TheSamba.com :: View topic - Original BRMs: History, Stories, Pictures, Provenance, Survivors

Mon Mar 24, 2025 12:05 am

Bill Schwimmer wrote: Cool thread!! I have owned 3 sets and a single. They all have a story behind them.
I knew you'd show up here in this topic. Now that you've told us about the single, it seems there are 3 more stories left.

I recall one about a kid wearing a sign on his back as he walked with his father in the parking lot of the Phoenix Bug-O-Rama...

Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:09 am

I've owned and sold ALOT of brm's over the years but heres a cool story .... its been raining all week here in the high desert so the first day of sunshine I go out for a drive and luckily i am one of those guys that drives and looks at everything when driving ALWAYS looking for that score and i guess the empi gods were throwing me a bone that day because on top of of a trashcan I saw it and couldn't believe it but it was a vw rim looked like a brm but i was thinking a flat 4 wheel but nope it was a real magnesium brm so i stopped and grabbed it knocked on the door to ask if there were more the family just moved there and they said this was in rhe backyard no other wheels. I used this rim to have signed by the bergs ,dyno don , lee leighton (he signed it twice he was alittle tipsy that day LOL) i since sold that wheel to Nigel Fleet in the UK

Pic of it when found and pics of the vw gods signatures

Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:18 am

restojohnny wrote: Heres a discussion we had on the prototype brms on Cal-look lounge regarding his (jakes) brms good read
http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,24752.0.html
Quote: Yes that's definitely one of the 4 prototype wheels made..So now all 4 are found. Chris Morley has 2 of them here in California [Wheel 1 & Wheel 2], [Wheel 3] is in a very VERY private collection also here in California, and now yours [Wheel 4].

[Wheels 1, 2 & 3] will NEVER leave the owners display EVER but then again everything has a price right Wink

[Wheel 4] looks very solid to me. I'd roll'em all if I could get the other 2 from Chris!
Johnny, it’s your quote from this Cal Look Forum thread that has me thinking that all 4 Prototype rims survive…

Wheel 1: Chris Morley, CA
Wheel 2: Chris Morley, CA
Wheel 3: Johnny! CA
Wheel 4: Richard Roth, OH
Please can you clarify/confirm that?
Are there any pictures of Chris’ wheels?[/quote]

Ohhhhh thst sounds about right my friend :wink:
As for Chris's wheel's i last heard they were with KOBUS but don't quote me n that :P

Mon Mar 24, 2025 9:26 am

Johnny! Wheel 3. Cool! Where’s the picture?

I saw your 2012 Trashcan BRM story. I thought, “Surely not!” Brilliant.
Nigel’s name comes up frequently when it comes to BRMs

Looks like you have quite the collection. Respect!
Wheel 1 & Wheel 2…I hope Kobus pays the thread a visit! Or Chris M

Mon Mar 24, 2025 10:47 am

Yes I've sold Nigel a clean set of BRM's also that I bought from thorton probably the nicest used set next to my NOS set of brms. The story on how Thorton got these wheels is a cool story also but its his to tell 8)

Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:37 pm

RockStock wrote: Jake Martinez wrote: I believe that was the wheel I had that I posted for offers at one time? It ended up selling to Richard Roth in ohio.

I bought the 4 wheels in the fall of 2014 out of Georgia. The guy i got them from had them in his attic for 25-30 years. He told me they had came off a 356 race car. Regret selling it at times but I was 22 trying to buy my first house.
Thanks Jake. What a great find at that age! Top picture.
So we’re calling this Wheel 4…the last one I referred to…now Richard Roth’s, restored by Dean, currently at the Schley museum.

restojohnny wrote: Heres a discussion we had on the prototype brms on Cal-look lounge regarding his (jakes) brms good read
http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,24752.0.html
Quote: Yes that's definitely one of the 4 prototype wheels made..So now all 4 are found. Chris Morley has 2 of them here in California [Wheel 1 & Wheel 2], [Wheel 3] is in a very VERY private collection also here in California, and now yours [Wheel 4].

