Aircooled VW South Africa

I have seen folks on the forum talk about the truly South African Rostyle rim.

I mentioned the Rostyle rim to a rooinek buddy of mine and he said he knows them. I thought, yes, that's because he has lived in South Africa. But no, he said...

I do know that in South africa, they don't only appear on ACVWs, but also on Ford Escorts and Ford Cortinas, so not only are they not unique to ACVWs, they are also not unique to South Africa.

Rubery-Owen-style (Rostyle) rims are a British product (Rubery being a suburb of Birmingham, Birmingham being the home of Rover, Land Rover, MG and a host of other British cars) In Britain and Europe, Rostyles have been sold as standard rims on MGs, Truimphs, Land Rovers, Ford Cortinas, Capris, Anglias, Minis, and Opel GTs and Mantas.

I'm sure someone manufactured them under licence in SA somewhere, probably PE, to support the SA motor car industry.

The wheels were manufactured by Guestro Wheels in PE.

They were the suppliers of steel wheel rims to the whole motor industry in SA.

I think what makes our VW rostyles unique, is that we in SA continued using the wide 5 King and link pin suspension long after the rest of the world changed over to 4 hole rims.

If my memory serves me right, rostyles were intoduced on local beetles in 1973 or 1974 when the elephant feet tail lights were first fitted. The first models that had them were the 1600L Beetle.

I may be wrong here but the Ford rims look similar to the Rostyle rim sbut are not the same (PCD and Size)
They are also black and silver

ROstyle rims came out in various PCDs and sizes, and as far as I know, they were all originally black and silver, they also have different numbers of "spokes".

The Ford "Rostyles" only have 4 spokes?
while thr VW rims have 5

Tha's right. MG Rostyles have six spokes, four whole ones and four half ones, gives six, right??

Rostyle was a generic term used to describe any stylised steel wheel where the wheel design did not require the use of a hub cap to finish the wheel off.

The basic finish was a silver rim with black painted center recesses. Center caps carried the car logo in a lot of cases and the wheel nuts were normally a chrome "acorn" type where the the wheel stud was conceiled.

Sometimes a chrome trim ring was fitted.

Rostyle type wheels were popular on British cars, but steel styled wheels were also used on some American and Australian cars.

The standard Rostyle design for 4 stud wheels looked something like this

General Motors designs had the cutouts in a ractangular shape and Ford and Leyland had the cutouts in a bean shape
The rims were all 13 inch diameter with widths from 4J to 6J

Where the South African Beetle Rostyle looked like this.
Standard wheel nuts were used with a plastic cosmetic cap over the head.




The highly sought after Sprintstar design was a variation on the theme. These wheels were distributed by Progress Performance in Johannesburg

The Ford / MG and the VW might share a similar name wheel, but there is very little in common between them. VW rostyles would be closer to US / Euro sprinstars. My eyes might be failing but you can't compare the two, come on.....

I agree, the wide 5 five spoke silver and black VW rostyle is a beautiful rim, and I have collected myself a set to put on my notch, but the point is its a style of rim, in this case Rubery-Owen, and the reason I posted the post was because I was under the incorrect impression that it was a SA rim only, which of course it ain't. Anyway, now I know much more about Rostyles than I did before lunch... thanks.

BTW, I am looking for a set of Cooper tyres 165x15", same as the one in the pic of the Rostyle, anyone know where they can be had?

Me 2

Wiki say thus: (but they don't mention SA or VW for that matter, maybe our rims are in fact not rostyles??!??)

Rostyle wheels are a notable design of wheels for cars made by the British firm of Rubery Owen, a diversified industrial company which made many car parts. The wheels had an unusual pressed steel form to imitate the few ribs of mag wheels at the time, but were painted black (or perhaps body color) and aluminium. They were designed to do without hubcaps or wheel covers, and were especially popular during the 1960s and 70s.

The firms MG and Rover, amongst other British sporty cars in the 1960s often specified these wheels as original equipment instead of ones made of light alloy (aluminium or magnesium) or wire wheels. Rostyle also made chromium plated wheels for Jensen, Rover and, famously, the Ford Cortina 1600E, originally designed for Ford Chairman Len Crossland's wife.

They were made in Britain, as well as under license in Germany and Argentina. The Rostyle wheels had a metal label in the center with the emblem of the car company on it. Today, special masks must be made to paint the wheels of restored cars to resemble the original.

Max Sinclair, the sales manager for Rubery Owen in the 1960 to 1980 period has stated that "We changed the face of motoring, and Mag wheels followed us as their reliability improved."

I apologise i advance if we are off on a tangent.

Cooper tyres are not available anymore.

I have called around and can find Kumho 165x15's for R730 (inc) ea. But they are in short supply. My sources tell me that a container with some 165x15 Kumho's will be docking in the next 3 weeks.

Hankooks are available at R820 ea - 6 in stock at 13.45 today.

BTW, be careful of the Coopers - they are bastards on a wet road and make for a very religious driving experience.

The VW Beetle Rosstyles are a SA thing only.They were only produced in SA and were called Rosstyles.

They were actually called "Rosstyle Look".But eventually that "look" fell away,and Rosstyle stuck.