Maybe Italian for donut. Or is that doughnut...?

Angus Gordon
Bainbridge Island WA

birdworks@gmail.com

On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 8:32 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:

> I've been calling that rubber flex disc found on the prop shaft of
> syncros (and on other cars) a guibo. Well its not called that, its
> called a giubo.
>
> doh!
>
> here is a posting from a alfa list
>
> alistair
>
>
> Giubo spelling and pronunciation
>
>
>
> To: <alfa@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Giubo spelling and pronunciation
> From: "John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 07:19:49 -0400
> Cc: <anthony.white@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> Reply-to: "John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sender: owner-alfa@xxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> Anthony White writes "I have a suspicion that the vernacular spelling
> accompanies a vernacular pronunciation: guibo, pronounced 'gwee-bo', as
> opposed to giubo, pronounced something like 'joo-bo', following the
> pronunciation of Giulietta.  I'd be interested to know how others
> pronounce
> this."
>
> In Italy, and presumably in Heaven (if indeed they are not the same
> place) I
> believe "something like 'joo-bo'" is the first,if not only, choice.
> Searching
> my personal digest archives I found this, from AD7-061, 26 Aug 1998:
>
> "Il Topo recently sent me a photocopy of a hand-written letter, 24
> maggio
> 1986, by GianPaolo Garcea, a singularly literate engineer who was one of
> Orazio Satta's right-hand men as Assistant Director of the Design and
> Experimental Department. The letter, with lavish freehand illustrations,
> confirms and elaborates on what Topo had previously told me and
> others, that
> "the ing. Boschi had invented and patented the elastic joint (giunto)
> and
> later formed his firm GIUBO SpA, which manufactured the first giubos
> for the
> 1900. 'GIUBO' = GIUnti Boschi = Boschi joints, and the pronunciation is
> (gee-yew-bow  or jew-bow)." That is the straight squeak from what is,
> as far
> as I know, the last surviving purebred Portello mouse."
>
> The person I irreverently called Il Topo in those days (from previous
> references to "the oldest rat in the barn") is Don Black, who had met
> Dr.
> Boschi when he was working at Portello in the sixties. Black's friend
> and
> mentor GianPaolo Garcea, who was a design engineer at Portello from
> 1935 to
> 1982, thus spanning from the late Jano era to the late Hruska era, is
> the
> author of a memoir "La Mia Alfa". It is a singularly charming work,
> presented
> with the printed text and photos on the right-hand page and the
> beautifully
> handwritten manuscript and illustrative sketches on the left-land
> page. I
> suppose it is an anachronism, writing and engineering without
> typewriters and
> drafting machines, let alone computers, but there once were engineers
> who
> didn't need spellcheckers, and this book is a window into that world,
> for
> those who may be interested.
>
> Later in my digest archives I found this, from AD7-715, 14 May 1999,
> from the
> late Fredissimo:
>
> Subject: GOO-EEBOS?
>
> "What the hell are GUIBOS?  I wonder if you mean GIUBOS = GEE-OOBOS.
> Sorry
>
> but it irritates me when the wrong names are used for Alfa parts. At
> a parts
>
> store in Italy they would not understand.  Fred DI Matteo"
>
> I also found earlier references to Boschi in letters from both Black
> and Fred,
> but didn't look them up (time presses) but guess that Fred's initial
> chewing
> me out as a proxy for Don was in off-digest correspondence; but from the
> on-digest evidence it was gee-yew-bow  or jew-bow at Portello, and
> something
> like GEE-OOBO at the parts counter.
>
> Ralph DeLauretis asks "Does anyone know why Alfa when they designed
> the Alfa 6
> sedan they re - designed the Alfetta sedan platform to accept a front
> mounted
> tranny?  Did they realize their mistake?  Cut costs?  Anyone know?"
>
> My impression (haven't looked for the source) is that something Don
> Black
> wrote said either that the design of the Sei either preceded or was
> concurrent
> with that of the Alfetta. It was not unusual for a project to be
> shelved,
> either temporarily or permanently, to concentrate limited resources on a
> prospectively more lucrative mass-market product. The Sportiva and
> Giulietta
> are such a pair. I am fairly certain, on nothing more than intuition,
> that the
> Alfetta engine bay was initially dimensioned to accept the V6, which
> was not a
> fresh design when it reached production. But that is guessing.
>
> John H.
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