[Wheels 1, 2 & 3] will NEVER leave the owners display EVER but then again everything has a price right Wink

[Wheel 4] looks very solid to me. I'd roll'em all if I could get the other 2 from Chris!
Johnny, it’s your quote from this Cal Look Forum thread that has me thinking that all 4 Prototype rims survive…

Wheel 1: Chris Morley, CA
Wheel 2: Chris Morley, CA
Wheel 3: Johnny! CA
Wheel 4: Richard Roth, OH
Please can you clarify/confirm that?
Are there any pictures of Chris’ wheels? yea it was quite the find of a life time for me. I sold the wheel in 2016 to Richard for cash plus trade. The wheel is still in Richard's possession not in the Schley museum.

Mon Mar 24, 2025 4:10 pm

Thanks Jake. I’ve corrected my post. Hope the house purchase worked out ok!
I’ll use this as an excuse to post some more Prototype BRM Inch Pincher pictures

If I had one of those rims, I’d paint it orange!

For those who want to read more on the Empi/Inch Pincher story, see Keith’s peerless write-up, which was published in VolksWorld (issue?), here:
http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,4147.0.html

Mon Mar 24, 2025 4:59 pm

Cross-linking an interesting 2012 original BRM thread:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=519370
It’s the ‘30/17 NOS sets’ rumour that catches my eye

Mon Mar 24, 2025 10:57 pm

Heres a few more stories on sets and some single brm scores in the last 15 years or so

When I sold my 43 KDF split to my good friend he threw in a set of his original BRMs aswell ...... Everettes set of BRMs in the previous post on this thread came from the same collector also. I still own this set

This next wheel came from a tip from my good friend Jeff Kritz the guy had 2 of these crusty magnesium nuggets but only sold me the one took me a year to get its twin .... now both reside in 2 different collectors display

This next wheel I got off the samba from Jim in Sant Ana that owns a junkyard he's pretty well known among all the guys from the late 60's-70's he also had a wooden brm he made (i think) i wanted to buy that also but no luck it stayed with Jim

This wheel I scored at pomona at the end of the day after i packed and threw all my junk in the truck i did a quick walk and found this wheel the guy said his brotha had a pair back in the 80's one wheel he hit the curb with and cracked it so he threw it away and kept this one until his brother wanted out of his garage so he brought it to sell at pomona I was very surprised that I didn't see it earlier luckily i didn't because he said nobody even picked it up or offered anything for it so he said $700 and ofcourse I walked away with it 8)

This wheel I got from Carl in hawaii he found it in a local vw shop hidden under a table in the shop

Tue Mar 25, 2025 11:33 am

Love that, Johnny. Thanks for sharing the details. A real buzz when you get hold of one, right

Regarding the black, I’ve read it should be flat. Is there any shine at all, like a satin? I know gloss is a no-no

Tue Mar 25, 2025 12:06 pm

Yes they are more of a semi-gloss / satin black

Wed Mar 26, 2025 9:37 am

Thanks Johnny

— — —

Here’s one I think is really cool

Ron Johnson’s BRMs

Ron (Geezer) of CA bought a set of BRMs brand new from Economotors (EMPI HQ) in Riverside, & fitted them to his white ‘66 Ghia
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=58807

Ron, who is in his 70s now, says he thinks his BRMs were $39 each new. He drove out Mission Blvd to Economotors - there was no freeway back then. The rims were a pain to keep polished. The guy he sold the Ghia to bumped a curb, and broke one of the wheels. Ron’s friend Steve Walker (of Glendora) bought the remaining 3 wheels.

Early on at Bug-In 1975 (neat Fuchs too!)

At Orange County Raceway

Around ‘75

At home around ‘76

Ron’s pic of an NOS rim with the rubber band fitted around the valley

Ron’s pic of another Ghia in the Bug-In pits in the 70s…more og BRMs

Ron’s pic of a hose-rack…not sure if it’s his rack?

