The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

Then, the fun began. One only need google “Springall Steering Wheels” to read of the rich history of Springall with Lotus, Cortinas, Mini and many formula cars. Springall Manufacturing was active in producing steering wheels until around the late 1970s, when they ended manufacturing on a commercial scale. David Stanley, the man who originally manufactured all of the Les Leston-brand steering wheels for the Walsall Wheel Com- pany and who worked closely with Peter Springall, continued manufac- turing Springall wheels for Lotus Cars and many other brands on his own, al- beit in smaller numbers but keeping the brand alive. Just prior to Stanley’s Death, Mark Davies was in contact with David and acquired original tool- ing and patterns along with drawings and a wealth of information, enough to continue the brand and trademark ‘Springall,’ which was re-registered and is still used to this date. FYI, Jim Clark won his second World Champi- onship and the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with Springall a steering wheel. When I contacted Mark, the term “Shelby”’ rang a bell, so over the next weekend he dug around for old draw- ings and discovered that he had the original Springall drawings for the GT350 Mustang, and shortly after found the original corresponding tool- ing along with a special log of wood used on those and other wheels in the 60s. He promptly sent me a photo of the original blueprint title block and the revision block. Mark Davies continues to manu- facture and supply Springall Steering wheels to this day and is an OEM sup- plier to Classic Team Lotus, Jaguar Cars and Aston Martin, to name just a few. From social media and the SAAC Forum, I discovered that I was not alone in my quest for a perfect steering wheel with 3 holes for my ‘65 GT350. Several SAAC members con- tacted me privately to encourage me to get it right. RichWilliams (5S196) con- tacted me with dimensions of his orig- inal wheel and also lamented that he had been somewhat misled when he bought what he thought was a correct wheel from the same company that supplied my two wheels. His plan was to use the reproduction wheel as a daily driver and preserve his some- what worn original wheel in his man cave. After several phone discussions about measurements, Rich graciously sent me his original wheel by armored car for safe keeping during my quest eighteen-month quest. Next, in collaboration with Mark Davies at Springall, we confirmed the dimensions I got off of Rich William’s original 5S196 wheel against Spring- hall’s drawings and tooling. Before I ordered a wheel I wanted to confirm all the dimensions with a second wheel. I had measurements from 5S328 from the now defunct World of Speed. I then visited Steve Beck in Los Angeles on my next trip south and he offered to let me measure his original wheel off 5S258 and provided me sev- eral photos. I also contacted Howard Pardee who sent me a drawing showing hole diameters and spacing of an early ‘65 wheel from Scott Evans’ 5S117. I was surprised to discover the hole diame- ters were different from other original 3-hole wheels I had measured in per- son. This was something that appar- ently others already knew – that there were actually two different 3-hole wheels! The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 110 Original Shelby GT350 Drawing [ left ] No- vember 9, 1964 (P.D.S = Peter D. Springall) Change block [ above ] shows the latest change was January 16th, 1965. Note that there may be other drawings still missing. Original wheel from 5S196, thanks to Rich Williams. Note the circumferential layup of the mahogany strips. Current Springall/Jacob Engineering manufacturing process.