The MOMO F1 steering wheel - late 80s vintage MOMO.
For some reason, most of the current steering wheels on the market don't really excite me. They're either
too 2nr-ish, or too small, or not the right shape... I guess I'm a little picky. However, there shouldn't
be anything wrong with being picky about a steering wheel. It's the tool you hold onto while in the car. It
should be just right.
MOMO made the F1 model steering wheel back in the late 80s. It's a "D shaped" or d-cut wheel, which means
it's flat on the bottom. The Mazdaspeed D-cut wheel is quite popular with the Miata crowd, but it's just not
quite what I wanted. The rim is a little too thin and the leather is a little too hard. And it's not MOMO. And
a buddy already has one. But anyways, back to the F1. It's a 350mm wheel with flat handholds and a thick rim.
They seem to be very rare. I had to wait for a good one to show up on ebay for over a year. I topped it off
with a MOMO CORSE horn button that I purchased on ebay about 6 months prior to match my MOMO CORSE 1000 Lakes
seat.
A view through the F1.
Most D-cut wheels are a bit egg-shaped at the top to facilitate easy viewing of the gauges behind them. The F1
is no different. I was holding the camera a little low for this shot, but you get the idea. None of the
gauges are obscured, not even the top edges. MOMO did another interesting thing with the rim. It's pretty
thin in the up-down dimension (the angle you're seeing), but it's quite thick in the in-out dimension. This
gives you a wheel that feels beefy, yet looks relatively thin and doesn't get in the way of your gauges.
Those MOMO designers.... pretty smart.
Check out the increased legroom!
Legroom is the reason for making a D-cut wheel, and the F1 gives you alot of it. But the shape of the wheel
gives you such tactile feedback. When you're holding the flat sides of the wheel, you feel a sense of purpose.
When you're shuffling the wheel around and you go from rounded to flat to rounded, it just feels right.
MOMO Typ36 '70s vintage - My other wheel.
Maybe I just like vintage MOMO wheels? This one was originally purchased from the MOMO factory in Italy
in the late 70s by a friend on his honeymoon. He used it on his old GTI for a few years, then hung it in the
original plastic MOMO bag in his closet for the next many years. I then purchased it.
The Typ36 is round and pretty unassuming, but that's what I like about it. It can be mistaken for a stock wheel.
It's a 360mm model, so it feels a little bigger than the F1. You can see the lack of legroom with such a round
wheel from the photo. But it has an incredibly thick rim. It's hard to wrap your fingers completely around it.
Also, the leather is incredibly soft and supple. It's a very nice wheel. I switch back and forth between the
two wheels depending on how I feel that month. I'll probably add a few more steering wheels to my collection as
time passes. It's nice to have options.
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