The Myth of Poverty Caps

It used to be that you could go to a car show and any muscle car would be replete with mag wheels, whether factory or aftermarket. Then, a trend towards poverty caps started to take hold, with proponents claiming that plenty of performance cars were ordered without an optional wheel, as enthusiasts would then go to his or her local speed shop to slap on aftermarket mags. How true was that? Let’s find out.

Since 1970 is considered the high-water mark of the muscle car era, let’s focus on several mid-size performance cars and learn about the available wheel choices. First up: the Plymouth Road Runner. It was available with a standard hubcap, plus Wire and Deluxe wheel covers. There also were two wheel options: Road Wheel and Rallye wheel. Here’s how they rank in popularity when new. (Note that Plymouth Options & Accessories Report only reflects U.S.-market cars and not total production.)

Let’s move a bit upmarket and focus on the Oldsmobile 4-4-2. Like Plymouth, Oldsmobile offered several hubcaps plus two wheel choices. (Note that the below statistics from the GM Heritage Center is through June 1970, so a month’s production is missing.)

Lastly, let’s note Buick’s hubcap and wheel distribution for the Gran Sport, with the latter two being very similar in design. These numbers, which come from the Sloan Museum of Discovery, include both the 350-powered GS and the GS 455.

The big surprise here is the Buick Gran Sport had the highest percentage of poverty caps—much more than the Plain Jane Plymouth Road Runner. However, when it comes to mag wheels, it seem that, in general, the factory consistently installed a very large percentage of its home-grown wheels. This dispels the myth that aftermarket mags had a big market share among new new performance vehicles. Sure, you statisticians may point out this exercise has not yet produced a statistically significant conclusion, but the trend is there, with only more evaluations needed to solidify or dispel the conclusion.