wires

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Between Timothy Rogers, Michael Smith, Larry Rose, and Denny Pillar via Joe
Cantrell the wire wheel question, and in particular its 'optionality', is
being filled out nicely. The one possibly debatable matter of opinion, or of
provable fact, would be what was factory production option, non-standard
factory connivance, distributor-arranged option, or dealer-offered option
rather than simply aftermarket customer's choice. Certainly Borrani, and
others, were capable of furnishing wire wheels and adapters for practically
anything conceivable.

Since I last horned in I did locate the one ARI Parts and Accessories Bulletin
I mentioned; it is National Bulletin 5/234, dated June 28 1985, titled
"Prototype Wheels and Tires", and included one set only of "Dayton custom
prototype wires for Spider only, complete with hubs. Rear (sic) knock offs,
chrome rims, with XAS 165 HR14, 6" wide, stainless steel spokes." The
accompanying photos show the wheel (with two-eared knock-offs) as "KB series -
72 cross-laced spokes, bead-laced for positive offsets" and in a separate
photo show the hub adapter and both three-eared and hexagonal center nuts. The
"bead-laced" reference is as distinct from the well-laced rims seen on typical
earlier applications, and the "for positive offsets" reference suggests to me
that Dayton would lace-up their KB series for various FWD applications. There
is also a photo of a duck-tail Spider wearing a set of the wheels. Price (to
dealer) was $1190 for the set, a tad more than the $1100 for a set of
Campagnolo TZ wheels, for Spider, 6.5" wide rears and 6" wide fronts, with
tires. (There were also eight sets of 8" x 16" Campagnolos for GTV6, $220 each
without tires.)

The British source I had mentioned is Motor Wheel Service; they maintain
in-stock a huge variety of wire wheels and claim additionally that they can
supply almost any design or style desired; the material I have on them does
not mention Alfas but does mention adapters to fit BMW, Mercedes, and Cadillac
as well as the usual British makes. I don't have anything on Borrani, but
assume that as a specialist company in a country full of small specialist car
companies they could easily supply any wire wheel anyone would want, including
nuts with any logo or name a customer desired.

Michael Smith wrote that wire wheels "Are a nightmare. With the invention of
cast or forged alloy wheels, there is no reason to suffer the tribulations of
wire wheels. Performance motorcycles have switched. Some bicycles have
switched (though the low loading of bicycle wheels perhaps justifies the
nearly impossible maintenance regimen wires). No doubt cast alloy wheels
descended from those enormous alloy drum brakes on older cars. In any event,
wire wheels are cosmetic only. From an engineering perspective they belong in
the museum".

I can perhaps amend the descent "from those enormous alloy drum brakes on
older cars." The earliest cast alloy wheels I know of (and certainly the most
prominent among early ones) were on Bugattis, I believe appearing first on the
Type 35 at the French Grand Prix of 1924 (which was won by Campari, in a
wire-wheeled P2 Alfa Romeo, in Alfa's first real year of big-time racing.)
Pomeroy says the alloys were at first a failure, as serious tire trouble was
experienced due to incorrect design of the rim (a detachable rim held on by
twenty-four small set-screws) but that when modified no further trouble was
experienced. Michael's "No doubt cast alloy wheels descended from those
enormous alloy drum brakes on older cars" is dubious, at least as far as the
size implications; the Type 35 had 29" wheels and 11" drums, hardly enormous.
The drums, however, were integral with the wheels, which facilitated changing
the brake shoes at the same time that the wheels and tires were changed in a
race.

An interesting tangent on the Type 35 alloy wheels vs. wire wheels is provided
by the sub-type Type 35A, which was catalogued as "Course Imitation", or
imitation race-car, unofficially known as the 'boy racer' and also known as
the "Tecla", from the trade-name of a popular brand of cultured pearls, in
other words something inbetween a fake and the Real Thing. The Tecla had a
three-main-bearing crank (instead of five), plain big ends (instead of
rollers), and wire wheels instead of the alloys. (The dancer Isadora Duncan
was famously strangled when her flowing scarf got snagged by a knockoff
wingnut of a friend's 35A.)

A Bugatti design closer to Michael's suggestion is the splendid wire wheel of
the Type 59, which was contemporary with the Alfa P3; the piano-wire spokes of
the 59 supported the wheel and took lateral loadings but all driving and
braking forces were taken by serrations on the brake drums which meshed with
serrations on the wheel rims.

Wire wheels have been around as long as anything that could reasonably be
called an 'automobile', at least gasoline powered rather than a steam
carriage; the first Benz gas tricycle, derived from bicycle practice, had a
steel tube frame and wire wheels while the nearly contemporary Daimler,
derived more from carriage-building, had a timber frame and wood-spoked
wheels. I don't have a date offhand for the initial development of the
Rudge-Whitworth wheel with the splined-hub drive and eared knock-off nut, but
it was used on the 1912 Peugeot which won the first Grand Prix in which
detachable wheels were allowed by the regulations, and was used on every
successful between-the-wars race car, except for the Bugattis, and was
certainly used on every Alfa competition car from 1921 to the fifties; earlier
Alfas had wood-spoked wheels initially and later Sankey wheels, steel wheels
closely patterned on the wood wheels with a dozen or so tubular steel spokes.

The only Giulietta with factory wire wheels which I have been able to verify
beyond question is the pair of never-raced 750 Competizione prototypes of
1955, a 1500 cc car with an Abarth-built chassis and a pretty Boano-built
body. One wire-wheeled Giulia was the 4R Zagato retrocar, which is only
debatably a 'factory' car and certainly not a very serious one, attractive
though it may be to those who like it. Cast light alloy wheels came with the
Giulia T.I.Super and stayed on with the TZ, GTA, 33, and I believe all other
serious performance-oriented Alfas since.

Enough? Probably. If you like them, have them or covet them, fine. Option? If
you think so, so be it.

Cheers

John H.
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