Mike Rabin: Discography

Before 1945, French and Italian sports and luxury cars with custom bodies typically had wire wheels, which were covered by a wheel disc. Many of the discs were similar, but some, such as the “beehive” look of an Alfa 8C 2900, are unique. Today, when restoring these cars one strives for authenticity, which often requires re-creating wheel discs, as the originals have typically been dented or corroded beyond repair after 60 or 70 years of tire changing. When you start looking for someone to recreate the original wheel disc, Mike Rabin is the only game in town.

In 1988, Mike incorporated his company, LMARR Disc (the name includes initials of family members), which is the leading supplier of wheel discs worldwide. It started when he bought a 20/25 Rolls Royce in 1977, and the discs were bad. He found a person in Cleveland who had molds for a 20/25 Rolls, a Bentley, and another car, so he bought fifty of each one as a gamble and started advertising himself as a vendor. Then he found out that there were a variety of other parts he needed to supply, and found ways to source those, all within fifty miles of his home in Sonoma County, CA. As time went by, he started getting inquiries for other cars, but the person making the inquiry was usually able to supply Mike the old parts for a pattern. Now, after over 20 years of making wheel discs, he has supplied wheel discs and parts for just about every French and Italian marque from the prewar period, as well of British and American cars, and has patterns for over 90 different discs.

Mike got his start in the automotive world as a hot rodder, working in the San Fernando Valley for Phil Weiand, around 1946. He had a ’29 Ford body on a ’32 chassis with a ’40 Mercury motor, and Mike drove it to the dry lakes and engaged in occasional street racing. He talked Phil into taking it to El Mirage in 1948, where Mike drove it at 124.82 mph on June 13th 1948 (and he has the timing slip to prove it). They just put on goggles (no helmets then), took off the windshield, put on a lap belt, changed the jets in the 3 carbs to accommodate alcohol fuel, and prayed that the motor didn’t blow, or they wouldn’t have a way home. Mike also did some street drag racing at that time, and never lost a race. But he wasn’t making any money at this, so he settled down and worked in the plastics business from 1955 until he retired. Mike says that he started LMARR Disc because he didn’t know how to retire!

If you collect British cars from the prewar period, you have undoubtedly heard of Ace Wheel discs, which made most of them for British cars. Mike took a special trip to Coventry, and tracked down the company. When he visited them, no one there was left from the prewar period, and he was told, “we threw all those old molds out a year ago!” During the war they converted to spinning parts for aircraft, and never made the discs again. But Mike has now branched out beyond just standard production cars. Recently, he made the discs for the 1934 Ford Model 40 special roadster custom made for Edsel Ford; this one of a kind car recently sold at auction for over a million dollars (see lead photo). Since he is restoring an E-type in his garage, he has even made a disc for that, and it does change the entire look of the car. And just in case you think these are only for prewar cars, take a look at the picture of the 1954 Fiat 8V Supersonic (designed by Savonuzzi) and you can see how important the disc is in the car’s overall appearance.

He attends the Essen Techno-Classica show in March and the Rolls- Royce Enthusiast’s Club Meet in England in June, and the US Rolls- Royce Owners Club Meet in July, and Concorso Italiano and Pebble Beach in August. Most likely you will also see the end product on the show field at these shows as well. Oh, and in case you have been playing with the dates to guess Mike’s age, he is eighty years young, with the pep and vigor of a man half his age!

LMARR manufactures Wheel discs for these pre war Classics:

Alfa Romeo
Rolls-Royce, Ghost, P1. P1 Springfield, P11, 20-25. 25-30, Brewster, Wraith
Bentley, 3 ½, 4 ¼, Speed Six, Mk VI, 8 Litre, R Type
Bugatti Types 40,44, 46, 57
Cord L29
Citroen
Delage D8
Delahaye
Ford 16 and 17 inch
Hispano Suiza H, J 12
Isotta Fraschini
Jaguar Mk IV, SS
Lagonda
Lincoln, A, B
Mercedes Benz S
Minerva
Stutz 19 and 23 inch
Talbot
Talbot Lago
Voison