Genuine original

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@domain.elided>]

John Herzman (in describing a fresh-from-the-factory-store mirror that
looked like what appeared to my then-untutored eye to be a piece of grey
plastic) reminds me of something I've been tracking down for some time:
the steering wheel that came in my '67 Junior when I bought it.

It's a Hellebore wheel, with three spokes located about 9:30, 2:30, and
6:00.  The spokes taper, and have three holes in each spoke, becoming
smaller as they near the rim of the wheel.  The rim itself is wood (or
once was; it now appears to be a strange amalgam of wood, putty, glue,
old lacquer, and dry rot), in a golden-tan color.

What I've described is *almost* exactly like the wheels I've seen in all
period photos and allegedly genuine restorations of the GTA.  The key
difference is that the GTA wheels I've seen have four holes in the
spokes; my wheel has 3 (accompanying a smaller rim size, I would
expect).  So I presumed that my car had a not-quite-exact copy of the
GTA wheel -- not unlike the Miata's 7-spoke road wheels which looked
not-quite-exactly like Minilites (which had 8).  (When I saw the price
for a restored GTA wheel in the ReOriginals catalog, my first thought
was, "Now, how much is that in American money?"  When I assured myself
that the s-with-a-slash meant it *was* in American money and not lire or
yen, my eyes became rather large.)

Recently, I got email from someone who claimed that the GTA wheels were
all made by Hellebore, and that the GTA wheels used the four-hole
spokes.  The message went on to say that the TZs came with the same
wheel but in a smaller rim size, with three holes in the (shorter)
spokes.  Needless to say, I was intrigued at the possibility.

What's the word from those in the know -- could it be that some previous
owner of my car put on a steering wheel from a TZ?  Or was this more the
case that Autodelta used readily-available parts where they could (a
sensible thing to do for a working race shop), and these wheels were
commonly used in a variety of cars of the period?

I'm not interested in selling the wheel, so this isn't an attempt to
establish a high value for something that may or may not have it in
order to justify the figure to a purchaser; I'm interested in knowing
whether it's likely to be an original TZ wheel because that would be
just wicked awesome cool to know.  It *is* a lovely period accessory --
whether it's an original TZ wheel or not, it *looks* like something
you'd see in the paddock at the Targa Florio or the starting grid at
Spa, circa 1966.  Or at least it would look that way if the wood were
replaced, and I'd like some day to return it to the Junior.  (And
speaking of having the wood replaced: anyone have a recommendation for a
shop that could do that, preferably in or near the San Francisco Bay
Area?)

Thanks for any information I receive on the subject.

- --Scott Fisher
  Sunnyvale, CA

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1171
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