All,
Thanks for your enthusiastic response! What is clear is that
there was no single comm. # cut-off between the 74 and 74 1/2 TR-6s.
As someone suggested, it all depends upon what part bin was closest
during the assemply process.
It seems that the "change-over" could have spread over
as many as 2000 cars, which represents a month or more of production
(these numbers are guesses, I'd have to do a bit more research to
tie it down).
Remember folks, this is partly the reason why we love these
old(er) cars; despite production-line techniques, people were still
a critical feature in the creation and assembly of these cars,
and they are prone to all the whims and fancies of an individual
in those long halls. We may not know their names, but each person
played a significant role in our cars.
Compare this with todays cars, assembled by robots with
complete interchangeability. When our grandchildren are restoring
Miatas, they may have similar discussions, but they maye relate more
to release-dates of CAM software used by the robots!
Finally, Ken Streeter initiated (and followed up by several others)
discussion on the height of the rear bumper, which does appear to have
changed during the production life of the TR6. FWIW, my car (CF25186UO)
has the "low rear bumper".
Lets not be so hard on Piggott and other authors on TR
originality (though boo-sucks for focussing on minority-market cars).
This thread should make it clear to anyone that considerable variation
occurred during the production life of a car. And I can now appreciate the
difficulty of being a concourse judge.
Shane Ingate and a "very-late 1974" TR6 in San Diego
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