Scott Fisher writes
>"What Year Is It?"
much deleted
>A third confusion exists because in some cases, cars built in
>year N but assigned model-year designations N+1 were allowed to
>meet pollution requirements for year N. Rumor has it there are
>a very few 1967/68 MGBs with '68's all-synchro gearbox, for instance,
>but with no air pump, making it highly desirable. I have
>personally never seen such a vehicle, but someone on this list
>about five years ago claimed to have one that was that way from
>the factory.
more deleted
Such cars do exist, although I don't know if they went to all markets.
I happen to have such a car. It happens to be a 1968 canadian spec MGB.
It has the following feature
5 main bearing engine
all syncro gearbox
alternator
no air pump or any other polution control other than the PCV valve
Metal dash (same as earlier models in U.S. and similar to later U.K.
models (I believe they had the metal dash up to 74))
Various other minor differences to U.S. model, it's much closer to
the U.K. model i.e. Dash knobs are different, heater controls turn
in opposite direction.
And no this is not a hacked job, by checking in the (offical factory) parts
catalog I have verified that all cars for Canada in 68 were built this way.
(at least as far as the parts I checked in the catalog)
IMHO this is one of if not the best possible MGBs as it has all the good
features, and none of the later NADERizing. Unfortunatly it does have a
problem in finding parts as most suppliers (including the ones in Canada)
associate 1968 model parts to mean 1968 U.S. model parts. But since most
of the major parts are common for all years this isn't much of a problem,
except for a few components, such as gauges.
I also saw an add in which a car similar to mine was listed as a "Rare Canadian
model", but since I have no intention of disposing of mine I don't really
care if this is true or not. After all can there be such a thing as a rare
MGB? :):)
Anyway my 2 cents for the MGB history record.
Gary Burrell
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