Info on these rims? Speedline Mistral 5

[Dr J]

Hi guys, I found some rims for sale locally and the guy says they are Speedline Mistral 5s here are some pics.

17X8.5 5x120 ET 40

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/7575760936_7e04b4abbd.jpg

Any info on these? Are they rare?

[tortexal]

Those could be speedlines but they are not mistrals. Speedline never made a 1pc mistral. but they did make a wheel similar to what you have posted above.
they will be stamped "SPEEDLINE MADE IN ITALY" on the back

these are the "real" mistrals, 3pc.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2257/1601508477_d590e9cd1a_z.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2131/1601516215_99c6cfdb55_z.jpg
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4118/4756418788_0cba74faf0_z.jpg


However, the center caps in your pics dont make any sense to me as the only other speedline wheel im thinking of that looked similar to what you have posted has the traditional speedline centercap:
http://www.asarus.com/cup/jantes_17_speedline.jpg

So its possible those are not the original center caps. They should also come w/ the tool to take them on and off which will also be stamped and looks like this:
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4098/4756404148_1a966d7e5d_z.jpg
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4095/4756402228_10a7c121c9_z.jpg

just fyi, the centercaps will not be stamped with anything as far as i remember but i can go check. Also real mistrals are not stamped "mistral" anywhere. the outer shell/barrel (whatever you want to call it) was polished aluminum with "SPEEDLINE NEW GENERATION" painted in light gray as well as the size and offset on the opposite side. the whole thing was then clear coated with a ton of clear coat so they were always shiny.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4143/4756419568_bfde496841_z.jpg
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4079/4756420350_446ffed826_z.jpg
here you can see the clearcoat, which is still totally intact:
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4080/4755777443_b0d0d14820_z.jpg


as far as being rare, there's little demand for 1pc speedlines. all the demand is for 3pc ones.
Speedline was sold to Porsche in late 90s early 2000s and the plant in italy was shutdown. currently the only aftermarket they do are primarily rally wheels. 3pc speedlines are still made as oem wheels for porsche and corvette. back before italy was shutdown they did some oem wheels for ferrari. if for some reason you have as big of a hard on for original speedline as i do, i can put you in touch w the porsche dealer in i believe palm beach that has a ton of info on the purchase of speedline for porsche

[Dr J]

Thanks for all that info!

Heres another photo

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7138/7587417924_44919d2084_z.jpg