Early 70's Ronal Wheels

JKaissar · February 23, 2016, 02:00:32 PM

Hi All,

I have done a search on this, but I just cannot seem to find any information on this set of Ronal wheels I have.

I bought them whilst I was living in Japan for my 105 that was at home in Melbourne. I fell in love with the wheels at an Alfa enthusiast meet in Nagoya after seeing them on a 1750GT. It took about 3 months, but I was finally able to buy them and bring them back with me.

Unfortunately I had to sell my 105 back home, but since I always intended to buy another, I kept the wheels in storage under the house for close to 5 years now.

I am re-locating to the USA in April and thinking about what I should do with the wheels?
Can anyone let me know if they are worth keeping, or at least what model/year they are so that I can reluctantly advertise them for sale.

Any info would be great.

thanks,
Joe

carlo rossi · February 23, 2016, 06:31:16 PM

have you emailed ronal in germany they would know
they look alittle like the DINO wheels
sales.de@ronalgroup.com

JKaissar · February 23, 2016, 08:43:45 PM

Thank you for the tip.
I will email them and see what I get back.
If you have any idea what this set would be worth in fairly good condition, please let me know.
I would be happy to sell them for a low price to an Alfa Club member that has a car they can go on. Would love to see them on a 105 again.

Joe

JKaissar · February 24, 2016, 07:29:34 AM

Turns out they are quite rare and manufactured specifically for Alfa Romeo back in 1971.

This is what Ronal replied overnight;
"
It is a Ronal aftermarket wheel called the R2, one of the first Ronal designs ever made.
The size is 6x14. The marking 7105 might be the production date (may 1971 ??).
That fits together with the very unusual item no 14604.05. Only in a price list from 1971 we were able to find this no.
There are no further details known about this wheel.
The only remark in the list is Alfa (for Alfa Romeo) and we suppose it has a PCD of 4x108.
So we suppose the wheel was made for 4x108 Alfa Romeo cars of that time (Spider??)
"

carlo rossi · February 24, 2016, 10:36:44 AM

they are a little rough but they are old school (not chinese)
you would have to think at least $150 each
i would keep them and get someone to tidy them up
then you would have wheels worth thousands
and maybe ebay them in europe

alfamisa · February 24, 2016, 04:15:15 PM

Quote from: JKaissar on February 24, 2016, 07:29:34 AM
Turns out they are quite rare and manufactured specifically for Alfa Romeo back in 1971.

This is what Ronal replied overnight;
"
It is a Ronal aftermarket wheel called the R2, one of the first Ronal designs ever made.
The size is 6x14. The marking 7105 might be the production date (may 1971 ??).
That fits together with the very unusual item no 14604.05. Only in a price list from 1971 we were able to find this no.
There are no further details known about this wheel.
The only remark in the list is Alfa (for Alfa Romeo) and we suppose it has a PCD of 4x108.
So we suppose the wheel was made for 4x108 Alfa Romeo cars of that time (Spider??)
"

Looks like someone else has been baffled by a set of wheels that someone thought were Ronal wheels back in 2012 on AlfaBB forum but they weren't the same wheel. Here is the pic someone posted so at least you can see what yours would look like all cleaned up.

FYI here was the post in AlfaBB and back then someone in NSW was interested to get these wheels...who knows maybe might still be?
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/picture-room/10299-post-pic-your-alfa-266.html

PS Here is the text from history of RONAL but can't see the design of the wheels mentioned. I will post the link to the pdf file;

"The first wheels that were sand cast by the independent foundry in Weingarten and machined by Karl Wirth in Walldorf were fitted on an Alfa Romeo Duetto in the spring of '69. At the same time RONAL was born, a composition of the existing name RON with the first two letters of ALuminium, the key material of the RONAL cast aluminium wheel venture."

Full text here;
http://www.ronalgroup.com/hauptseiteduschen/ueberuns/ronalhistory.pdf

EDIT - I found the same design wheel that clearly in this case fits a bmw 2002 that a guy in Viginia USA bought in 2012. It is a current blog (posted last night) so maybe contact him and ask for details like pcd, offset, model name/code etc and ask price...it could be a lead either to identify or sell to another person on the blog;

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/120951-2002ti-wannabe-project-begins/page-7
PS I know he's a bmw owner

but at least you could contact him, it's for a good cause

alfamisa · February 24, 2016, 05:02:38 PM

OK finally found out they are called Kleeblat which translates to Cloverleaf...

http://tinyurl.com/h6x3kkj

JKaissar · February 25, 2016, 07:50:43 AM

Wow alfamisa, thank you so much for your help.
I would love to see them on another 105, so I will have to think over the next few days if I will keep them in the hope of owning another one in the future, or sell them to someone that has one.
I really don't want to see them on a non-Alfa.

I also found out that they were once popular with MkI and MkII Ford Escorts as they have the same PCD.
thanks again.