Talk about patina

[Mark Morrissey]

Look at this unbelievable small diameter prototipo I found. I have never seen leather like this. It is incredible to look at as well as hold in your hands.

[70SATMan]

Noice! Looks like an early one I had and then sold. Is that one a 345mm?

Mine had a similar "old Bomber jacket look" to it as well.

I bet the logo on the back looks like this:

MO
MO

Mine was originally flat but had been bent a bit on purpose to give it some dish (bastards!). I was to afraid to bend it back.

[Mark Morrissey]

With good reason. I bought it from you, remember. That was a nice wheel except for the bends someone put in it. That was unfortunate.
The one posted here is is interesting as it doesn't have a MOMO logo on the back but it is obviously a MOMO. It is pretty small; around 320mm diameter. But this is the nicest leather I have ever seen. I was concerned at first because of the mark on the right, thinking it too had been bent. But thankfully it's straight. A previous owner must have had something attached in that position causing the wear. This wheel would be perfect for a 908 or the like.
Best regards,
Mark

[70SATMan]

With good reason. I bought it from you, remember. That was a nice wheel except for the bends someone put in it. That was unfortunate.
Michael, It's great to hear from you. I'll give you a call soon.
Best regards,
Mark

CRAP! That's right! To much on my mind these days. Wow, 320mm. Mine was a 350mm. Yours is probably slightly older than mine (yours ) was. The earlier logo was just the word MOMO in single line letters.

I'm down to 5 MOMOs and one 914/6 wheel.

[boba]

Raj,

Here is some info from a period catalog on the Abarth wheel. This shows the 350mm size.

[boba]

Here is the same data for the Prototipo. This catalogue is dated 1972 and some changes have already been made from the original Prototipo. Yours looks to be a early wheel but after the originals which were not marked 'Prototipo'.

[preS]

I had a 370 mm abarth wheel and it came out of a Fiat from the 70's. They come up on ebay. de so every now and then and are 75-100 euro. The spokes seem to be different from your wheel.

Richard

[JBQuick]

Hi Raj, the 370mm Abarth wheel on Ebay seems legit. Exchanged emails with Danilo few times and I took the plunge and bought it. They are NOS and not repros ( allegedly ), I will find out soon. The 370mm Abarths were seen on the 911R's and the early ST's I am told.

Mark, nice wheel. BTW, I was 2nd in line for the Monza wheel with BMW hub you won on Ebay recently. Have you found someone who can restore it ?

Thanks !

[andyjboy]

I'm not saying that this is necessarily the case but there have been a lot of 'repro' wheels appearing on German ebay over the past couple of years - 370mm flat Prototipos (exactly the same as has been advertised on this board) being a case in point.

I bought one ~ 18 months ago (from an advert with a poor photo) which has Prototipo in the usual position on the front but no Momo logo on the rear & the covering on the rim is very poor quality.

As far as I know there were never any Factory cars supplied with Abarth steering wheels although some had them fitted at a later date ...

[boba]

Here is some of the background history which I learned while we (Zuffenhaus Products) were developing our R and ST steering wheel reproductions in conjunction with Classico Wheels.

Giampiero Moretti while a university student and gentleman driver developed with a friend a small diameter wheel with a large diameter grip. This wheel became very popular with other drivers and the use of the wheel by John Surtees cemented it place in history.
The 911R came with the Monza “R” wheel which had 2 flaws, first the armature was too thin a gauge and tended to flex and the inner slots were not radiused to stress relieve the corners and they soon started to develop cracks. Most were tossed out as what was the value of a defective steering wheel. The few that have survived show the repairs that have been made to the corners.
Many of the owners replaced the Monza “R” with the Prototipo from Moretti. The Prototipo has evolved from the original to the versions which are produced today. Again there was not a sense of the significance of the original as production changes were made. The key points of distinction were the armature with the hole pattern, lack of padding on the vertical spoke and thick grip.
The merger of the production of Monza and Moretti created MOMO. This was in the mid 60’s.

These are photos of the wheels Zuffenhaus Products will very soon be offering.
The R has a 1mm thicker armature and radiused corners to address the originals shortcomings.
The ST attempts to be faithful to the original.
Billet hubs of 60mm and 80mm height will also be available as will Fuchs center cap horn buttons.