356A & Wire Wheel Option Controversy: Some Light Shed

[AlexFord]

Having observed a few stallwarts wanting to know if Porsche ever offered wire wheels with others weighing in on weather or not "wires" with center locks belong on a Porsche, some light is shed on the question by observing Page 70 of the English Language version of Brian Long's book: "Porsche 356", copyrighted in 1996. That page has a wonderful and clear black and white photograph of a 356A coupe. The caption for the photograph (source of caption is Porsche, AG) states, "...with Glockler wire wheels, seen here at a concours competition in Bad Homberg. German regulations are very stirct on what can and can't be fitted to vehicles, so Glocker must have had a series of products approved by the TUV." This latter assumption may or may not be true, but being in Germany, it is doubtful if "Society People" would have had the audacity of entering a Porsche in a concours unless provenance existed with the wheels. -- Alex Ford PS: By the way, the Porsche depicted looks quite at home with the wires affixed in the photo.

[Brad Ripley]

Borrani: Rw 2973 16x3.00 with hubs type 42. For Borrani, see http://www.ruoteborrani.com/classic/bor ... .php?i=683

A few years ago Jeff Gamble had a set of Dayton wires for sale.

Both companies will make a set of wire wheels for your Porsche (with enough $$$).

[Charlie White]

You don't see many many 356 Porsches with wire wheels like contemporary British and Italian cars. The reason is that wire wheels were forbidden in Germany (Christophorus magazine, #44, March 1963, page 40). Also, wire wheels were never offered as a regular accessory for 356 Porsches. Below are two interesting pictures of a Speedster and a Roadster with aftermarket knock-off wire wheels! Don't think there is any controversy about this.

CW

[Vic Skirmants]

Didn't that speedster belong to Wolfgang von Trips?

[Eric Meyer]

Heres a shot of some painted Daytons on our old 1955. The cast adaptors bolt to the wide five bolt pattern on the drum... and then the wheel attaches to the adaptor. The cast adaptors have been known to break under extreme pressure... i.e. strapping the car down too tightly on the trailer using the spinners for a strap connection. The wheels are ridiculously heavy and very hard to get balanced/trued. Kind of an interesting conversation starter at a car show... but not really a great wheel to use when actually driving the car.

I have seen 4.5 x 15, 5.5 x 15 and 4 x 16 versions of these... some straight laced... some cross laced.

[Adam Wright]

Did the mudflaps come with the wires, or is this another accessory?

[Eric Meyer]

Did the mudflaps come with the wires, or is this another accessory?

Adam.... Those are Pre A only "Smutzfangers" (mudflaps). I see them once every few years at a swap. Usually missing the brackets. I have never seen them in a parts list so I presume they are aftermarket... despite having the correct logo Porsche type across the bottom.

[Norm Miller]

"Adam.... Those are Pre A only "Smutzfangers" (mudflaps). I see them once every few years at a swap".

In the early 50's it seemed that all cars in the Netherlands had flaps because there were more bicycles than cars and the flaps allegedly offered protection to the bikes.

They also outlawed knock-off wheels with ears and used a hex nut / oct nut.

Norm

[Jeffrey Gamble]

http://barchettasportscars.com/22.html

Faithful,,, curser to the bottom of the above link to see Bill Devin's Devin "D" clad with these same Dayton Wire wheels. (As a former owner of two sets of these rare VW/356 Dayton wheels) i theorize Bill Devin may have influenced the folks at Dayton to design and build a wire wheel for his VW based show car to give that more exclusive Ferrari look. Think Devin was also a Ferrari guy.
.02

[Olivier Lory]

Some Borrani steel/alloy wheels are for sale on the Automobilia Auktion Ladenburg website

http://www.autotechnikauktion.de/mg/kat ... UTTON=find

[Brad Ripley]

I don't see that those Borrani steel/alloy wheels are anything to do with Porsche.

See here: https://www.cinturato.net/borrani-wire-wheels for some history of what they called bi-metal wheels with Rudge center locking. Note, the diameter of 400 for the early Michelins -- about 15.75 inch diameter. And maybe the 600 is for the wheel width of about 6.30 inch.

[Jim Breazeale]

My 356C with wire wheels:

[Bob Forman]

Jim: Looks good.