Pat Fischer wrote:
Many thanks to all who replied both on the list and privately to my question
about
the 250 lights/colors. Some inconsistency, as summarized by Mike's answer
below,
seems to be the favored opinion. I must be getting down to the small points of
my
car's restoration if I'm thinking about this small stuff, and that's nice
because
it's been a very long road!
and MICHAEL FRANCIS KUTKA wrote:
> To all,
> To tell you the truth, I think that you could get clear or amber front lens
> and red/red or red/amber on the rears depending on the vagaries of those on
> the line. This may be related to the fact that differnet markets had subtle
> differences in their requirements when the cars were new. Triumph was afterall
> a world wide mark at one time....
Sorry, Michael - got to pick you up on that one. *Vagaries* were not really
tolerated -
though I admit there were occasions when cars 'got through' with the wrong spec
of
whatever. As far as lighting was concerned on the 250, this was the first TR to
be
affected with the first set of many later US regs and the factory was paranoid
about the
wrong equipment going on a US bound car. The fines for allowing a car described
on the
Certificate of Origin that it met a defined standard when it didn't were
substantial. To
that extent, the production tally card that was fixed to each car as it went
down the line
left no room for error. I was looking at a microfilmed one today for another
purpose and
it very clearly stated "US dip right headlights, white front indicator, red/red
rear lens"
and against each entry a Final Finish Inspector had to put his stamp. All that
to one
side, the parts catalogues used by many US dealers often were not territory
specific and
would show the various lenses available. There was nothing to stop a US dealer
ordering
non US front or rear lenses - and many of them did for a variety of reasons. On
the
personal export cars supplied in Europe for later export to the USA by their
owners, there
were many cases of 'on spot' fines by European police for cars having red
indicator
lenses. These were illegal in Europe at the time and I recall many people
buying a set of
European lenses to simply avoid a fine. This might explain why some cars are
now running
on yellows. I don't know what happened in later years in terms of spec
definition but for
the 250, and with respect, the "vagaries of those on the line" doesn't really
enter the
equation.
Jonmac
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