At 1:22 PM 3/27/95 -0500, Phil Hunt, Proj Leader, Frontenac County Board
Of Education wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I recently acquired what I think is a '74 MGB. However, when I look at
>the plate inside the door it says Manufactured 9/73. Am I correct in
>assuming that I have '74 model year MGB that was made in September '73, or
>do I have at '73. If so, it could be that MOT did a typo on my ownership.
Model years and calendar years don't line up. The model year begins
in September of calendar_year - 1 and ends in August of calendar_year.
So what you have is an early production 1974 MGB. The most noticeable
difference is that while both the '73 and '74 MGBs have chrome bumpers,
your car should have big square blocks of black rubber where the earlier
cars had little chrome teardrops.
The '74 MGB is the last year with chrome bumpers, as well as the last
full year with dual SU carburetors, HIF4s for those who have been
paying attention to the HS vs HIF debate. There were a few cars made
between September and December 1974 which had dual SUs and black
bumpers, including the only black-bumpered MGB-GTs imported to
the United States (not sure about whether Canada ever got black-bumpered
BGTs). These transitional cars were called 1974-1/2, as they used the
1975 tooling but were manufactered to 1974 pollution laws (that is,
U.S. pollution laws; the U.S. was responsible for something like 50%
of M.G.'s total output at that time, so export cars tended to follow
the U.S. restrictions, though not religiously).
--
Scott Fisher
fisher@avistar.com SEFisher@AOL.com
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