As some of you have read, I got a few responses from the info I gave
John Slade about vinyl covered instrument panels on Tigers.
Some of the critisism deals with my confusion between vinyl dash Tigers
(Norm says about 400 cars were built) and the Sports Tourer / Gran
Turismo Tigers (Norm counts 15 genuine GT cars, Dick Barker says three
additional "AF" cars could be counted). I plead guilty to confusing the
GT/ST production numbers with the vinyl dash numbers.
Maybe a quick primer on GT's and ST's is in order. Alpine Series III and
IV were available in two models: The ST was a basic roadster with vinyl
dash, rubber matting for the floors, an exhaust manifold closely
resembling a tubular header. It came with a folding top similar to the
one on our Tigers. A hardtop was optional.
The GT Alpine came with wood dash, wood steering wheel, full carpeting,
and a quieter cast iron exhaust manifold intended to make the GT driving
experience, well, quieter. The GT cockpit was designed to exclude the
soft top, meaning no top and no well to store one in. The factory
hardtop was standard equipment on the GT.
In the early sales folder for US Tigers (ref # 7763/EX/USA) the
specifications listed both models available for the Tiger. It also
showed an illustration of the Tiger with no side chrome.As one person
pointed out, "you know the disclaimer at the end of all brochures -
specifications subject to change - guess what?"
A couple of people questioned the statement about rubber mats in early
Tigers with vinyl dashes. Now that I've done some digging in the
library, I can't confirm that more than a handful of pilot production
cars came this way. The parts catalog doesn't list rubber mats for Tiger
1's, the early sales folders don't show interior views, and the pictures
I have of Brett Simpson's car (JAL #1) taken at Grants Pass don't show
the interior.
Finally, to Dick Barker, when I referred to Tigers built after a certain
period, I meant cars built after Rootes decided to offer just one Tiger
model including most but not all of the GT equipment(Later Mark 1's and
1A's are an example, the Lister is not)
Rande
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