Theo,
"HANDS" is, as you say, just "H AND S" without the spaces. Norm gives the
background on pages 94-97 of TBON. The "H" & "S" were for "Hershey" and
"Smith", the two founding - or is that foundering - families. The precursor
to the LAT-70's was designed and cast by HANDS (or hand?) starting in around
1962, but the finish machining was sub-contracted to Schroeder Steering.
Owner Gordon Schroeder was well known in Sprint and Indy car circles (just
can't seem to avoid these double entendres). In 1964 Warren Smith started a
new enterprise with Ford and sold H&S to Teledyne, which I believe has since
become Teledyne Cast Products Pomona, California. Following this, Smith
turned H&S's specialty wheel operation completely over to Schroeder, who
among other things, designed and built the Cragar S/S wheel, a '65 Shelby
option. He also modified the original H&S design, which with slight
differences was the LAT-70, Mustang II, etc. Norm writes that on the
Schroeder manufactured wheels, "SRC 1300" replaced "HAND" and that "SRC" was
an acronym for "Schroeder Race Cars". There were three versions of the
LAT-70's, differing in the length and diameter of the hub.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of Theo Smit
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 3:41 PM
Subject: RE: Who made the LAT wheels
I can't tell you that... But was Hands a contraction of H and S, and was (or
was not) that company related to Hellings & Stellings?
Theo
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