Is it time to replace your race suit? Let’s get you track-ready. Customer Car: An OMP Mugello Wood Wheel In A Triumph Vitesse
Customer car, Triumph Vitesse
A set of photographs landed with us this week from the owner of a Triumph Vitesse convertible, and the car deserves showing off. The order was a small one, a steering wheel and the boss kit to mount it, but the result is the sort of finish that makes the whole job worth doing properly.
Thank you for sending them over. We do not get to see where most of what leaves here ends up, so a couple of pictures of the finished car is genuinely the best part of the week.
- Triumph Vitesse convertible, order GSM-43770
- OMP Mugello, 350mm, wood rim, three aluminium spokes
- Flat wheel, 0mm of dish, horn push included
- MOMO boss kit machined for the Triumph Vitesse, all years
- Wheel and boss both 6 x 70mm, so they bolt straight together
- Bolt on fit, and the original wheel goes back on whenever you want it
What went in
The wheel. The OMP Mugello is a 350mm three spoke wheel with a wood rim and polished aluminium spokes. It is flat, 0mm of dish, so it sits where the boss puts it and does not pull the rim closer to the driver. On a car like this the wood is the whole point, because a Vitesse dashboard is a wood veneer fascia and a modern suede rim would sit against it looking like exactly what it is. The horn push is in the box.
The boss kit. The wheel cannot bolt to the column on its own. The boss is the machined aluminium adaptor that takes the Vitesse column spline on one side and presents a flat six bolt face on the other. This one is cut for the Triumph Vitesse and covers all years of the car. It is a bolt on part and everything needed to complete the fit comes with it.
Why these two parts mate
The number that matters on any wheel and boss job is the bolt circle, the diameter of the ring the six bolts sit on. Get a wheel and a boss with different circles and they will not go together, no matter how well each one fits its own end of the job.
This MOMO boss is drilled 6 x 70mm. So is the OMP wheel. Every MOMO, OMP and Sparco hub on our shelves is 6 x 70mm and their wheels are drilled to match, which is why a wheel from one of those three and a boss from another will still bolt together. It is only when a wheel from outside that group arrives, on a 6 x 74mm circle, that a spacer enters the conversation.
How the fit goes
It is a straightforward job on a Vitesse and it goes in this order.
Disconnect the battery first. Take the horn push out of the centre of the original wheel, then the nut underneath it, and mark the column and the wheel so you know where straight ahead was. Pull the old wheel off the spline. Slide the boss on, making sure the horn wire is fed through as you go, and torque the column nut down. Then the wheel goes onto the six bolt face of the boss.
Two things worth saying. Set the road wheels dead straight before the new wheel goes on, because that is the only chance to get the spokes sitting where you want them. And connect the horn while the boss is off the column, not after, because getting a hand behind a fitted wheel to do it is a miserable ten minutes.
A word about the car
The Vitesse is a Triumph Herald with a six cylinder engine in it, and that undersells it more than it should. Standard Triumph built it from 1962 to 1971 in saloon and convertible form, on the Herald chassis and wearing Giovanni Michelotti bodywork with the four headlamp nose that tells the two cars apart at a glance.
It started as a 1.6 litre and gained a 2 litre in 1966. The Mk2 of 1968 brought a new grille, a redesigned fascia, more power and revised rear suspension, and convertible production finished in May 1971. A small, light, six cylinder British convertible with a wood dashboard is a very good place for a wood rim wheel to end up.
Doing the same on yours
If you want the same on your own car, the two things we need from you are the car and the wheel. The boss is cut per vehicle, so the model and the year settle which one you need, and we list bosses for far more classics than most people expect. The wheel is then down to diameter, dish and what the dashboard already looks like.
If the car has an airbag, say so, because that changes the answer completely and it is not a job to work out halfway through.
Do I need anything else besides the wheel and the boss?
On this car, no. The boss comes with its fixings and the Mugello comes with its horn push. A spacer only enters the picture when the wheel and the boss are drilled to different bolt circles, or when you want the rim closer to you than the boss puts it.
Will a wood rim wheel take the weather in an open car?
It will if you treat it like the wood on the dashboard. Keep it out of standing water, wipe it dry after a wet run and give it a wipe of oil now and then. A tonneau or the hood on when it is parked does most of the work.
Is 350mm the right size for a classic?
It is the common choice and it is what went in here. Smaller than the original wheel sharpens the steering feel and frees up room to get in, but a car with no power steering gets heavier to park the smaller you go. Tell us the car and we will tell you where the sensible limit is.
Can I keep the original wheel?
Yes, and we would. The boss bolts on and comes back off, so the standard wheel goes in the loft and back on the car whenever you want it. Nothing about this fit is permanent.
Garreth and Cameron have been supplying steering wheels, bosses and spacers since 2003. Tell us the car and whether it has an airbag and we will confirm the whole order before you buy any of it.
