When humans invented the wheel, they never realized the revolution they were setting off! And we don’t just mean in terms of changing the whole meaning of the word "transportation." While initially, wheels meant that the hunter-gatherers of yore could take all their belongings, measly or otherwise, from one place to another with relative ease, later, it meant car fans like us would be eventually spoilt for choice. The word "wheel" comes from an old English word that means to revolve or move around. Originally, wheels were made of clay or stone, and it's only in the Bronze Age when the invention of the spoked wheel came to be. Pneumatic tires came much later, of course, and with them came the rims that they were mounted upon.

The origin of the rim happened in the first millennium BC, when an iron rim was introduced around the wooden wheels of the chariots. Nowadays, many metals are used to make rims, mostly alloys made of magnesium and aluminum, and a Teflon or chrome coating is used for an extra layer of protection and style. Back in the day, rims were merely used to provide support to the pneumatic tire, but now, the designs have gone way beyond wack! With more and more cars going for alloy wheels, the rim revolution has taken a life of its own. Here are 25 rims that don't belong on cars or anywhere else for that matter! In case you too are planning on going for some fancy rims, this is what you shouldn't do...

24 What’s Next, A Bicycle On Car Tires?

This pimped-out ride is one crazy one indeed. The car boldly states, “What Next?” and we wholeheartedly agree. If they can hoist up a car on what looks like metallic bike wheels – they can do just about anything. The car seems to have been inspired, in part, by monster trucks, traditional tires being replaced and thicker ones being installed. But the tires used here remind us of the flimsy ones used in hand carriages in third world countries. Or maybe even horse carriage ones. While we do get the fact that a car has to run on wheels and that, logically speaking, any load-bearing wheel can do the trick, we don’t quite get the need. To do this, you first need to rip off the tires that car came with, then majorly change the suspension for the car to be smoothly run on the new wheels. Also, if you install such tires on a car and turn it so high, you’d probably need a ladder to get in and out of the car–and a slip from this height could mean that you yourself might need a new wheel to get around while those broken bones heal. Strange world we live in…

23 When Rims Can Rip A Mustang

Mustangs are beautiful cars–be they any year. And they're beautiful enough to be left alone on the outside since they don’t need any tampering, to begin with. However, according to Ford Muscle, it’s not the same with this unfortunate Mustang. “However, not all wheels are created equal.

This 2009 Redfire Mustang was listed for sale on Craigslist, and it is an unfortunate one. The seller boasts that these wheels really make it stand out.

They stand out alright, but not in a good way. Its propeller-like wheels are not doing this car any favors. It looks like they are about to start spinning and prepare this Mustang for takeoff.” And we wholeheartedly agree. The rims look really odd on such a beautifully classic car like this, and while we aren’t really into trashing anyone’s dream ride, we do have to wonder what the inspiration for this one was. Maybe the car owner had some spare propellers or lawnmower blades lying around–or he was really inspired by the Renault logo to the point that he created one of his own and put it up on the wheels instead for all to see and wonder at. We wish luck to the dude who manned up enough to buy the car.

22 Something To Calm Your Car Down?

So no, this isn’t a real car. Yet. But with the popularity that fidget spinners have achieved since 2017, we don’t think this is a far-out idea anymore. Fidget spinners are multi-lobed spinning toys that have been around since the '90s, but it’s only recently that they've managed to achieve such fame and made a pretty fortune for their makers. The reasoning is much like a comfort blanket–some people have better focus and attention spans when they have something to fidget or play with. Rather than developing bad habits like popping knuckles or playing with one's hair, fidget spinners make life easier. So, do these kinds of rims make life easier for your fidgety car, or will they add a sense of calmness to you while you drive your wheels on the road? Then again, the spinning may, in fact, help the other drivers on the road remain calm, especially in the face of your driving skills. While there's no evidence that fidget spinners can actually help a frazzled mental state or an ADHD-troubled person concentrate better, people trust these toys because they look cool. So, we may soon see fidget spinner rims as well because looks are all that matter, apparently!

