Pics of 355 with Challenge Rims

I should be able to post some pics of mine by next week. Just got a set of Challenge wheels restored and ready to mount on my giallo yellow 355 berlinetta. I also ordered a set of OMP WR Challenge seats in red. I had the wheels restored back to white as original on one of JMBs cars. Here is a shot of the wheels, next pics will be on the car, can't wait. I wish I could find a source for the Speedline decals to finish them off.

http://www.miniwerks.com/models/355wheels.jpg

 

Original challenge wheels were more of off white. I don't know if I like the white on silver. Here's white on black 348.
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Richard, I love the white on black, gorgeous. Silver is too common and you expect that on a car, your car is an exotic, it should look exotic. How did get the Speedline decals? I need a set for my freshly restored white Challenge wheels. Thanks, Mike

 

Here's a picture of my Challenge car with the white wheels. I think these wheels look GREAT on a red car, and I have been cleaning and touching them up to get ready for the Concorso Italiano in Monterey, CA next week.
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I will be at Concorso Italiano also. I am taking my yellow 355 with white challenge wheels but won't be showing it. I like to catch Laguna before the crowds, all day at Concorso is a bit much.

 

Mike, a decal could be made easily if you have the correct font and know the correct size. My brother has a sticker/decal machine. PM if you have the info.

 

Mike,

They are individual letter stickers that the guy that repainted the wheels made. I took them to my local mechanic and he had them refinished locally, but I don't know who. He recreated them to match the original lettering

The wheels were the actual wheels that were used on the car for the challenge series in '96. I was able to contact the previous owner and he had them in storage.

Richard
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Thank you Richard and Ray. That is the best shot the Speedline lettering I have seen. I should be able to determine the font from that, thanks Richard. Is it a vinyl type lettering or more like a decal? When I had Tecnomagnesios on my NSX, they had red lettering that was pretty thick but very resilient. Are yours holding up well?

 

Argento Nurburgring with Challenge wheels refinished in gun metal gray. I just love wheels in dark-colored finishes, not necessarily black.

Cheers, Alex
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I love the silver wheels. I almost did mine in silver, but wanted to keep more original from challenge race.

The lettering is more of vinyl sticker than a decal. The vinyl was what was on there originally as well. It has held up well so far. It's only been since March that the wheels were redone.

 

Alex,

Well done - this is a great color combo, I love the yellow "speedline"

 

Alex, I agree, those look perfect with your car. How did you make the Speedline decals? Still trying to figure out the best way to do those for mine. I may do red lettering.

 

Here's another photo of a 348 for sale in Texas with Speedline Challenge wheels.

Also cleaned up the stand alone wheel photo for better viewing.

Speedline's history in the US is quite interesting.

I was the first to import and distribute the wheels in 1975. They had two wheel types at that time. One was multi-piece aluminum for F1 type racing which was big then in Europe (wheel sales that is) and the second was a cast aluminum style.

The cast aluminum wheels were what I started with for general sales, and I began marketing the multi-piece wheels to Indy racers. Indy wheels at that time were mosty mangesium which burned in an accident. So, drivers wanted a more reliable less dangerous wheel.

Since at that time accessory wheels were a somewhat new thing, my products liablility insurance company did not want the exposure. They advised in early 1977 that my policy premium would be annually $10,000.00! Well, that was a ridiculous amount at that time, and I made a decision to get out of that part of the business.

So, I distributed the wheels through mid-1977 whereupon I handed the distribution over to a company in Florida.

That only lasted a few years, and then distribution perpetually floundered in the US culminating with the death of the Italian company's owner and the family not interested in continuing the business.

Speedline was purchased in the 80's by a large US parts firm which subsequently went bankrupt.

So, unfortunately, the history is peppered but distribution is spotty here.
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I took over the distributorship with a friend just for fun a couple of years ago. It was fairly lucrative but it was a pain to get stuff from overseas so we handed it back last year.

 

This is why they have had such a peppered past.

The company was started originally as a hobby for the owner who was in the shipping business. He was Italy's answer to Onassis at the time.

When he died, that was the end.

Your experience was not unlike that of others who were involved.

I brought in container loads of wheels, because I had the resources.

I think that since then few who worked with the product have had the deep financial capability, and that's certainly no reflection on you Sherpa.

The only way Italian companies take business partners seriously is when large container quantities are ordered regularly, and with the cost of shipping today this is the only way to make the product profitable.

I believe the Italian manufacturer's were the early Asians!

 

Don't worry. You're absolutely right in your assessment. That was certainly the case with us - it was a hobby, fun to do, we had the means to pay for the shipments and we had fun selling them. as I said, we did a good job and it was fairly lucrative. The problem came when it was time to reorder them. That stunk. And, they're no longer made in Italy but in Japan. And really, the tolerances are spot on. Really great wheels. I have a set on my Ferrari, as do you.

 

I have a black 355 with the white CH wheels - looks okay, but will be better when they get repainted satin black

In the meantime, I have a set of original speedline decals that I can scan and send to anyone who needs the artwork in order to have a set made.

Dave

 

Actually the wheels on my 360 were sold by FofW as Speedline but were actually SAC who is no longer in business. Champion in Fla bought their assets and now make a similar design but for the Porsche 911 series only.

The wheels were made in Japan, and my guess is by Enkei.

Nice wheels but use small diameter mounting bolts (17 mm heads), and the offset is a bit too negative. The small bolts are a problem as nothing else will fit.

I tried a bolt from ECS Tuning, but it's head is 22 mm! They are great folks at ECS and very helpful and cooperative. I highly recommend them if anyone needs wheels bolts (other than 17 mm head diameter!).

So, I today ordered 15 mm spacers from Daniel at Ricambi for the rear wheels, but I have to have Hill make me special bolts to mount them! That's a 4-6 week wait.

 

absolutely amazing!!!!!

 

SuperNice rims - metal gray wheels with yellow Ferrari decals, speedline, and tyre cap are great matching indeed! - very nice details!!!

 

Thanks to everybody who complimented my car. I absolutely love those rims, and the whole car as well as a package. There was some drama involved trying to get a decent set of tires on them (just a series of unfortunate events), but was all worth it in the end.

Here's where I got the speedline stickers:

http://www.speedysigns.com

You can actually design the sticker on their site, and it wasn't a complicated process at all. I opted for a more "modern" look, with an "upscale" font (as compared to the Arial-like stock font) placed a thin black border around the edges of the yellow letters to match the center cap, and "squished" the letters together for a different look. But you can choose the font,color, spacing, the thickness (or abscence) and color of the border, and of course, size.

They are not vinyl-cut stickers, but more like print underneath a clear plastic sheet. I think it looks very nice, and it looks like it is much more durable than the individually cut vinyl. The clear plastic sheet does provide protection.

Hope this helps.

Alex

 

I had a 355 Challenge back in 1988 when they were still current race cars and everything was still available for them. I bought new wheels at the time and the speedline stickers were different to what has been posted here.
I had sheets of stickers made from the original stickers that came on the wheels.
If anyone is interrested I can scan and post them here. Let me know if anyone wants this done and I will dig them out.