"Von Neumann TR" Steering Wheel on eBay

For me it's seem to be 500TR : 0650TR, another Neumann's car ?
Gilles

 

Confirmed as 0650MDTR as it has a visible slit at base of wind screen and and airscoop on left front fender.

Best wishes, Kare

 

this doesn't answer your question, Wayne (and I'm at work, so I can't check right now), but the first place I'd check is the big 2-part article that Mike Lynch(?) did that accounted for all of the Von Neumann Ferraris - was it Prancing Horse about 6 months ago?

SO which car is the seller saying the wheel came from? in his write-up he says that Phil Hill drove 0768TR in the Riverside race which is correct. But several sentences later he says that this is the wheel from the car that Josie drove in the Riverside race. So is this the wheel from 0704TR? and then why the reference to 0768TR in the main listing for the wheel?

the pics of 0704 on Barchetta indicate that the car (when the pics were taken) has a decent patina - if you believe that the wheel was permanently removed from the car, when and why would this have been done?

confused and a little disgusted

I see from Kare that the mystery car has been identified.

 

I seem to remember that Pete Lovely and Butch Dennison lovingly restored the original steering wheel from TR59 0768. It was badly dried out, and they had to "rejuvinate" the wood rim over a period of time in order to save it.

 

Is that a fancy way of saying that they had to completely replace the wood so that in the end, the wood is no more original to the Ferrari than the handle to Grandpa's ax is original after replacing the broken handle with a replacement from the hardware store?

 

100% wrong.

 

AFAIK, steering wheels were quite easily damaged in mild accidents when drivers were thrown against them. Therefore I think pinpointing a chassis number for a replaced steering wheel (in hope to get it sold for a profit) is something like claiming race results for a spark plug.

 

I agree, Kare - the only exception I can think of would be the 4-spoked steering wheels that Ferrari provided on Mike Hawthorn's cars. But then again, Ferrari may have just made a few 4-spoked wheels that simply moved with Mike?