21 When You Need Your Car To Swanga!

The thing about car culture is that while most car companies are doing the utmost in customer satisfaction, they tune their cars to a mass-sale need. But car aficionados not only want but also very often need their cars to look a class apart on the road. Not everybody is happy driving just another factory-styled car that every Tom, Dick, and Harry may also own if they have the wherewithal. Enter slab culture. Slab cars are so inspired by the Houston music scene and American-made cars like Cadillac, Buicks, Chevys, Oldsmobile, and even Lincolns. And one of the showiest exaggerations on these slab cars is the swanga–rims that look like the classic Caddy rims of '83-'84 but have more of an outward thrust or elbow. The swangas can pop a good six-inches out from the rims and still be perfectly illegal–and while the authorities do say that there may have been swanga cars involved in accidents, they don’t know of any accident caused by the swangas themselves, which means that you may be terrifying every biker in town, but since it's legal to have rims that poke out, you can go ahead and slab culture your classic, making it a low and slow ride.

20 Giant Car On Tiny Wheels

Frankly, it's not just the rims of this car but also the tires themselves that look ridiculous! It looks like a giant car has been balanced on tiny wheels that look too fragile to take its weight. The tires look no bigger than the balancing wheels of a bike, and expecting them to carry the weight of the car while rolling is beyond ridiculous. In case you're wondering where the sanity of the world has gone, let us tell you that the image itself is doctored.

According to Motor1, this bizarre digital exercise has been done by someone with too many Photoshop skills and way too much free time on his hands.

The white Lexus on those tiny wheels looks like some kind of alien giant car more suitable to floating in the air than rolling on the road. The guy who altered these official images didn't limit this hara-kiri to just the Lexus LX and carried on his artistry to encompass the Audi Q7, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Kia Rio Sedan, and even the Lada X-Ray! Some 10 cars in total were targeted, and the images generated much internet mirth even though no small tires could've ever taken the weight of the car.

19 When Your Car Misses Vegas…

So, what do you do when what happened in Vegas refuses to stay there? Or when your heart and your ride’s heart belong there and don't want to drive on any other roads but the one that takes you down to your favorite haunt? If you like Vegas, then chances are that they may take you out of Vegas, but they can never take Vegas out of you. So, this one should be just up your alley–a roulette wheel rim that fits so right on this Volkswagen, we don’t understand why it wasn’t done before! It could be a perfect foil for that gambling addict in you—this way, you can play while you roll because well, that’s how you roll in any case–but not be fined for it, mentally or financially. Imagine rolling into your office with your lucky number seven, and you didn’t even have to lose a fortune on spinning the wheel. What a day that would be, right? Fixing the numbers probably means just another trip to the wheel-alignment guys, and they won’t bar you from counting the numbers like many Vegas casinos may already have. It’s one rim, enough to get plenty attention of all kinds, though, so you could bask in the glory as well.

18 Wooden Wheels To Get Out Of The Woods?

We don’t really get this picture. Is the dude who owns this relic of a car going back to his hunter-gatherer roots by removing the road-safe pneumatics and installing wooden log-like tires to run his car? Or are they very cleverly designed rims that only look like wood but are in fact normal tires? And why would anyone want to do this to their tires, whether real or fake? Does he want to protect his tires from any untoward angry kicks, especially if the can’t park right, like ever? Or does he want to be one with nature by using eco-friendly materials and eschewing rubber for the sake of the seas, which are fast turning into tire dump yards? With the shape the tires and the rims are, we don’t think this would make for a smooth ride at all. Actually, the rims remind us of the Flintstone’s car that Fred used to drive by literally running under it! The wheels used to be the same wack shape, more oblong than round, and smoothness wasn’t much of a concept either. The car itself, classic as it may be, needs to be given the boot and turned in for something newer, which can carry some sporty rims in truth.

17 When You Just Need Your Donut Fix

There's a cliché of policemen and donuts like no other, and this car just solidly cemented it. And of course, this had to be Wichita!

