The uber rare Moretti helmet horn button
Mads van Appeldoorn
October 18, 2021
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Not just another Momo signature helmet horn button
An article about a horn button? A horn button with a helmet on? We already had that, the Momo signature series, steering wheels with signatures of famous race car drivers and the respective helmet horn buttons. You might think so, the linearity seems clear. Yet everything is different here. Completely different. But I need to start somewhere else.
Researching information about Momo items
A big part of the charm of Momo is that we all know very little and we like to be surrounded by mysteries. The unknown, maybe even the uncanny, people like that. I’m no exception, but I also like to figure things out and shed a little light on the dark. That seldom occupies me for days, often weeks, mostly months, and sometimes a decisive clue only comes up after a year.
There are many self-declared experts who speak up all too quickly but have nothing to say. They hide behind their displays, hang around in forums and are happy when the scattered false information comes back to them. Congratulations to all the trolls, stay where you are and just don’t get out into real life. My experience with competence in forums is not the best. This year I have logged out of more forums than logged in. Just by the way.
Back to researching information about Momo items. There is very little information available, even employees hardly know anything, former employees often only knew their tiny area, there is no archive. Often it’s just small clues, ideas, hints and sometimes combining all of these things to have a very likely explanation. Like in this case, which I would like to tell you about today.
What happened until now
As I have often said, I get tons of emails with questions about Momo steering wheels, hubs, horn buttons and other things. I am very happy about it, most of them contain very, very positive feedback on the page here, for which I would like to thank you again at this point.
A guy named Scott contacted me not long ago and asked me about the Moretti helmet horn button we’re talking about today. A very rare piece, in twenty years of excessive collecting I had exactly two pieces in my hand. I gave one to someone I thought was a friend. He will feel addressed when he reads this. Perhaps he will reconsider his behavior.
Anyway, Scott, a very nice guy, asked if I knew anything about the history of the horn button. At the same time, he shared with me what he knew about it. This conversation also reminded me that I had long wanted to write an article about it. There was no lack of drive, there was a lack of information. So far I’ve only noted down what I’ve heard or read somewhere. But with Scott’s message, the drive suddenly came back. First I wrote him what I knew – or thought I knew, based on the information I gathered somewhere.
But then I got my Moretti helmet horn button out of a box and took a closer look. The stories seemed to fit, just the dates didn’t. Three emails and four replies later, I had the information I needed. Not as a whole, but they added up and matched the previous findings but with other dates.
Moretti helmet horn button
Collection of helmet horn buttons
Morettis 50th birthday or the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1990
The first story I knew about the horn button was confirmed by a former employee. The horn button was designed for Moretti’s 50th birthday. Based on the look of the Porsche 962C, which Moretti himself drove at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1990. Red with a yellow Momo logo and of course on his own helmet. Red with yellow Momo logo. Moretti liked the idea and the design and so the horn button was produced for a very limited time and in limited numbers. Exact information is not known, as is so often the case when it comes to Momo products, at least in the distant past.
The button by Scott was manufactured in April 1991, mine in September 1992. This concerns the back, which does not necessarily represent reliable information about the true production range.
The second story is similar, but came from an entirely different direction. For the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Moretti wanted a strong brand presence for the Momo brand and the Momo Gebhardt Racing Team with the Porsche 962. Among other things, the horn button was developed for that event, small model cars in the Momo livery and other merchandise. Actually only intended to be distributed during the race but there was a huge demand and so Momo continued to produce them. Allegedly, a total of 962 pieces. My source did not know whether that concerns the distribution at the event, the after-event production or the total amount.
Two stories that are very close to each other. Exciting in any case. Maybe nobody knows for sure whether they are true and every detail is correct. The horn button is uberrare, that’s for sure. So if you own such a horn button, hold it tight. A second one is most likely not going to fall into your hands.
Back of the Moretti helmet horn button
Made in 9/1992
A rumor persists about the Moretti signature steering wheel
Whether the Momo Moretti signature steering wheel can officially be counted as part of the Momo signature series or not, everyone should judge for themselves. There is undoubtedly a linearity, since it bears a signature, so people tend to include it in the series. Just like the John Player Special which has no signature but a race car (sponsoring) related horn button.
Many of the aforementioned experts claim that the Moretti steering wheel came with the Moretti helmet horn button. I can clearly deny that. On the one hand, the wheel was manufactured in the Mid 80s, whereas the Moretti helmet horn button was made in the early 90s. On the other hand, because I have one of these wheels, new, in the original box (at least according to my inventory list, I just have to find it in one of my warehouses) and the Moretti helmet horn button is not in the pictures outside of the box and it wasn’t in there either. But another horn button that some of us already know. At least the design. The Moretti signature steering wheel came with a simple horn button, black, with a silver ring on it. A very similar design as the horn button of the Momo Formula 1 Enterprises “Real Wheel” steering wheel back then. Just without the earlier chrome ring that the older Momo horn buttons had. Like the one in the picture below. This is the original from the Momo Formula 1 Enterprises “Real Wheel” from 1966/1967. Without the outer chrome ring, that was the design of the Moretti signature steering wheel horn button. I will update this article as soon as I find my wheel. It can only be on one of two continents, which makes the search easier.
Momo Formula 1 Enterprises Real Wheel horn button
Back of the early button
