Just my two cents worth here. I have had more Tigers than I have had Alpines and one of my old Tigers was a very early Mk1. Actually, the serial # was B9470058. As I'm sure you all are aware, the Mk1 Tigers were actually constructed from Series IV Alpine body shells. In the extremely early Tigers such as the one mentioned above, they also shared the same black vinyl covered instrument facia with the Series IV Alpines. After a short while, Rootes went to the wooden "GT" dash for the Tiger, while leaving the Alpine with the black vinyl dash. In short, the black vinyl covered instrument facias were on the Series IV & V Alpines.
I currently own a '67 Alpine Series V and a '67 Tiger Mk1A. Believe it or not, I am more partial to the black dash on the Alpines than I am to the walnut veneer on the Tiger dash. The Tiger dash looks very nice and always brings comments from people at car shows and such, but the purist in me prefers the black vinyl dash. It just looks more sporty to me. As I said...just my two cents worth!
Have fun, Andy Walker