According to NY Daily News, "Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay posted a photo of his upgraded squad car, complete with new tires made of blue sprinkle donuts. Ramsay wrote, 'I signed off on purchases [of] a few sets of these new tires by Dunkin on a trial-only basis,’ while the side paneling of the cop car was also updated to reflect the police force's new motto: ‘Protect coffee breaks & serve tasty donuts'."

So, in Wichita, the police don't just protect and serve, but they also do it in gourmet style with some donut tires and a message on the car that clearly shows off their love for both coffee and donuts. And they say the police have no sense of humor! Imagine driving this car down the road whilst you chase after a villain, who was probably laughing so hard that making arrests would be easier and funnier. Do you think the siren is geared more towards donuts as well? Like, does it play the Dunkin song while the cops beat it down behind the thieves?

16 A Quarter For Your Thoughts?

Rims can be good, and rims can be bad. We don’t know which realm this money-penny rim falls into. While Washington was cool, we're sure he may not have liked being rolled down the streets attached to a car. I mean, sure, we all roll a coin now and then for fun and games, but having a rather giant version of metal money attached to the wheels of a car isn’t quite our cup of Joe. And who would want to show off their “wealth” in so gaudy a manner? We do believe that rims can add a nice touch to cars–and they don’t even have to be designed very well. Sometimes, just a good old rim in gunmetal black or chrome can do the trick. So, why then would you want a quarter for a rim? Four quarters means a whole buck, so does the buck stop with your car or does it start from it? It’s like the chicken and the egg cliché–you know—which came first? So here too, we're at a loss to explain the 1985 Washington quarter being so distastefully used as a car rim. It simply doesn't make any artistic sense.

15 Take a Plate, Use As Rim

That certainly seems to be the theme or the idea behind this disastrous rim that we can see at home with an old lady’s relic of a car. Honestly speaking, it looks as if someone took a gimmicky dinner plate and carefully cut it to resemble rims and then just fixed them in place with oodles of glue. This could also be a normal rim that was otherwise hand-painted to increase its appeal, and we're pretty sure that while the owner may be proud of his or her handiwork, it decreases the value and beauty of the Porsche it's attached to. If it was just another car, we wouldn't have been this offended. But on behalf of the Porsche, we're very, very offended. Why would you want a floral rim, to begin with, however floral or flirty you are? And even if you did really, really, really want those floral rims, did you have to put them on a Porsche and desecrate something so beautiful with something this ugly? We're sure that all Porsche makers are turning in their graves at this desecration of a beauty. We also hate the garish color scheme–if the floral rims weren’t enough of a monstrosity, did they have to be painted in such bright colors?

14 See-Through Rims Are A Pain To Clean

According to OhGizmo, “Doug McGoon has invented what may be the slickest set of wheels we’ve ever laid our eyes on: clear rims made from a thick slab of polycarbonate. Called 'Radurra' and now manufactured by D’Vinci Forgiato, the wheels are made by a technique known as 'bezel setting,' which only master diamond setters can know…” The diamonds are a little bigger than the bezel that’s supposed to hold them, and they're kept into place with sheer pressure. Don’t ask us how, but the company claims that the same technique is used in these rims. The alloy center is removed, and in its place comes a hard-coated polycarbonate center with a glass-like finish that looks too pretty to be a wheel. At $5,000 per wheel, it’s a serious investment into a car—or rather a rim. Many would consider them to be just expensive showpieces, but Radurra rims have been used in tire-burning videos as well, so they might just be as strong as your normal rims, albeit a whole lot costlier. Available for purchase, each order takes about 6 to 8 weeks to deliver if you have the patience and the money to pay for it through your nose.

