The fact that the holes are not placed correctly just kills it for me.
Ideally I'd want to buy a Personal steering wheel like
this one that mimics the F1 LM wheel and then mount the F1 wheel center to it. Then I'd put it all inside a glass-encased frame with a light shining down from above and just gaze at it in awe.
However, all the Personal steering wheels are pre-drilled with the holes in the correct place which would make this wheel center sit crooked.
Enough about my wants though. I think the bigger issue here is provenance for this part and the whether the claim that this wheel center was fitted to XP5 can actually be proven true.
I can tell you that I've looked through all the imagery I have of XP5 and just don't see any indication that XP5 ever had a steering wheel fitted that was drilled in this lopsided manner.
Here is the earliest interior shot of XP5 that I've come across so far and you can clearly see the holes are located in the correct positions. If you look very closely you'll see the design of the wheel center is different than the ones production F1s have - it lacks the black and chrome 'F1/V12' logo, instead opting for an embossed one made of solid carbon, similar to what was seen on the Clinic Model.
Sharp eyed viewers will also note the prototype nature of some of the other parts in that photo as well like the missing 'Hazard' button and grey plastic instrument cluster surround.
This video shot in Japan in 1993 with Mika Hakkinen again gives a decent view of the earliest XP5 steering wheel center if you look closely around the 3:20 mark.
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/hnqhbX0e--4/
No doubt XP5's heavy use probably meant it had more than one wheel center in its life, but again, all the other images I have showing it with the proper production 'F1/V12' wheel center have it drilled correctly. If someone can find an image that I've overlooked that does make the case, please present it here. I never mind being proven wrong because the upside is that I get to learn something new in the process.
Back to this part - I really think there is a much better chance that this piece was a reject due to improper orientation of the center logo and thus it was binned and later retrieved, or simply given away. My belief is that at some point someone came up with the idea of connecting this piece to XP5 - the most famous of all the road cars - simply to increase its value. Certainly calling it a 'reject' would have had a detrimental effect and I doubt most people would know enough to make this determination on their own.
Now I'm not implying that the current owner of the part (I assume that's you D.Curran) is making up the story here. I definitely recall the last time this piece came up for sale when it was offered in late 2003 on Ebay. At the time it had the very same pink 'XP5' marking on the back of it.
That's my
anyway - buyer beware - yadda, yadda, yadda...
>8^)
ER