level
arrangement. Five major spokes are positioned at the outer edge of the wheel and five secondary spokes, having a
different shape, are placed farther back.
This portrays a sense of depth while accommodating multiple
colors and finishes. With five/five spokes, customers have more opportunities to personalize their wheels, choosing
polished or vapor-blasted alloy as well as a variety of colors that would match the vehicle’s body.
Depending on the paint and polish treatment of the spokes, the wheels will appear to have five spokes, giving the car a
sporty, performance attitude. Or they will appear to have 10 spokes, underlining the sedan’s elegance and
grace.
“Using different paints combined with different finishing processes gives you a very
cost-effective way to achieve multiple appearances from one wheel,” Gelardi says.
Says Platto:
“At Lincoln, we’re just as concerned with how a wheel looks when the vehicle is parked as when it is in
motion. We want to make sure our wheel is beautiful in both cases, so we came up with an amazingly simple way to do
that in the studio.”