13 Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around

There was once a teddy bear who kept going round and round. And he kept feeling sick because the round and round would never stop till he finally went pop like the weasel. Why are we telling you this? Because there was once a rim company called "Ronal" that makes a lot of wheels for a lot of things and makes good things indeed–but also made Teddy Bear alloys. Seriously, in the '90s, you’d be like “Oh, that’s a nice rim, and that’s a cool chrome one, and wow, that’s quite a swanga, and then whoa. Wait up. What’s that, dude? Is that a teddy bear? On a wheel? But like why, dude? That’s so mixed up. Far out, man…” Again, we come back to the why of the situation. Why would you want a teddy bear on your wheel? Frankly, unless you were like seven or nine and in pigtails and pyjamas, why would you want a teddy bear at all? Was it supposed to be for the child in you? Or that child of yours? Or just for soccer moms going to PTAs? Thankfully, when the '90s went away, so did the teddy bear alloys…

12 When An Audi Goes Donk—And Tron

"What are Donks?" you may ask. Donks are customized automobiles usually built upon cheap and economical American sedans. Plenty modifications, such as an increased ground clearance, are put in to fit in large-diameter wheels with low-profile tires. Then come custom paint jobs and rather expensive sound systems. Suspension modifications also made, similar to those of monster pickup trucks to lift the suspension up, in order to make space for the big tires. Very often, you’d find the front end slightly higher than the rear in donks, and this is done to give the car a rather swaggering look. For this reason, they're often called the skyscrapers or highrises of the road.

This rather spectacular donk was made by West Coast Customs.

Originally an Audi R8, the car was first painted entirely in chrome for a futuristic look. Then, programmable LEDs were added all through. Finally, to give it a more “floating” appearance, the rims were made from a hard see-through polymer that had even more LED lights in it. At night, this donk looked Tron enough for the most ardent of fans. Even the seats were redesigned to look more like the Tron suits, so the owner must be one nutty fan.

11 Showing The Finger, Literally

Seriously, who thinks of these things? Five-spoke wheels with each spoke being the middle finger of a hand. Some metal rudeness, this. The owner of this car must have one potty mouth indeed—and also be really low on patience. Else, why would he or she want to have such rudeness permanently installed on his or her car? In fact, some countries have outlawed rude gestures behind the wheel. In the UK, for instance, any driver spotted making a rude hand gesture will no longer simply receive a slap on the wrist. Instead, even just by raising your fist to a car that sped by you, you might be asked to pay a fine that's up to 75% of your weekly earnings but no more than £1,000. Steep? You bet. It's a whopping $1,300+ fine! So, the next time someone tailgates you, perhaps you should just let them pass—unless, of course, you want to pay that terribly expensive fine just for laughs! So maybe this guy took a note of it and decided to just put up his rude gestures on the rims. This way, no fine and no frustration either...

10 The Yellowest Donk Around

While Donks were once made from classic cars, nowadays, pretty much any car can be turned into a donk. However, our reaction to this pricey beauty is “We just threw up a little in our mouths.” Turning a beautiful yellow Aston Martin into a donk with boomerang wheels in the same vivid yellow color seems like a waste of a good car to us. Donks look best when old and cheap sedans are refurbished and modified to look like muscle cars with a unique swagger. The wheels on this car look too cartoonish to be true. And ruining such an expensive car sucks as well. We understand that some people have too much money than they know what to do with. But defacing such a beautiful car into something almost too ugly to look at it is a crime in our eyes. And the owner should be fined for making his car too ugly to be in public. We bet most people who've seen this car have been left with a nasty retinal burn they don't ever want to repeat in the future. Driving it down the road means the owner wants people to keel over with a heart attack for sure…

9 I’m A Pac-Man Fan!

So many of us still love Pac-Man, considering it was retro cool and probably the first game we played on the computer. And many of us would consider ourselves pretty big Pac-Man fans too, having that one odd T-shirt or cap we got as a souvenir and have been treasuring over the years. We might have a poster or two or maybe even some stationary stamped with Pac-Man from the days when it was all the rage. But would you ever think of imprinting your car with so many Pac-Mans, it made other people barf? Well, meet this Pac-Man from Georgia. Not only has he pimped up his poor Chevy with a Pac-Man custom paint job and interior to shout to the world his eternal love and devotion of the dude who ate other dudes, but he's also gone one step ahead. There's a serious Pac-Man paint job done on the wheels behind the alloys also, enough for drivers to get nightmares from. We only hope the Pac-Mans don’t glow in the night, lest a movie titled Nightmare On Elm Street, Part Two, Pac Man be produced.

