Fascinating world of MOMO HELMET HORN BUTTONS
Mads van Appeldoorn
May 30, 2022
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Everything you want to know about the Momo helmet horn buttons
Horn buttons, yes. The tiny little thing in the middle of the steering wheel. For some it’s just a thing to fill the hole of the steering wheel or hub adapter if you will, not even a necessity. But for some it’s a lot more, something that belongs together, like Adam and Eva. Especially when it comes to the Momo signature steering wheel series.
Momo helmet horn buttons & signature horn buttons
These neat little horn buttons with the helmet illustration of famous race car drivers came with the respective (hence matching) Momo signature steering wheel. Momo started selling these sets in the Mid 1970s with the Momo Jackie Stewart steering wheel (the only Momo signature steering wheel that at first had the stacked Momo logo on the back).
The oldest helmet horn buttons, the Jackie Stewart helmet horn button, the Clay Regazzoni helmet horn button and the Jacky Ickx horn button were available as early chrome ring versions of the horn button. Momo changed the style of the horn buttons, not only the helmet ones but the style of the horn buttons in general in the Mid 70s. The Momo Jackie Stewart steering wheel, the Momo Clay Regazzoni steering wheel, the Momo Jacky Ickx steering wheel as well as the Momo Niki Lauda steering wheel and the Momo Ronnie Peterson steering wheel were produced between 1974 and 1976, but only the first three models were initially available as early chrome ring helmet horn buttons.
The signature horn buttons on the other hand were only available as the later black plastic ring versions and never came as a set with a signature steering wheel. You could get these individually in retail stores. Not for all the Momo signature steering wheels, but I’ll get into that in a moment. So far I have seen four color schemes, red and yellow with a black signature and black and beige with a silver signature. Though, I haven’t seen all buttons in all color combinations, not even a single Clay Regazzoni signature horn button to this day.
As I said, all Momo signature steering wheels came with a matching helmet horn button. In my humble opinion, the Momo Gianpiero Moretti steering wheel (even though it exists a helmet horn button) and the John Player Special steering wheel are not part of the Momo signature series, neither is the Momo Magnus Walker steering wheel.
What’s interesting, more than half of the helmets on the buttons facing the right side. I would have understood if only the Momo Jackie Stewart helmet horn button would point to the left, since he’s English. But that’s just my attempt to explain the facing direction.
Momo Jackie Stewart helmet horn button & signature horn button
Like I said, the Momo Jackie Stewart helmet horn button was available as early chrome ring version as well as later black plastic ring version. The signature horn button (not pictured) was available in several colours. I’ve had a black button with a silver signature and a yellow button with a black signature. I didn’t keep any of the signature ones (and have no picture).
early Momo Jackie Stewart helmet horn button
later Momo Jackie Stewart helmet horn button
Momo Jackie Stewart signature horn button – black
Momo Jackie Stewart signature horn button – red
Momo Clay Regazzoni helmet horn button & signature horn button
The Clay Regazzoni helmet horn button came in the above mentioned two styles as well, early chrome ring and later plastic ring. However, to this day, I haven’t seen a Clay Regazzoni signature horn button. Not sure if one exists, if you have one of these or just a picture, let me know!
early Momo Clay Regazzoni helmet horn button
later Momo Clay Regazzoni helmet horn button
Momo Jacky Ickx helmet horn button & signature horn button
Another one that came with as early chrome ring version and later black plastic version, the Momo Jacky Ickx helmet horn button and as I said, facing to the left. Besides the black one with the silver signature, I had a beige one with a silver signature as well. Not sure if there are other versions out there.
early Momo Jacky Ickx helmet horn button
later Momo Jacky Ickx helmet horn button
Momo Jacky Ickx signature horn button
Momo Niki Lauda helmet horn button & signature horn button
The Momo Niki Lauda helmet horn button was only available in the later black plastic ring style, same applies to all the other ones that are following. At the same time, the Momo Niki Lauda signature horn button is the one I’ve seen in the most different colors. Yellow with a black signature as pictured, black and beige with a silver signature and red with a black signature.
Momo Niki Lauda helmet horn button
yellow Momo Niki Lauda signature horn button
black Momo Niki Lauda signature horn button
Momo Ronnie Peterson helmet horn button & signature horn button
The Momo Ronnie Peterson helmet horn button is a very rare one to find, same applies to the Niki Lauda helmet horn button by the way.. What would really interest me are production numbers, how many of them were made. But there is no such thing, even the Momo company doesn’t know any of these numbers. So far, I’ve seen only the black signature horn button as pictured and another yellow one with a black signature.
Momo Ronnie Peterson helmet horn button
Momo Ronnie Peterson signature horn button
Momo Gilles Villeneuve helmet horn button & signature horn button
Here you see two very very rare items, the Momo Gilles Villeneuve helmet horn button and signature horn button. Most likely these are the hardest ones to find. That applies to the steering wheel as well, which implies that the production numbers were pretty low on these.
Momo Gilles Villeneuve helmet horn button
Momo Gilles Villeneuve signature horn button
Momo Mario Andretti helmet horn buttons
And here it is, the Momo Mario Andretti helmet horn button, again uberrare and uberhard to find. Just as rare as the horn buttons with Mario Andretti’s helmet are the horn buttons with his signature. They came in black with a silver signature and yellow with a black signature.
Momo Mario Andretti helmet horn button
yellow Momo Mario Andretti signature horn button
black Momo Mario Andretti signature horn button
Dieter Quester, George Follmer & Roland Asch
I don’t have the helmet horn buttons of Dieter Quester, George Follmer and Roland Asch, really sorry that I can’t show them in order to complete the series. I have seen them, but doesn’t own them and never have. And to this day, I haven’t seen signature horn buttons of any of these three guys.
But there is another Momo helmet horn button out there. But not all of these horn buttons are legit, so please be careful.
