Sprint Star steel wheels were manufactured by Lemmertz in Germany and sold in US by EMPI, thus the
EMPI Sprint Star name. Sprints were available both as chromed and painted.
I don't have any information when the wheels were introduced and when they were dropped. Earliest
ads in magazines that I have seen are from 1969 and I have been told that new 5-lug Sprints were
still available in Europe (France) in 80's under Ritter brand.
Sprint Stars aren't very rare, at least not in Europe, but naturally prices have gone up during the 90's
due to the Old School Cal Look and nostalgia boom. Today Flat 4
is manufacturing alloy copies of the wheels, these copies are extremely beautiful but they cost almost the same as a set of genuine chrome
Sprint Stars.
Original Sprint Star center caps were made of steel, there both aluminium and steel repros available. Repro center caps
are available for example from ISP West in States and
Karmann Konnection in UK. Repro center cap stickers are available
from Matt Joy.
The photo on above right is showing the
stampings on inside the wheel, even though the EMPI text is stamped
I have seen also wheels with EMPI globe logo. The plain Lemmertz
ones should have only texts "Lemmerz", "Made In Germany" and the
wheel size stamped.
