F1 steering wheels

[murraydeschot]

Hi,

Again a slight left of centre question ...

How many variations of F1 steering wheels do we know of ... I mean 'standard' and custom ones, i.e. flat bottomed, etc.?

[hurstg01]

Originally Posted by murraydeschot

Hi,

Again a slight left of centre question ...

How many variations of F1 steering wheels do we know of ... I mean 'standard' and custom ones, i.e. flat bottomed, etc.?

Very quickly off the top of my head without going back to references, there is the lovely Blue F1 with the gold BBS wheels chassis #040 that has a different steering wheel than the normal ones, and i think the LM's are different in some way.......

www.btt.tripod.com/contents53.html for 'normal' F1 steering wheel

www.mclarenfreak.com/photodetail_11.html for the Blue F1

www.mclarenfreak.com/photodetail_413.html for chassis #01R's steering wheel, with a flat bottom and missing top

Last 2 weblinks courtesy of MclarenFreaks website

His website (www.mclarenfreak.com)is pretty cool, as it has pictures of some of the F1's and some of these show the steering wheels, although i dont think it has been updated in a while (i may be wrong on this though....) and the same goes with his forum www.mclarenfreak.com/forum (not many recent postings, but it is in the early atages...)

[Peloton25]

From all that I have seen, there are basically two steering wheel designs that McLaren fits to the F1.

The first is the standard Nardi 3-spoke design that the car has had since the concept phase. The rim and the center hub of the wheel are almost flush with each other and the spokes have gentle curves allowing for perfect hand placement. It has markings on it to identify the horn and flasher paddles located just behind the horizontal spokes as well. Some owners have chosen to have this wheel accented with various colors of leather or suede, but they are still the same wheel underneath.


Chassis #065

The other steering wheel is quite a bit different - more "sporty" if you will - and is rather close in design to what you would find in most GTRs and the LMs. It's not stamped with the Nardi logo, so it may not be sourced from them - more on this later. This wheel appears thicker in certain areas, and has notches cut into the horizontal spokes where they meet the rim for your thumbs to get a better grip. You can see that the center hub on this wheel is a bit recessed from the rim. It also lacks the markings for the paddles I previously mentioned. Again, different owners have had these covered in various material/colors for that unique look.


Chassis #073

For a while I thought that the second type of wheel was exclusive to the High Downforce Kit cars, however #038 (a standard road car) has it and I'm sure there are others that do as well. Then there are at least 4 HDF Kit cars - #020, #069, #072, and Paul Stewart's - that all seem to do without it. I was also under the assumption for a little while that this was a "removable" steering wheel, and the normal one was not, however the 'Juan Barazi/MAC IP' car (believed to be #049) has been seen with it's steering wheel removed, and it features the standard design.

The wheel in "Flemke's" car that was mentioned above is an OMP wheel that I believe he sourced and installed himself. It is similar, but not identical to the wheel you would find in most GTRs and the F1 LMs.

Here's a shot of the wheel in GTR #07R.



Note the vertical wheel rim is engraved with the word "Personal" - I suspect this may be the brand/manufacturer of this wheel, and the Type 2 F1 wheel above.

A quick scan of other GTRs shows them to have one which is nearly identical. Some of them have yellow stitching on the inside. Interior shots on GTR Lontails are hard to come by, but most of them have an identical wheel. I'm also pretty sure the "chopped-top" GTR wheel shown above by hurst is the style that JJ Lehto prefers, hence why it is seen in #01R. I did notice in a shot from the recent Goodwood FOS that #27R has a flat top and flat bottom design, but when it was at Laguna Seca as the Parabolica car in 1997 it had a "chopped-top" version.

Here's a shot from GTR #19R that shows the "Personal" logo a bit better:



Here's a shot of the wheel from LM3 - essentially the same as that GTR wheel, execpt the wheel center lets you know you are in a very special place. This wheel's vertical spoke is also stamped with the "Personal" logo.



The F1 GT longtail road cars - at least both #56XPGT and #58F1GT - have the standard Nardi road car wheel shown at the very top.

That about covers it... I hope.

>8^)
ER

[ArchangelGTR]

Just doing a bit of research from Peloton's lead.

It is indeed the PERSONAL line imported into the US under NARDI, both in the "HDF edition" leather covered edition (Tornado/Classico Black) and the race suede covered edition (Grinta/Classico polished)

PERSONAL CLASSICO

[F1 monster]

Peloton,
you say 038 has the second type. But 038's is removable, whereas it does not seem as if your second pic shows a removable wheel.

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by ArchangelGTR

Just doing a bit of research from Peloton's lead...

Of all the people on this forum, somehow I knew it would be you that would come through with the details on that.

>8^)
ER

[F1 monster]

Hurst,
thanks for the compliments. I am not updating the website because I am busy working on the new one with my programmer. We hit a major milestone yesterday...I don't want to keep giving small updates and false hopes, so I am just waiting to make a big announcement when it is all done. But trust me, it is getting done.

Same for the forum. It will pick up when the site is up and running.

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by F1 monster

Peloton,
you say 038 has the second type. But 038's is removable, whereas it does not seem as if your second pic shows a removable wheel.

I don't think (anymore) that the second type automatically equals "removeable". I know that #038's comes off, but can't speak with certainty on any of the others.

>8^)
ER

[ArchangelGTR]

Actually found my Personal flyers... Apparently the NARDI USA site is a little askew.

The suede is the Grinta Suede model

The full leather with perforated center and bottom is the Tornado 200.

Edit: No pricing. Was told the Tornado 200 leather is discontinued. But here is a link to another site that has the full Personal catalog.

A lot of the race cars have the quick-release adapter on the back... easier to scramble in and out of the car during driver changes.

[F1 monster]

Ah, that explains it...the quick release adapter is separate from the steering wheel!

[mini magic]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

'Juan Barazi/MAC IP' car (believed to be #049)..

Is this confirmed info? The Barazi car is definatley the "MAC IP" car?

[Peloton25]

I believe it is the same - they have matching interiors, and that one in particular is just too unique to be any other car.

It would be like seeing a dark blue car with a white interior - you would instantly have to assume that it was #022 whether it had polished wheels or not.

My

>8^)
ER

[mini magic]

Ok, i had never noticed that. Thanks

[Peloton25]

Pretty obvious from this photo:



Also, our 'man on the street' in France - cabrio92 - confirmed that the interior of MAC IP is blue.

Now if we could just get confirmation on that chassis number.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

I believe it is the same - they have matching interiors, and that one in particular is just too unique to be any other car.

It would be like seeing a dark blue car with a white interior - you would instantly have to assume that it was #022 whether it had polished wheels or not.

My

>8^)
ER

Perhaps they changed the plates then, as it is definitely N884PWV; in the EVO test of the Porcshe GT v Mac F1 they gave credit to Juan for loaning them the car, and in the Classic & Sportscar Sept03 edition showing the same #plate Juan was actually quoted in the text.