10 times three-spoke wheels were awesome

Three is the magic number

It’s one of the classic world’s most controversial trends – yep, even more controversial than Porsche’s psychedelic Pasha upholstery or TVR’s chameleon paint schemes. We’re talking about three-spoke wheels.

Love ’em or hate ’em, three-spoke wheels are a thing – or at least they were in the 1980s and 1990s, when you could find them on everything from a Renault 5 to a Range Rover, and every Max Power’d hot hatch near your local McDonald’s.

Read on as we count down 10 modern classics that rocked three-spoke wheels.

1. Saab 900 Turbo

Arguably the most recognisable three-spoke advocate, Saab’s do-it-differently mentality made tri-arm wheels a great match.

Saab started fitting three-spoke wheels to the 900 in the 1980s, and it was still putting them on cars well into the next millennium.

2. Renault 5 Gordini

This early French hot hatch beat the first Volkswagen Golf GTI to market by a couple of months, and some examples were fitted with wheels that looked like they’d been modelled on a reel-to-reel tape deck.

Badged Alpine in mainland Europe and Gordini in the UK (Chrysler had the rights to the Alpine name), it was powered by a 92bhp twin-carb naturally aspirated 1.4, though a 110bhp Turbo version superseded it in 1982.

3. Dodge Viper

The SR1 Viper is surely the toughest car ever to wear a set of three-spokes. The original Dodge Viper’s wheels required gigantic 275mm tyres on the nose, and humungous 335mm boots at the back.

But with a 400bhp V10 and no traction control to save you from it, even tyres that wide couldn’t save a few clumsy, inexperienced drivers from disappearing into the scenery.

4. Vauxhall Nova SR

GM’s warm Nova/Corsa SR supermini (and its hotter GTE/GSi sister) were fitted with a distinctive set of 14in three-spokes – or were they nine spokes?

Either way they were actually optional: standard SR and GTE models came on boring old steels with plastic wheeltrims.

5. Ford Mustang

The fourth-generation ’Stang blended new and old styling cues to keep the pony car fresh in its third decade.

The scalloped flanks were definitely a nod to Mustangs past, but the three-spoke wheels were bang on trend.

6. Ford Probe

Meanwhile, the awkwardly named front-wheel drive coupe Ford had once imagined might replace the Mustang was stepping out on some three-spoke wheels of its own.

But only the boring basic versions, mind. The much tastier V6 model came on five-spoke rims (and looked much the better for it).

7. Range Rover

Like that triangular conservatory on the front of the Louvre, then-trendy three-spoke wheels on a big, bluff and posh Range Rover somehow worked.

And it still works 30 years later – even if the rest of the car doesn’t…

8. Smart Roadster

Smart’s radical rear-engined Roadster and Roadster Coupé were offered with various wheel options, including two – yes, two – sets of three-spokes: basic steel rims or a flashy alloy alternative.

Both looked great, as did the car. But that’s where the fun ended. Sadly, the Smart twins were no fun to drive.

9. Fiesta RS Turbo

The big brother to the Fiesta XR2i, this rapid and unruly 133bhp supermini was short on finesse but as quick as a Cossie when it came to overtaking punch.

Bonnet vents, a fine set of Recaro chairs, a green bumper insert that looked like you’d got tangled in a load of garden twine, and, of course, those classic three-spoke wheels, were all key visual ingredients.

10. Mazda RX-7

For the other cars on our list, going for three-spoke wheels was purely a style statement.

But in the case of late model first-generation RX-7s it was a way to brag about what was going on under the bonnet – the wheel centres were shaped like one of the rotors from the RX-7’s twin-rotor Mazda Wankel engine.