ATS celebrates half a century of wheel making

ATS Alloy Wheels turns 50 this year, and is marking the occasion with the launch of a new slogan – Nothing beATS Performance – and a major promotional campaign.

The first ATS aftermarket rims went on sale in 1969, and early on the company showed its sporting colours. It fielded its own Formula 1 team, ATS Racing Team, between 1977 and 1984. Today ATS is exclusive wheel supplier to the DTM touring car championship and also partners with other racing series including, from this year, the new W Series all-female race championship.

“ATS has shown in the past 50 years that sophisticated aesthetics and design can merge together with quality and safety standards,” comments Dr Karsten Obenaus, senior vice president and chief financial officer Europe at Superior Industries, the company responsible for the ATS brand since acquiring Uniwheels in 2017. “Thanks to our know-how and precise techniques, we provide our products with the performance that motorsport pros, end consumers and our trade partners expect.”

The new slogan ‘Nothing beATS Performance’ will lie at the core of the brand’s communications. Explaining the choice of slogan, Gerald Steinmann, director of aftermarket marketing/e-commerce at Superior Industries Europe, says: “Performance shapes the brand identity of ATS. This manifests itself in our consistent motorsport engagement, in a discerning portfolio as well as in a creative campaign that fits the brand’s positioning.”

ATS has introduced a new slogan in its anniversary year

UK distribution with Wolfrace

Wolfrace Wheels is the exclusive official distributor of ATS rims in the UK, and on the occasion of the brand’s anniversary it has taken a look at highlights within the current range.

ATS Racelight: Wolfrace says you don’t have to look far to begin to see ATS’s long-term association with top-tier motorsport in its wide range of high-quality road wheels. Take the ATS Racelight, one of the lightest mass-market alloy wheels available thanks to the flow forming process used for its construction.

“This incredible process sees key areas of the blank cast alloy rims rolled out and compressed, which significantly reduces the amount of cutting or machining required, and in most cases eliminates it completely,” comments Wolfrace. “Not only does this save time and resources, it enables the walls of wheels like the Racelight to be significantly thinner, reducing the overall mass of the wheel without compromising strength of stability.”

The ATS Racelight is available in Racing Black and Royal silver.

ATS Cup: This deep dish, retro design should need no introduction. Wolfrace comments that its classic styling is incredibly popular in the UK, and is a staple of the European Volkswagen scene. The ATS Cup is finished in a subtle combination of Diamond Black with a Polished face and lip.

ATS Perfektion: Launched in 2014, the ATS Perfektion is still a very popular choice of alloy wheel five years later. Wolfrace says the “classic but somewhat aggressive split-spoke styling of this race-ready number is spot on and the finish is stunning, too.” The distributor adds: “However, it’s the finer details like the simple, and relatively thing, polished edge that elevates this whole rim to the next level of stylish.”

The ATS Perfektion is available in Racing Black / Polished and Royal Silver.

ATS Emotion: Available in Polar Silver and Racing Black, the ATS Emotion takes advantage of the classic five-spoke alloy wheel design. The spokes reach to the very edge of the rim, which makes it look bigger when fitted to a vehicle.