Knock-Offs

One area that I've never paid much attention to is the knock-offs that are used with the wheels on the 330 GT.

A while ago, Lowell Brown (8855GT) was told that the knock-offs for the Borrani wire wheels and the Campagnolo alloy wheels were mechanically different and should not be mixed up.

A few days ago, Howard Pigdon (7837GT) asked about straight eared vs. curved eared knock-offs for alloy wheels.  He also contended that one should not mix the Borrani and Campagnolo knock-offs due to a mechanical difference where the knock-off and wheel mate.

So I spent some time looking into this, specifically looking at period pictures published when the cars were new and presumably still had the original knock-offs.  From those pictures, all of the 330 GT Borrani equipped cars (both 4HL and 2HL) used a knock-off with the Borrani engraving in a concave (dished) center which had curved ears.

An earlier version such as on PF Coupes have a convex (domed) center.

The period pictures (with one exception) all show straight eared Ferrari horse engraved knock-offs on 2HL cars with Campagnolo alloy wheels.  The latest car originally equipped with alloy wheels that currently has straight eared knock-offs that I know of is 8289.  However, 8283 was originally equipped with alloy wheels but has curved eared knock-offs in a picture from 1977.  8279 was when Ferrari changed a number of things, including going to the 2 mount engine and 571/66 transmission.  So that would have been a logical time to also change the knock-off style.

Straight eared knock-off for Campagnolo wheels

Curved eared knock-off for Campagnolo wheels

I also spent some time trying to determine if there were mechanical differences in the mating surfaces between Borrani and Campagnolo wheels.  As best I can determine, the angle and size of the mating surfaces are identical, so there is no need to change knock-off types when changing wheel types except for cosmetic reasons.  Obviously, one would be dinged at a concours if the knock-off engraving was incorrect for the wheel type.

As far as using either straight or curved eared knock-offs with alloy wheels, it seems that Ferrari supplied straight eared ones to ~8300 and then changed to curved eared ones.  So early 2HL cars with knock-offs should have straight eared knock-offs while later ones should have curved eared ones.