[alfa] donuts (was: 77 GTV driveshaft problems)

[John Hertzman <giovannisvedese@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bernie Bennett commented on the cracking, breaking and chunking of 
driveline donuts, relating his experience with his '75 Alfetta and 
mentioning that Milanos didn't have that problem, and "Alfetta sedan 
with automatic transmission didn't either. I think the shifts were 
gentler on the driveline when controlled by the automatic."

A major difference is that the original Alfetta donuts, as on his '75, 
were revised in mid-'76 and further tweaked in late '76 for '77 through 
'79, a period which included ALL of the Alfetta automatics; the donuts 
were revised again for the GTV-6 and Milanos, with some further 
variations between the automatic Milanos and the five-speeds. There are 
also imponderable demographic skews: carbreakers are probably more 
drawn to certain cars than to others. I wouldn't be at all surprised if 
red cars generally go though donuts faster than blue ones do. It would 
be hard to prove, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that the gentilezza 
of the automatic's shifting was the main factor.

A different issue, which some will consider tedious pedantry, is the 
spelling of the proper Italian name for these elastic couplings. In the 
current thread Gwynne Spencer, Graham Davis, Jason Kerr and Richard 
Welty all referred to them as "guibos". I used to call them that, too, 
until Fred vigorously corrected me: they are "Giubos", a contraction of 
Giunti Boschi, the joints (or couplings) of Ing. Boschi, the engineer 
who patented them and founded the company Giubo SpA which manufactured 
them. Later I realized, partly on a basis of literary style as well as 
a different level of erudition, that Fred sometimes (as in this case) 
served as a conduit for messages from a lurker who wished to preserve 
his anonymity. The lurker was probably (almost certainly) Don Black, 
who was the technical core of Alfa's presence in the US from before its 
beginning to after its end as a separate company. When Alfa first 
decided to establish a sales & service subsidiary in the USA it had 
hired the best qualified Americans it could find (in Black's case, from 
Volvo, I believe) and brought them to Portello to work in various parts 
of the company and absorb as much a possible of the flavor, character, 
traditions, and values of the company before being returned to 
cultivate an American market.  Black's mentor at Portello was the 
engineer Giampaolo Garcea; Garcea and Boschi were both members of a 
string quartet which played together in off-hours, so Black met and 
knew Boschi, although their relationship was not as deep as that he 
developed with Garcea.  Anyhow, when Fred occasionally spoke 
authoritatively about Alfa lore I would take it more seriously than 
even his advice on machinery and electrickery; if it wasn't Black 
behind the curtain it would have been Fusi or someone else also very 
much worth hearing.

Guibo or giubo? Think Giulietta or Guilietta. Guibo has roots in 
American English by now, and may (like Alpha Romero) outlast the 
Italian name in popular use, but Fred did what he could,

R.I.P.,

John H.
164
Milano
MBz C 230 K
various 115 projects 
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