Les Leston x Porsche
Pt.2
Porsche, established by Ferdinand Porsche, commenced its illustrious journey with the production of its inaugural vehicle, the iconic Porsche 356. This lightweight, rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports car was first crafted in a small workshop in Gmünd, Austria, post-World War II, before transitioning production to Stuttgart, Germany. The 356 swiftly earned its place as a stellar performance and handling , cementing Porsche's stature as a purveyor of top-tier sports cars. The timeless silhouette designed in the 1950’s made its way through the 356 series, onto the 911 and still shines through to the newest of Porsches to come out of the mother country. It is a clear brand image that pays homage to that very first model Porsche.
As a manufacturer you have to make sure you create the best possible product at the lowest possible price. It’s just a factor of doing business. This means that sometimes it makes sense to outsource a particular part or item to someone who can provide a better and cheaper finished product. One such company was VDM, Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke A.G, a Porsche supplier. VDM was most noteworthy for the construction of their steering wheels for Porsche.
A base model steering wheel with Deluxe horn ring.
A Les Leston with Deluxe horn ring.
A Carrera 2 steering wheel with Deluxe horn ring.
It might not seem like much but there is a lot of complexity involved with manufacturing a three spoked steering wheel on a large scale. A flat steering wheel is quite simple these days and was back then. No contours or bends makes for easy production, but for the 356B and C this was not the case. As you might notice the steering wheel has two bends, one at the base and one further up where it meets the steering circle. This is called a “dished” steering wheel. The standard and Carrera 2 wheels were formed and pressed from about 1.5mm mild steel then plated to protect it from rusting and create that lovely shine. When bending, mild steel tends to be an easier metal to work with than aluminium as it doesn’t “spring back” anywhere near as much. “Spring back” is the amount of recoil a metal has after you release it during the bending process. This is important to note as the Les Leston constructed by VDM was made from about 4mm thick aluminium. The thicker the metal, the more “spring back”. Forming a flat cutout in a large hydraulic press while maintaining the circular diameter, limiting the aluminium stretching, and accounting for the correct “spring back” is incredibly difficult. Getting it right makes for a structurally strong and perfectly round steering wheel but getting it wrong and it’s in the bin.
Replica steering wheels are everywhere and most of them are pretty good. The quality of finish might not last as long an original and the structural integrity cannot be confirmed but it is usually there. In our case the first LL steering wheel we purchased was said to be an original. They sent us photos of it pre-restoration, mid restoration and when completed as you can see in the images below.
Steering wheel pre-restoration (note the alloy welds at the base of each spoke).
The infamous ‘LL’ logo stamped in the middle spoke.
After it made its journey from overseas we eagerly opened the package, stared in awe, and installed it into the car as soon as we could. It looked amazing! At about the same time we were replacing the original steering shaft for an electric power steering unit from EZ Steering and opted to add a collapsable steering column for safety and engineering purposes. One day when we were undoing the steering wheel retaining nut to remove the steering wheel from the standard steering shaft. Left hand on the steering wheel and right hand on the breaker bar then snap! The steering wheel snapped at the spokes!
Our jaw hit the floor!
Sub-par welds with no penetration.
Upon further inspection we noticed where it failed was the exact area it was welded. Note the poor welding penetration in the aluminium. It is wild to us that someone would sell this for thousands of dollars. We are lucky this happened now and not mid corner!
This incident sparked the deep investigative hole we went down and discovered the truth about LL steering wheels, the terrible replicas out there and how to spot one. We will now breakdown the majority of details that will save you the trouble we went through.
Firstly and most importantly! If the steering wheel has weld marks at the base or has been welded in any way do not buy it. It is a dangerous purchase and the steering wheel will fail eventually. The reason why bad replicas are welded is because they are not able to obtain that perfect bend we mentioned above and it is only noticeable if you have a deluxe horn ring. The 1st and 2nd image above show how close the deluxe horn is to the replica wheel spoke, the horn ring actually touched the wheel spoke, compared to the 3rd image where the horn ring spokes are perfectly parallel to the spoke of the original steering wheel and it does not touch when pressed. That’s what you want!
All hand “engine turning” was 16mm in diameter on the face.
The lacquer should go around the spoke and the timber should be free of any engine turning marks.
Note the steering wheel and female spline are riveted together on the original LL unlike the replica above that is bolted together.
Pressed rivets are about 9mm in diameter.
The VDM logo must be present on the female spline.
Note the sharpness of the spline and clarity of the VDM logo embossing.
The horn cap retainer is also riveted with 5mm rivets.
One online article noted a longer horn button needed for the deluxe horn ring but that’s bull and only when a spacer is needed between the horn cap retainer and steering wheel so the horn ring doesn’t touch the wheel spoke like we spoke about earlier. The original 45mm horn button is to be used.