MOMO VIRGILIO CONRERO STEERING WHEEL
Mads van Appeldoorn
August 4, 2020
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OPSW – Other peoples steering wheels
The other day I got an email from a fellow with questions regarding the steering wheel in the picture. His son bought the steering wheel years ago at the Porsche swap meet in Hershey, PA, he wanted it for his 924 Turbo, his first car at the age of 16. The colour matched the wheels the 924 had at the time and basically, he thought it looks cool.
The 924 Turbo is long gone, it was a challenge to keep it running since a lot of parts were no longer available. So the son sold the car but kept the steering wheel. So it went into the fathers 73 911T. And John, the father wanted to know more about this specific model, the history and also if it’s worth recovering. He even contacted the Momo company and asked questions. But unfortunately, they couldn’t help him which is, I hate to say it, not surprising. This is where I came in.
Momo Virgilio Conrero owned by John
At first sight it looks like a Momo Jackie Stewart but it isn’t. It has a semi dish and the rim is not as thick as the Momo Jackie Stewart. The diameter is 350mm, like quite a number of Momo steering wheels.
Momo Virgilio Conrero in Johns 73 911T
The bespoke 911T
When new, it also had a signature on the right spoke which has vanished over the years. The Momo Virgilio Conrero was also available in black anodized.
Talked to my buddy Jannik, a true aluminium expert, this morning about that very special colour. He’s got two possible explanations as to why it looks the way it does. One, it has been alkaline cleaned and is high alloy. Or two, it has been anodized and coloured and has faded over the years. Pretty special no matter what the reason for that colour is.
I’ve seen a number of those steering wheels over the years, however, never bought one due to the rather bad conditions they had. It was available with a stacked Momo logo (1968-1973) and with the later Momo logo and “Made in Italy” on the back of the center spoke (1974-1976). Just a couple of weeks ago I even saw one without the Virgilio Conrero Signature but the GT Logo – as in – Momo GT Steering Wheel.
Btw the logo on the center spoke is not original, someone added his personal taste to the wheel.
And Virgilio Conrero?
Virgilio Conrero was an an Italian automotive engineer and racing team manager. He is known for tuning and racing cars, a real engine genius. His passion was always speed and in 1951 the founded “Autotecnica Conrero”. At first he started tuning Alfa Romeos and until 1969, his cars won over 1000 trophies.
In the early 1960s he even entered the Formula 1 with the legendary De Tomaso-Conrero race car. In the mid 1960s he started working with Renault, Ford, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Honda. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked with Opel and won a huge number of trophies, the total amount was over 3000 at the time.
Virgilio Conrero died in 1990, however the company kept working with Opel and in the 1990s, they won a lot of touring car races with the Opel Kadett Conrero and later the Opel Calibra Conrero.
In the mid 2000s, the Conrero racing team participated in the Porsche SuperCup Series with two Porsche 911 GT3, Riccitelli and Sauvage won two trophies of that series.
In over 50 years the Conrero team won over 4000 trophies. And obviously, they somehow convinced Gianpiero Moretti & Momo to design a very special Momo Virgilio Conrero Steering Wheel for them.
Momo did those specials a few times, but most of these models are not known to the general public, like the Momo Virgilio Conrero, the Momo Scioneri or the Momo DeSanctis.
