steve shea wrote:As a detatched observer and reader of this thread I can no longer sit on the sidelines. I am not a steering wheel expert self appointed or otherwise. However I live in Jackson Wy. home of Rennwagen and my friend Bill Doyle. Over the years I have seen many original spyders and GTs with factory VDM GT wooden steering wheels. I have been hired by Bill to restore and refinish some of those wheels. I have also owned three original VDM GT steering wheels. From what I've seen posted as VDM or Nardi I can tell you it is not a VDM. The wood work is different and the species of wood looks different. Also the shape and number of finger grooves is off. And where are the rivets? There should be an obvious joint where the 1/4 round is glued in, sometimes in a contrasting shade, I do not see it. Also the VDM logo in the latest posting looks too fat to be a real stamp used back in the day. All the VDM stamping I have seen is much smaller and finer. I'm only speaking of A splined flat VDM wood wheels. Not that I know it all but have been involved with A style Porsches for 40 yrs and have never seen a dished VDM GT wheel. Also, as was said up thread the slots on the alu frame are way off. They could be out there but one would think by now I might have seen one.
Steve,
The Steering Wheels being represented as VDM by Leva "may" have been originally made by Petri. I don't know this as fact, and why I said "may". But Petri did make many, many versions of steering wheels, and perhaps did the versions being discussed that have VDM hubs inside them.
I don't see any VDM wood wheels shown of his that were officially fitted by Porsche or Porsche dealerships.
Michael