… are nothing new. (1901 Packard)
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It’s a one horse power open sleigh.
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Technically those are not little sidewalls compared to the width (but I understand what you mean) as the aspect ratio is high compared to a LoPro 45, 40, 35 and lower sidewalls… But it defiantly is a big wheel (rim)…
As I understand it those tires are as tall as they are wide, so a 30 X 3 tire had a 24" wheel
and a 34 X 4 1/2 tire had a 25" wheel… That is a 100 aspect ratio…
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The American Underslung had huge 41 inch tires. Same 100 aspect ratio as the Packard with a 4.5 inch width. So 32 inch wheels.
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Definitely like the spoke wheel look.
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And, if you decide to swap wheels, you don’t have to worry about whether there is enough clearance for the brake drums. There aren’t any!
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And those are a lot better than the wooden spoke’artillery’ wheels, which can shatter if they hit a curb sideways.
The artillery wheels are stronger overall, though. The US didn’t have many paved road in the early 1900s. Not many curbs either so wood wheels were more common on US cars.
Europe had paved Roman roads so their cars more often used the softer riding wire wheels.
The first Ford GT40s used wire wheels but they switched to alloy wheels because they could not carry the heavy cornering loads.
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