During the 1960s American automakers found new innovative ways to market their cars. One example of this was the introduction of new stylish car wheels. At this time the introduction of American muscle cars and pony, cars wheels took on even more importance. Generally a set of sporty wheels looked much better than the best looking hubcaps or wheel covers. Additionally sporty wheels made a sporty car look even sportier and transformed a mundane car into a more appealing car.

Back in the 1960s, aluminum wheels were in their infancy stage. Very few cars were available with them from the factory, most new car buyers had to buy aluminum wheels in the aftermarket. The Corvette was one of those rare cars with a factory aluminum wheel option. Aluminum wheels were very costly and during this time automakers instead offered steel wheels which could be dressed up to look sporty and could also be painted in different colors or chrome plated to add to their appeal. However aluminum wheels were gaining popularity because they had a modern look and were considerably lighter than steel wheels which made them very popular with performance car owners especially those who used their cars on race tracks where any weight reductions meant better performance.

The Chrysler Corporation found a way to offer a cost effective aluminum wheel for the 1969 model year in some of its Dodge and Plymouth models. It was factory order code W23 and was available in both 15×6-inch and 14×5.5-inch sizes and it had a 5×4.5-inch bolt pattern. This wheel was intended to be offered in several 1969 Dodge and Plymouth models. It was an effort to give these models more sporty appeal especially the muscle car models. The design and production of these wheels was a joint effort between the Chrysler Corporation and Kelsey-Hayes which produced wheels for U.S. Automakers since 1909.

These wheels were marketed by the Chrysler Corporation as aluminum wheels, aluminum center wheels, or aluminum road wheels. However they are more commonly known by their nickname of “warrior wheels”. The center portion of these wheels consisted of aluminum with a polished graphite surface, the outer edge of these centers were riveted to a black steel rim. By having the wheel be a hybrid aluminum and steel wheel it was cost effective. Since these wheels came with a removable trim ring, its steel rim portion was hidden from view and all that was seen was the extremely sporty aluminum center portion which had a beautiful and sporty design consisting of five curved rectangular slots.

These wheels were showcased in some of the 1969 Plymouth and Dodge sales literature and generated a good number of orders. Unfortunately, just as these Warrior Wheel equipped cars arrived at Dodge and Plymouth dealers, Chrysler issued a recall very early in the 1969 model year in September of 1968 mandating that all dealers replace these wheels immediately with other available Dodge and Plymouth wheels. These affected cars could not be purchased by buyers until the wheels were replaced. This was also the case for delivery of factory orders placed by customers, the Warrior Wheels had to be replaced before a buyer could take delivery of a car. The reason for the recall was the wheel had a design flaw which could cause the lug nuts to loosen during driving leading to the complete detachment of the wheel from the vehicle causing a very dangerous situation. Instead of Chrysler working with Kelsey Hayes to come up with a fix and release an updated version of these wheels later-on, it threw in the towel and never offered the W23 Warrior Wheels again.

This was a bad twist of fate since the Warrior Wheels not only were beautiful and sporty but they were a very unique design that would have certainly taken away buyers from Dodge and Plymouth’s competitors. As luck would have it a small number of these Warrior Wheels escaped the crusher and ended up in the hands of Mopar fans. For years these wheels have commanded high prices due to their rarity. Some Mopar owners have bought these for their 1969 Dodge and Plymouths for car show purposes.

Even though these Warrior Wheels make for great collector pieces, the issue still remains of lug nuts loosening while driving, so these wheels are too dangerous to use for driving and thus should be reserved for display purposes only. Several years after the W23 Warrior Wheel fiasco, the Chrysler Corporation would eventually offer aluminum wheels again for its different car brands that were reasonably priced, reliable, and very popular thus making the W23 Warrior Wheel recall a long lost memory for Chrysler.

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