The origin of the center-lock isn’t technically with race cars—they date back to the early 1900s when a British company called Rudge-Whitworth (not to be confused with the positively lovely human Rutledge Wood) developed a quick release for wire automobile wheels. They were called by a variety of names including "QD" which means “quickly disconnectable", as well as "knock-off", which referred to the manner in which you spun the single winged nut with a brute force whack to release a center-lock hub.
Naturally, this trend caught on in racing and, by 1913, they were the go-to quick-release wheel method for Grand Prix racing cars. For road-going cars, the original creator licensed the design, and Borrani wire wheels became standard on a bunch of Italian and German cars of the day. That early version gave way to more modern center-lock wheels that are fastened to the hub by one large single hex nut.
