Saturday 11 February 2012

More wheels on their way.



The recent cold weather was bound to prompt the arrival of new parts, and thus it was that a further spoke etch fret came on Saturday.

I thought I'd show a complete fret rather than just a set of etches and felt it would be a help if the wheels were labelled up to some extent.

The Alfa 2900, 1960's Ferrari/Maserati and MGA Le Mans wheels are all of an experimental nature, and since they take up over twice as much space as a similar sized wheel, are costlier to make.

Above the MGA wheels will be seen more 16" etches, plus a new part in the form of steering wheels, another experiment.

The 'alternative' etches are the result of looking at vast numbers of photographs and finding that racing and sports racing cars even if of the same type, don't always have their wheels built in the same way. The only difference for example between the Vanwall and 1950's Maserati/Ferrari wheel in the spoke lacing.

The 17" wheels will be new, and have only appeared after I was asked if I'd be prepared to do some V16 BRM wheels. The BRM rears are at the bottom of the 17" column.

The K3 wheels were ones I wanted anyway, then someone asked me to do them. The spokes are the same as the ERA E Type front, not the rear as in the caption. The rears will appear on the next, and last wheel fret.

The 21" wheels were a surprise. Initially done for the Bentley, there are two types, one for the standard 3 and 4.5 litre, the other for the Blower car. Other wheels I wanted to do this size were for Delage GP and Mercedes SSK, both of which appear to be the same as the first wheel, whilst a combination of spokes could also make a passable Mercedes/Auto Union 'Avus' wheel, which should I believe, be 22", not 21".

Plans/drawings are now progressing towards my last new wheel fret with perhaps a dozen new wheels, a few new etches to allow further flexibility and probably a complete column of steering wheels.

Peter.

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