Economotors

So buying them off the shelf from Economotors when you’re in your early 20s…pretty cool, right?

Wed Mar 26, 2025 5:32 pm

Very cool that he bought them new from the EMPI.

$39 x 4 in 1975 was a good amount of money if he was in his early 20s at the time (guess).

Thu Mar 27, 2025 7:44 am

Yes
Stephan Szantai in his VolksWorld article:

4 BRMs @ $50:
$1800
£1500

Thu Mar 27, 2025 7:52 am

Richard Roth’s BRMs

Richard’s collection in Ohio includes one of the four prototype BRMs (Jake’s “Wheel 4”).
Would be good to know the provenance of the other 4 wheels.
I think they are now on his ‘66 EMPI GTV Beetle. Does anyone have a picture?

Sun Mar 30, 2025 8:22 am

RockStock wrote: Dean, I couldn’t spot the rim in Shin Watanabes excellent recent pictures of the Schley Museum

Dean Kirsten with Chris Morley’s Wheel 1 in the Schley Museum

Sun Apr 06, 2025 9:20 am

Nice set!
Ohio>Gene Berg CA>Steve Niendorf CA
Record asking price?
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2739429

And just found another NOS set…would be cool to see pictures
Wonder how many BRMs Steve has

Tue Apr 08, 2025 3:35 am

Jim Taylor’s BRMs

So this is a good one. A UK set of BRMs…6 wheels
We’ll start with Keith Seume’s summary of UK BRM sales:

Jim Taylor rallycrossed a 62/63 Beetle ‘93 WOO’ back in the day. He must have bought at least 6 new BRMs for the Beetle

Love how he says he couldn’t crack them!

Pretty cool! Love the Bluemels plate/number too

Jim passed 4 of the wheels to Chris Boyle. Does anyone know Chris?

They then went to Karmann Konnection’s Ritchie King, and by 91 the spoke details had been polished out(!) and the rims fitted to his 1955 Karmann Kabriolet. It was a cool car, slightly blemished by being on a later pan

These 4 rims then went on to be fitted to the Chris Jory ‘53 Oval

This was a seminal UK-style Cal-looker that was a VolksWorld Issue 1 cover car back in ‘88. It’s an absolute favourite of mine - heart taillights, de-trimmed & with its coded steering wheel/running board trim/headlight rims/handles etc. Russel Ritchie has since re-restored this Oval (fitted with solids, which is the way it is remembered). I hope Russel has corrected the high rear stance it had when debuted at VoWo19.

Early days (87). Maybe that is Chris by the open door
Check where UK buses were at at the time…

VoWo Issue 1 cover. ‘Europe’s Most Beautiful VW’, and I agreed:

93/94…funny how the BRMs don’t suit this car, and already tweaks to the headlight rims and running boards:

Rescued by Russel Ritchie, & on show at VoWo19:

These 4 rims are currently on Heydon Mizon’s ‘67 black Cal-looker

Heydon has recently had these wheels crack-tested and re-detailed after he heard of one cracking in action in 2024 (another story to come)

I assume there’s no way of bringing the casting marks back…probably just the crinkle finish

What of the other two wheels? They went to Simon Emery of The Paintbox. Simon still has one. The other, in poor condition, he had made into a clock. This now belongs to Carl Taylor…Jim Taylor's grandson! Dead cool.

Here’s the story:

Simon’s summary:

And the clock wheel passed to Carl:

Tue Apr 08, 2025 8:30 am

Thanks for the write up on my Grandfather’s BRMs.
The ‘clock’ wheel sits atop a Dr Pepper cooler in my kitchen these days. It’s such a cool thing to have and I was delighted to be able to buy it from Simon.

My Grandfather had multiple autocross Beetles back in the day and was a successful campaigner. My father is still alive and has lots of photos from back in those days.
The photos I have of his cars, have been shared in the group already.

Tue Apr 08, 2025 8:36 am