'Superfast' wheel designs.

[SMS88]

White and red prepro wheels are fantastic. yet I'm glad lesney kept the fancy for later (1971 Mod Rod)...

More numbers. First : Iso Grifo 14 A in dark blue livery. All wheels are treaded. One detail : Had to hold the car on its feet to read the front wheel numbers (E62 / E52). Usual upside down for rear wheel numbers (E61 / E24).

These wheel numbers match others in this shade which proves that the dark blue bodies with strong blue seats came just before the colour switch to turquoise enamel

[SMS88]

SF 05 A Lotus Europa. Dark blue example without side ridge, no labels, filled front bumper edges so of course with Superfast cast on base. I read 41A - C14 - E31 - 16D. All wheels are treaded.

2 years of production in dark candy blue - this mixture suggests a 1971 car here.

[tjlglass]

Pre pro wheels. Hard work with the iPad camera.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thanks Olivier for those pictures, the details are being noted and hopefully by the end we will have some sort of overall picture. Please if other forum members have info to add here then lets have it, there must be a number of early models out there waiting to reveal their wheel mould numbers, additional to what I have collated so far.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

A couple of crossed postings here but, thanks Tim for the better pictures and yes, the same 'Hand Scribed' numbers and low values.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Those 'Pre-Pro' wheels have a distinctive design with a rounded 'Footprint' enhanced by a narrow ridge that made contact with a surface, thus ensuring minimal contact with the surface, added to a very fine steel axle means low friction between the components. It was a cheaper method than that used by Mattel for their 'Hot Wheels' models, but gave the same results.

There is very little evidence this design was changed much, except one other wheel seen (on a Lamborghini Marzal), with out the separated central 'Disc' area allowing for the 'Hot Foil' trim.

It is also very noticible on the 'Pre-Pro' wheel, there are no attempts at a tread pattern, but this would be a feature added to production wheels. The separate central 'Disc' area was retooled to give the effect of 5 rectangular 'Air-Vents' giving rise to 5 thick section spokes, which when the 'Hot Foil' trim was applied, gave a very realistic looking sports type wheel and the 'Hot Foiled' trim had a bright 'Chrome' effect finish. The 'Footprint' was flattened to a degree with just a hint of the previous narrow ridge and a tread pattern was added to the outside face of the tyre.

This final design of the 'Superfast' wheel was fitted to 5 'Regular' wheel models during mid-69...

#11 Mercedes Scaffold Truck.
#14 Iso Griffo.
#15 VW Beetle.
#33 Lamborghini Miura.
#41 Ford GT.

Then the next 5 models went into production with the new 'Superfast' wheels during late-69...

#5 Lotus Europa.
#20 Lamborghini Marzal.
#35 Merryweather Fire Engine.
#56 BMC 1800 Pininfarina.
#69 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow DHC.

These were not converted from 'Regular' wheel models, but the Merryweather Fire Engine and the Rolls-Royce were intended to be part of that range.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here is #5 Lotus Europa, with the 'Pre-Pro' wheels...

5bpp.jpg (14.62 KiB) Viewed 1678 times

The picture is kindly borrowed from the Lotus guide by Nick Jones.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Those 'Pre-Pro' wheels have a distinctive design with a rounded 'Footprint' enhanced by a narrow ridge that made contact with a surface, thus ensuring minimal contact with the surface, added to a very fine steel axle means low friction between the components. It was a cheaper method than that used by Mattel for their 'Hot Wheels' models, but gave the same results.

There is very little evidence this design was changed much, except one other wheel seen (on a Lamborghini Marzal), with out the separated central 'Disc' area allowing for the 'Hot Foil' trim.

It is also very noticible on the 'Pre-Pro' wheel, there are no attempts at a tread pattern, but this would be a feature added to production wheels. The separate central 'Disc' area was retooled to give the effect of 5 rectangular 'Air-Vents' giving rise to 5 thick section spokes, which when the 'Hot Foil' trim was applied, gave a very realistic looking sports type wheel and the 'Hot Foiled' trim had a bright 'Chrome' effect finish. The 'Footprint' was flattened to a degree with just a hint of the previous narrow ridge and a tread pattern was added to the outside face of the tyre.

This final design of the 'Superfast' wheel was fitted to 5 'Regular' wheel models during mid-69...

#11 Mercedes Scaffold Truck.
#14 Iso Griffo.
#15 VW Beetle.
#33 Lamborghini Miura.
#41 Ford GT.

Then the next 5 models went into production with the new 'Superfast' wheels during late-69...

#5 Lotus Europa.
#20 Lamborghini Marzal.
#35 Merryweather Fire Engine.
#56 BMC 1800 Pininfarina.
#69 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow DHC.

These were not converted from 'Regular' wheel models, but the Merryweather Fire Engine and the Rolls-Royce were intended to be part of that range.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Couple of errors in this big post quoted! We have had this discussion before, the #11 Scaffolding truck was a new RW ONLY release in 1969, NOT converted to SF for a year after release, Merryweather was a 1970 new release. The SF #67 VW + SF62 Cougar were both one of the 1st 10 SF releases in 1969 - 10 cars made for SF tracksets launched for the Christmas 1969 market. F box design timeline gives an almost exact match for SF conversions as observed by american collectors 1969-1970

[GHOSTHUNTER]

That's how I have the #11 Mercedes, a conversion, not concerned with when it was first introduced as a regular wheel model.

As for #35, the Merryweather, are we saying it was not released until some time in 1970, do we know why the delay when it actually existed during 1969 in 'Prototype' form with 'Regular' wheels. What took it's place in the launch line up, the #62 Mercury Cougar or #67 VW ?

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I have just looked at Nick's guide for the #35 Merryweather, and he says the same, "released in time for Christmas 1969 as part of the original wave of the first new SuperFast castings". Technically not a new casting for the 'Superfast' range, because it was born as a 'Regular' wheel model.

I thought I had better check his entry for the #11 Mercedes Scaffold Truck and he says it was converted in 1970, so again if it was not converted in 1969, what was the delay and what took it's place during the mid-69 launch, the Mercury or VW ?

GHOSTHUNTER.