Flash back to the heyday of the Fox Mustang, and you’ll arrive at a time when the latest factory wheel became the hottest upgrade for older pony cars. People dropped their turbines for Pony five-spokes or their 10-holes for the Cobra fan blades. If you want to take a retro trip with your S650 as Ford did with the current FX package, the clever crew at MFW Wheels now offers custom wheels that harken back to that golden era.
The RC1 takes its cues from one of the most recognizable wheels Ford ever put on a Mustang, but it isn’t simply a larger copy of the 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra wheel. MFW Wheels reworked the proportions, added concavity, added a Euro lip, and adapted the design to modern chassis and brake dimensions. On the S650, that means a seven-spoke wheel that looks familiar from across the parking lot but has a different vibe up close.
The idea originated with Jason Cummins’ own ’93 Cobra and an experiment that got far more attention than expected. In 2016, his company, Makers Garage, posted a rendering of an ’87–’93 Mustang GT wearing a potential version of its popular chin splitters for the Fox Mustang and an 18-inch interpretation of the Cobra wheel. The response made it pretty clear which part of the image people actually cared about.
“Back in 2016, our other company, Makers Garage, posted a rendering of an ’87–’93 black GT with a silver composite version of our front chin splitters. The goal was to gauge interest in the splitters, but in that same render I also included an 18-inch version of the ’93 Cobra wheel with a more modern, concave profile,” Cummins recalled. “About 80 comments later, not a single person mentioned the splitter. Every comment was about the wheels.”
Reimagined Classic
That reaction eventually became the RC1, or Reimagined Classic. MFW initially produced the wheel as a flow-formed design, and the response was immediate. Demand for more diameters, widths, and offsets eventually pushed the company toward forged construction, giving Cummins more latitude to build wheels for specific applications rather than trying to make one configuration work everywhere.
“Four years later, we launched a flow-formed version of that wheel, which we called the Reimagined Classic (now RC1), and it took off. We did a pre-order and sold 50 sets on day one,” Cummins said. “As things grew, we started getting more and more requests for different diameters, widths, offsets, and even for us to reimagine other classic wheel designs. To meet those requests and support more custom fitments, moving into forged wheels just made sense.”
That progression also explains why the RC1 is no mere replica with a classic pattern pasted onto a modern barrel. The original Cobra wheel was a 17×7.5-inch design with relatively short spokes, a flat outer ring, and a much flatter face. Cummins wanted to preserve the basic shape while giving it the stance and visual depth that a wider, larger-diameter modern wheel requires.
“The originals are 17×7.5 inches, with a fairly flat profile, shorter spoke length, and a flat outer ring designed to accommodate wheel weights. The Reimagined Classics (RC1s) started as an 18-inch diameter. I introduced a Euro lip, which allowed for a longer spoke length, and then pulled the center section inboard about 32mm to create a more pronounced concave profile,” he explained. “As the spokes were pulled inward, it created a subtle twist that really brings out the complexity of the design in a way the original didn’t. It adds a lot more visual movement and depth while still staying true to the original look.”
Reptilian Inspiration
Cummins’ motivation for changing the original wheel was rooted in his own experience with a ’93 Cobra. He wanted more stance and a larger-diameter wheel, but he didn’t want to lose the identity of the car or make it look like a clone wearing an unrelated aftermarket wheel.
“I own a ’93 Cobra, and though I loved the stock wheels, there was a lot to be desired. I wanted a better stance and modern look of an 18-inch wheel with a concave profile and Euro lip, but I didn’t want to run a completely different wheel and have people assume it was a Cobra clone,” Cummins said. “It’s a common ’93 Cobra owner problem. The first question is always, ‘Is it real?’ and most people go straight to checking the VIN for the D engine code. I wanted people to look at my car and feel something was different, like it just looked better than a standard ’93 Cobra, without immediately knowing why.”
That distinction is important with the RC1. The wheel borrows the visual language of the SVT design, but the larger diameter, longer spokes, Euro lip, and concave center give it its own identity. The layout remains familiar, while the changes in surface geometry make the wheel look considerably more substantial than the original 17-inch piece.
“From a modeling standpoint, this was one of the more challenging wheels I’ve worked on,” Cummins confessed. “Where the spoke transitions into the center cap pocket, there are five different radii that all have to blend perfectly to look natural.”
That attention to the geometry fits with Cummins’ stated goal for MFW Wheels. The company isn’t trying to make every wheel look like a race car wheel, nor is the RC1 intended to win a weight contest against every forged wheel on the market. Its appeal is tied to proportion, fitment, and design continuity.
The design work gets particularly involved around the center of the wheel, where the spokes transition into the center-cap pocket. Those surfaces can look simple in a rendering but become much harder to model once the designer starts blending the different curves into a production-ready forging.
“Our mission isn’t to design the lightest or most extreme wheel. It’s to create designs that feel like they’ve always belonged on the car, like they were meant to be there. Not everything needs to be aggressive or track-inspired. Some things just need to look right and feel right,” he added.
Forward-Thinking Fitment
For the S650, getting the proportions right also meant getting the hardware right. MFW built the application around a 20×10 front and 20×11 rear configuration, with the front wheel measuring 6.88 inches of backspacing and carrying a +35.05 offset. The rear measures 7.97 inches of backspacing with a +50.03 offset.
The S650 version was already in production when MFW introduced the fitment, with the first customer, Becky Beckner, ordering the 20×10/20×11-inch combination for an Adriatic Blue Mustang FX. The forged RC1 is available in 17- through 22-inch diameters, allowing the same basic design to move between Fox Mustangs and newer applications without simply scaling the original wheel up and calling it done.
That flexibility is a big part of why MFW moved into forged wheels in the first place. Different cars need different offsets, widths, and center profiles, and some applications require significantly more engineering than simply changing a wheel’s diameter.
Beyond Mustang
“We can offer just about anything you can imagine, as long as we can source the right forging blank and barrel to achieve the look. A lot of people assume we only offer a design in one fixed fitment or that we’re locked into the exact version we’ve shared, but that’s not the case,” Cummins added. “For example, we’re currently doing a 20-inch RC1 set for a ’23 Maverick. Because of the front wheel-style offset, we had to completely redesign and remodel the wheel specifically for that application. It’s a lot of work, but if there’s an order behind it, we’ll do what it takes to get it right.”
The RC1 may have grown out of a Fox Mustang, but MFW’s custom work now stretches well beyond Ford’s pony car. The company is also working on one-off applications that require different construction methods, center caps, and wheel dimensions.
“We also take on full custom design requests. Right now we’re building an 18-/19-inch, three-piece set for a GN with a custom logo for a twin-turbo LS setup, a two-piece 19-inch version of a ’69 Charger hubcap for a Bullitt replica with a center-lock style cap, and a one-off set for a 2017 GTS Viper.”
For Ford fans, the Fox-inspired FX Package gives the current Mustang a factory connection to the SVT era, while the RC1 takes those familiar design cues and gives them modern width, depth, and fitment. MFW lists the forged 20×10/20×11-inch staggered set at $3,980 in solid or metallic finishes, with RC1 options spanning 17- through 20-inch diameters. If these wheels are your style, check out the MFW Wheels site for more details on RC1 sizing, finishes, and custom fitment options.
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