Can we talk about "center bore" for a minute?
Mopar Action magazine tech guru Rick Ehrenberg is a HUGE proponent of proper hubcentric wheels. He has an engineering background and is often driven by sound theory.
I can appreciate that, but....
Even the factory has shipped out vehicles with NON huncentric wheels, the Magnum/Road wheels are one example. TRUCKS, specifically 4 wheel drives are another. I hear time and time again how the lug nuts are designed for clamping force, not to be confused with "shear" but what is heavier than a long bed 4wd? Every 75-79 4wd Dodge truck had front hubs with a large castle nut and NO hub ring to support a wheel center. I own one. The rears have the ring cast/forged into the rear axle flange though.
Back to cars:
I have used both types and have had no problems with wheel shimmy or failure.
Rick Ehrenberg has foisted absolute garbage info on the Mopar community on several occasions, while giving the
appearance of having sound theory that he can't (and hasn't even tried) to back up. His radically incorrect position on the FMJ spindles is one of these, he was just flat out wrong about the suspension geometry back when he wrote that "Disk-O-Tech" article and has never bothered to actually check his claims with actual testing. Other magazines have provided data to show the FMJ spindles are not only perfectly acceptable, but an improvement in some situations. Real engineers back up their claims with data, not hot air. He even had an easy opportunity to retract some of his erroneous claims when he did his latest rear disk brake article in the resurrected Mopar Action, but instead he patted himself on the back for writing such an awesome article. How many people missed out on factory disk brake upgrades because they passed up a perfectly useable FMJ disk set up because of his BS?
Ehrenberg's approach that the factory engineers were always right is outdated and frequently puts him at odds with actual data. The technology has changed dramatically, and a lot of what the factory engineers did then (and do now) was for cost saving, not because it was the best possible solution. He's also fully wrong about green bearings. While I myself prefer tapered bearings, the fear mongering he's done with his platform is inaccurate and terribly misguided.
Lug centric wheels have been around for decades, and plenty of cars and trucks come straight from the factory like that. If you tighten your 60° lug nuts in a star pattern like you're supposed to the wheel will end up centered. Hub centric makes things a little easier, but a plastic hub centric ring probably isn't nearly as great as a lot of people think they are. Both my Challenger and my Duster are lug centric, I've never had an issue with either.
And yes, the center bore is frequently an issue. Most aftermarket wheels have a 73.1mm bore, which is big enough for stock Mopar Hubs. The problem is that a lot of aftermarket wheels also have smaller wheel caps, so, from the mounting surface of the wheel to the wheel cap they taper down. The Mopar hubs are quite deep, so, depending on the wheel they may actually have to protrude through to the front face. That's how my Enkei RPF1's were. They have a 73.1mm bore on the back, which was fine, but they tapered down to a 65mm cap and the hub wouldn't go through. So I had them bored to 73.1mm all the way through and used a different set of caps. Whether or not there's enough material there depends a little on the design of the rim, but with a 5x4.5" pattern most rims should have enough meat to go out to 73.1mm.
