NARDI steering wheels

[steve shea]

my original vdm gt steering wheel has a date stamp of sept 56' next to the vdm logo inside the hub. also original vdm's have 11 16th" circumferential laminations and somtimes there was a contrasting color lamination between the two grooves. some grooves were close together others farther apart. often these wheels would crack between the grooves in a 1/4" round. I've restored a few of these for Bill Doyle and even though there was some variation they all had the eleven lams. steve

[Rainer Schmidt]

Hi Steve,

I´ve just purchased a VDM wood wheel which is stamped 712 next to the VDM logo.

[Roy Lock]

Getting back to the dished Nardi's and date stamps, I have two dished Nardi's they are a 67 and a 68. Both have the year stamped on them. Both do not have rivets. I have a 64 Nardi with the rivets and that also has a date stamp.

There has been some "Torino" wheels advertised on our classifieds lately. Can anyone tell me when these were made? Are they recent manufacturered wheels?

Jeff Fellman once sold new manufacturered Nardi's but he also stated that in his sales.

[Dick Roth]

This discussion has been going on FOREVER!. A few tidbits of information. All VDM wheels (including standard 356 wheels) have a logo stamped in the inner boss; a triangle with VDM stamped inside.
ANY NARDI wheel with a two button arrangement and a rather crude Porsche logo in the smaller button is a genuine period AFTERMARKET wheel aavilable from several sources at he time. Wood VDM wheels fitted by the factory had a larger horn button receptacle and used the standatd 356A horn button.
Nardi of course is located in Turin, Italy, Torino in Italian...They made dozens of aftermarket variants in period and from time to time people adapted wheels intended for othe marques to their Porsches, complicating thing a bit 50 years later..

PS Time for Brad Ripley to weigh in. He is the Meister when it comes to this subject. RR

[Brad Ripley]

Richard, thanks for the pitch but I have to admit I am NOT an expert on wood wheels, Nardi no VDM (and not on tool kits either).

As for the numbers stamped in the center, I do not know what the numbers mean. I do not think they are date codes. If anybody has a pile of plastic wheels, jot down the number and type: T-5 smooth roundy spokes or T-6/C flanged spokes, black paint on the back. Maybe by studying the numbers, some conclusion can be drawn.

[Roy Lock]

Dick thanks for enlightening me on the "Torino" wheel. Now I know they are not made in the period and are aftermarket.