Momo (company)

MOMO S.r.l

Type	Private
Industry	Automotive accessories
Founded	1960s
Founder(s)	Giampiero Moretti
Headquarters	Milan, Italy
Website	www.momo.it

MOMO accessories installed in a 2005 Peugeot Pars ELX

A MOMO helmet

MOMO Srl is a design company headquartered in Milan, Italy that makes accessories and parts for automobiles.

Company history

MOMO was founded by gentleman racer Giampiero Moretti in the 1960s.^[1] MOMO are the initials for Moretti-Monza. Monza is a region in the Province of Milan.

In 1969 MOMO opened production plant in Tregnago, Province of Verona.^[1] Due to increasing federal safety regulations and the wide adoption of airbags in passenger vehicles^{[citation needed]} MOMO was sold to Breed Technologies in 1996, a steering wheel airbag manufacturer. Breed Technologies was acquired by private equity firm Carlyle Management Group and merged with other OEM automotive businesses they owned to form Key Safety Systems in 2003. Key Safety Systems sold the MOMO brand name to an Italian private equity group in 2006, but most of the manufacturing plants and technologies previously owned by MOMO were retained by Key Safety Systems.

Products

MOMO's product range includes consumer accessories such as steering wheels, gear shift knobs and alloy wheels, through to race equipment such as racing suits and helmets. MOMO airbagged steering wheels have become standard accessories on some regional Subaru and Mitsubishi performance cars. MOMO steering wheels were standard features in the UMM Alter II from 1987 to 1991. MOMO has also designed a steering wheel for computer peripheral company Logitech (called the Logitech MOMO), to be used as a video game controller. Thomas Superwheel controllers (a brand of high-quality, premium priced controllers) also feature the MOMO name.

Motorsport involvement

Momo founder Gianpiero Moretti pilots an Alba AR3 at Laguna Seca in 1984.

The company sponsored many prototype cars in the IMSA WSC series including the Ferrari 333 SP sports prototype car, after Scuderia Ferrari had retired from that racing category 20 years earlier.

MOMO was the official steering wheel of the Champ Car series from 2004 to 2007, before Champ Car merged to Indy Racing League. MOMO are also suppliers of the official steering wheel, racing seats, clothing and racing accessories of the Speedcar Series.

MOMO also official steering wheel of Ferrari F430.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "MOMO Sport, steering wheels & shift knobs". autocarparts.com. http://www.autocarparts.com/p_MOMO/. Retrieved 2007-08-21. 

External links

• MOMO USA's Website
• MOMO Italy's Website