– DISC WHEELS –
CABO
The name “CABO” has its origin from the initials of our founder Carlo Borrani, and, in the beginning, these wheels were designed mainly for aviation purposes. The “CABO” line also included brake systems, wheel carts, hydraulic pumps and others. The first “CABO” wheel designed for an automobile was during December 1945, the RW 2240 3.50×16 for the Maserati A6, recorded in our archives as “Ruota RW CABO”.
The “RW” added to the “CABO” design is a mixture of the traditional Rudge-Whitworth centre-lock system with a new type of disc wheel consisting of a splined RW hub to which is attached a pressed steel disc as a centre piece riveted to the “Record” light alloy rim. The peculiarity of the “CABO” design is the 5 slim windows seen on all models as a distinguishing mark, there were 2 lines of products: “CABO” and “CABO SPORT”.
CABO wheels from vintage Borrani catalogue
The regular “CABO” wheel was thought of and designed as an alternative to the big wheels that were very popular during the late 30’s and 40’s to give an elegant touch on luxury or “Fuori serie” cars. They mount on the car with standard wheel-nuts with the standard manufacturers bolt-pattern specifications. They were produced in 3 options:
– Normale: with disc and rim in painted steel.
– Leggera : with disc in steel and “Record” (light alloy) rim.
– Lusso: with disc in steel and chromed steel rim.
Four types of special hub-cap with the car logo imprinted were available.
The difference for the “CABO SPORT” wheel was the Rudge-Whitworth centre-lock system that allowed faster and easier mounting of the wheel. The external look was the same as the standard CABO as the “SPORT” series used the same hub-cap to cover the octagonal centre-locking nut as standard equipment. It was also available with a winged locking nut/cover if requested. The CABO SPORT construction used the hi-polished “Record” rim and painted disc only. 4
TURBO
The “CABO” disc wheel production changed in 1955, when a reorganization due to the moving of the company into new facilities was necessary. The disc wheel production was renamed “Turbo” and can be distinguished by the new “rounded” window design of the centre-disc, 3 lines of products were offered:
– Ruote “Turbo Normale” with steel rim and disc.
– Ruote “Turbo Sport” with steel disc and “Record” rim.
– Ruote “Turbo Sprint” with either “Record” or standard steel rim, the “RW” centre-lock system was available later in the 1960.
In 1961 with the merging into CMR the disc wheel naming system changed again and the “Turbo” wheels lost their RW number (from now this was dedicated to “Rudge” or “Type S” wheels only) and re-listed under R1-000 (3 numeric digits). All information is available from our historical department, however the full product list is not published as only a few item are still in production.
Turbo wheels from the April 1955 Borrani catalogue
(From the official company book: “Ruote Borrani- Classic Wheels History and Evaluation Guide” by Matteo Bosisio – Head of Classic Wheels)
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