Object number: T202693
Object Description: 3D Printed Vulcan Steering Wheel
Object Type: Artefacts
It is sometimes the case that in an archive, there are boxes with completely unknown contents. Taking the lid off becomes a bit of a gamble – will it be something exciting and straightforward to catalogue, or something that ends up becoming extremely complicated and you end up wishing you had never peeked at it?
In this case, recently delving into a mysterious box has proved quite pleasing, as one of the items was this 3D printed design model of a steering wheel for a Vulcan, c.2016.
The Vulcan seems to be a car that isn’t mentioned all that often, perhaps because this hypercar was solely designed for the track and was limited to only 24 cars. It has been 10 years since the production cars were delivered to customers during 2016, so this month’s ‘object in focus’ is a nice little anniversary nod.
The model steering wheel is full size, measuring around 32cm in width and 23cm in height. It is made of a cream-coloured plastic with a wooden dowel in the rear acting as a steering column.
The Aston Martin wings motif is in the middle and all the carefully designed and placed buttons can be seen. As to their intended function, a bit of research into a Vulcan steering wheel was required…
The diamond-shaped button at the bottom is the start button. The buttons on the horizontal section are for headlights and radio comms (left), and a Pit Lane speed limiter, neutral, and wipers (right). The protruding elements underneath have buttons for cycling through your display (left) and a fuel button (right). These also have rotaries on the end for changing the anti-lock braking system (ABS) settings (left) and the traction control (right). The rear of the wheel has buttons for the indicators, and slots for where the paddle shifters would be for changing gear.
What makes this object unusual, is that it has a full circumference outer ring. The standard design of the Vulcan steering wheel is an wide ‘U’ shape, without the top piece. The full wheel was designed specifically for a customer wanting to race their Vulcan in the UK. The UK Motor Sports Association (MSA) regulations stated that a full circumference steering wheel was required, hence the addition to the original design.
So quite a unique piece as it turns out, which I hope you’ll agree is ‘wheely’ quite interesting!
Bryony Gray - Collections and Research Assistant
