In a message dated Mon, 30 Sep 2002 8:39:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, Scott
Tilton <sdtilton@yahoo.com> writes:
>Have a question about amber turn signal lenses on Triumphs.
>
>I have seen some pictures of a very early TR4 (as in short bubble early) that
>has amber turn signal lenses on the front and rear.
>
>Whats the story on these?
>What cars were they put on and when?
>Foreign market cars maybe?
Correct.
>Mine have all had the clear lenses on them in front.
>And I think all my TR4s have had red turn signal lenses in back.
Also correct...for the "North American Dollar Area" cars. Essentially, those
cars built to US (and, for the most part, Canadian) specification had white
lenses in front and all-red lenses in the rear. This was true up until around
1967 or so.
Most sales literature and press photos -- but not all, especially some of the
very early ones -- for US-spec cars will show just this on the TR4/4A, as well
as Spitfire 4 and Mk2, early GT6 and even Herald. The big "change" was around
1964, when on both Spitfire and TR4 the front flasher lamp changed from the
ubiquitous L594 glass "beehive" lens to the larger (model number escapes me)
plastic lens, but it was still a white lens for North America. Of course, there
were amber equivalents readily available for those who wished to add same to
suit their own preference.
The big problem nowadays is that so many of the "originality guides" are based
primary on home market cars, even though most of the sports models were sold to
export markets (read: US :-) ) and were NOT equipped as the home market cars
were.
Documentation is readily available, but you have to dig for it through spare
parts catalogues and sales literature, and you have to know what you're looking
at and what you're looking for. Example: the earliest Spitfire 4 sales
brochures feature a lovely Signal Red Spitfire 4...which I'm pretty sure was
"412 VC" -- the prototype, built as RHS, converted to LHS...and later back
again, after being used for all sorts of publicity shots and appearances. Later
Spitfire 4 and Mk2 ads and brochures for the US do show all white lenses in
front.
More than you wanted to know, probably. :-)
--Andy Mace
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