OEM Steering wheel for 911R

[Original Poster]

Original post....

[70SATMan]

Raj, Sounds like you've been looking at the R owners manual.

If I recall correctly it shows the Prototipo in the dash layout.

All of the pictures I've seen of "original" Rs have had the Monza.

I've never seen a R parts manual so, can't help you there.

[Mark Morrissey]

I don't think that is such as easy question to answer, given the low number production and uniqueness of each car. The five mounting hole Monza is most commonly seen but I too have also heard that the prototipo is an R wheel.
I'd be willing to bet that Andy Boyle (andyjboy) could shed some light on the subject.

[70SATMan]

Well the steering wheel in the picture in the 1992 Excellence article would not have been the original wheel on the car because it sports the later "framed" capitalized Prototipo logo which indicates a later production wheel. In the time frame of the R production the Protos had a different logo. No silkscreen framing of the prototipo name and all in lower caps if I recall correctly.

I can't make out the picture of the wheel well enough in the 2001 article. For some reason it looks odd for a Prototipo.

[boba]

I believe the Monza was the OE wheel in the R's. It had two issues which caused many to be replaced early in their life. The armature was a bit too thin and had a lot of flex and the corners for the slots were not radiused which allowed stress cracks to start. I think all the photos I have seen of original wheels have been welded to repair cracks.

When we (Zuffenhaus/Classico) created out replica of the R wheel we thickened the armature and radiused the corners. We had access to an original abeit welded wheel to work from.

[ajwans]

The picture in that old article shows a pre-MOMO Moretti I
believe.

andy

[Flunder]

Raj, Michael, Bob, Mark, Andy:

Here is a prototipo similar to the one illustrated as item number 11 "lenkrad" in the R manual page headed Armaturen as posted by Raj and also as described by Michael in his post.

I bought this MOMO brand new from the dealer in New Jersey in November 1969 (yikes, that was 40 years ago).

It measures 14" in diameter.

Just as Michael indicates, "prototipo" is stamped into the metal of the lower spoke, with the stamping all in lower case letters.

On the back of the lower spoke it is stamped

MO
MO

in stacked letters. It has no other markings.

I had this wheel in a driver for 70,000 miles. It did service at Bryar, Thompson, Bridgehampton, Lime Rock and the 'Glen.

As you can see in the images, it is lightly flexed on both the left and bottom spokes - probably from white knuckles going over the blind crest before the down hill at the Bridge!

[Mark Morrissey]

Hey Raj; from your "Catalog of factory and aftermarket steering wheels" thread. I have two silver prototipos the same size as Tom's black one. They weigh 2 pounds 7 oz. My black Momo Monza weighs 1 pound, 4.6 oz. Man does it flex a lot!

[Mark Morrissey]

By the way, the wheel in the diagram is a 380mm diameter (see the postition of the spoke holes; and the one I had is actually lighter that the smaller 350

[andyjboy]

Here's an original 380mm Prototipo - it weighs 2 lbs 1 oz on my (cheap) kitchen scales.