Hellebore

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

As far as I know "Hellebore" and "Personal" are or were two distinct companies
which manufactured wood-rimmed steering wheels used on some production Alfas.
The earliest date-linked reference in published literature I have at hand is
in d'A.& T., p.673, talking about new features on the 2000 GTV: "The
attractive Hellebore steering wheel, also adapted on the GT Junior, was a
distinctive feature of the new car." The Junior reference was I believe to the
concurrent, not earlier, version of the Junior.

The name Hellebore is out of botany, an herb formerly used in medicine as a
cardiac and respiratory depressant (!) and as an insecticide. A quickie search
mistyped as Helleboro elicited fifty hits, most Latin, about Pliny Secundus
and the alchemist/doctor Parcelsius, but also a couple on the Berlina
Register. Reentering "Hellebore" with an 'e' dredged 5,963 hits, and
backpedaling to a more complete "Hellebore steering wheel" produced a far
shorter list including www.digest.net/alfa/archive/v7/msg00693.htm/ which
turned out to be Scott Fisher mentioning a wood-rimmed Hellebore wheel which
had come with his earlier Junior; it was a close reproduction of a GTA wheel
but with a different number of holes in the spokes, rather than the slots
often seen on aftermarket wheels (as Nardi) or the horn-push slot on the
wheels used in the factory versions.

My impression is that the "Personal" brand wood-rimmed wheels came after, and
stayed around longer, but that may be backwards; and that both brands were
invariably wood-rimmed, rather than the very realistic wood-grained plastic
rimmed wheels used on some later Alfas without any brand-mark.

It is possible that Hellebore and Personal were products of a single company,
or represent a company name-change. The Scott Fisher connection establishes
that it was a distinct aftermarket company at some earlier point, rather than
an in-house brand like Lodge and Spica. If anyone knows more, please chime
in.

John H.
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