8 When A Drink Makes Your Eyes Pop

So, what would you say if you saw this monstrosity drive by you, especially when you were heading to the pub for a few beers with the gang? If you were any normal person, you'd probably turn around and drive back home. Imagine seeing this car drive by you with its crazy eyes looking every-which-where, like a chameleon. The message is clear: don't drink and drive. Looking at the number of automobile accidents fuelled by a night of drinking, you should know it's a great message indeed. We're still hung up on the popping eyeballs, though. If a Volkswagen Beetle wasn't a funny-enough car already, it now also resembles a drunken bug. We'd appreciate the message—but only once we stop laughing at the car. We also wonder at who actually managed to make a rim like that–of two mismatched eyeballs looking absolutely zoned out. The eyes look pretty real if zany, and honestly, this is just a picture. If a car with rims like these drives by you slowly, you’d probably get into a fender bender because you were laughing so hard, you'd never see the car in front of you. So, any accident you got into wasn’t because you were imbibing…

7 The Weight Of The World On Your Shoulders

What do you do when you really, really love lifting weights? Especially because you're intent on turning those muscles from a Tobey McGuire level into a Dwayne Johnson one? You carry your barbells wherever you go by just slipping out that rim and slipping in a weight plate instead. Or so this guy wants us to believe when he decided to put in his Standard 20.4 kg / 45 lb. barbell as a rim in his car, so much so that he's not just screwing the suspension completely but also seems to have dented his car from the inside out because of the weight of his “new” rim and also because of the size mismatch. While this kind of a rim could make a lot of sense for someone out to promote his gym or exercise class, we don't see why a normal gym lover would do this—unless doing squats with his car is part of his normal exercise routine. Frankly, while too little exercise is detrimental to our health, too much exercise harms us as well. Too much of anything is always a bad thing as they say. So, barbells need to remain at the gym.

6 Patrick Star All The Way

In case you weren’t a fan of the SpongeBob series that basically starts to kill off the brain cells one by one while you watch it, you can watch some weirdo with Patrick Star for wheels go by you. Which Patrick Star? Nope, not the social makeup artist. Patrick Star is a starfish so created in an American animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants as the perfect laidback foil to SpongeBob's hyperactiveness. He's portrayed as an overweight and somewhat slow-minded starfish that lives next door to Squidward Tentacles, Spongebob’s Boss, and calls himself an expert in the art of doing nothing. He has no common sense, and that often puts him and SpongeBob into all sorts of trouble. So, having Patrick Star as alloys hints towards some really serious commitment issues on your end—as well some really strange ideas about wheels, rims, and cars, in general, we think. It’s pretty dorky to have wheels like that, and we're pretty sure it's not going to make you more popular with the guys—or the girls for that matter. You might get plenty of double takes, but most people that you see taking pics of your car and the wheels are merely going to post it on humor sites for fun!

5 Just Another Donk With Chrome Skaters

So, you may have seen a car a or two that drives by you and gives you the illusion that the car isn’t moving at all because the wheels and the rims seem fixed in place. These kinds of donks are called "skaters." Frankly, while there are many donk fans out there, there's an equal number of haters as well, mostly because donks mean the cutting up of a perfectly good car, to begin with.

So, all the fanboys of them good old cars tend to get pretty iffy about despoiling a car and raising it to never-seen-before heights!

You get the general idea–this beauty, too, has been raised from its rails—but not too much. And with the classic white paint and chrome wheels, it’s not over the top at all—except that we cannot get over the really weird rims. If the chrome bit wasn’t enough in the center, it's been taken all the way to the side walls of the tire, too, and it looks downright weird. We're assuming that all this shininess tends to give the other drivers too much of the sun for comfort and that they're not likely to appreciate all this chrome on an otherwise beautiful car.