There was an item on recently (which I can't find now - hence this new thread) asking what the history was of cars being built without the opening rear 1/4 light windows. From memory the response was that it was '67 model year only and then brought back by popular demand. Not quite the whole story as I know that NADA cars were also built without them. I presume that non US cars with A/C therefore had them deleted as well? I have a suspicion that this probably means that cars fitted with electric windows probably didn't have them either? (Ian Wilson spent a lot of time modifiying my electric window frames - which are quite different to manual window frames - to accept the opening 1/4 lights)
The story is somewhat more complex than this though. If you take off the cover panel from the rear 1/4 between the door and the rear window you'll see three lumps pressed into the base unit. These lumps seem to be universal from start of production to end. Some cars have them blank, some have a frame carrying three flap vents. T4 at Gaydon also has a slot vent over this area in the outer cover panel and I believe Ian Trapp's Talago prototype did as well? There is also an illustration on the web of the surviving P7 protoype (P6 with a straight 6 3 litre version of the 2000 engine) having pressed through grills in the rear decker panel below the rear window.
My interpretation of this is that Rover originally intended the P6 to have "aeroflow" ventillation exactly as the later Ford Cortina Mk1 facelift (1965?) did. The combination of flap vents and the slot in the outer panel is a dead ringer for the Ford set up. Logically the Rover would not then have needed the opening 1/4 lights.
My best knowledge to date is that early cars didn't have the flap vents and nor did late cars. Certainly my NADA in 1970 has them.
Does anybody out there know whether fitting of the flap vents is consistent to particular years and if so which?
My speculation is that Rover initially had trouble getting the car to suck interior air into a suitable low pressure area and didn't put the vents onto production cars until some way into production (1967?), by which time the opening 1/4 lights were so popular they gave in and reinstated them shortly after. But when did fitting the flaps stop?
How about it Ian and Jay; you must have broken enough cars to have some idea?
Chris
The story is somewhat more complex than this though. If you take off the cover panel from the rear 1/4 between the door and the rear window you'll see three lumps pressed into the base unit. These lumps seem to be universal from start of production to end. Some cars have them blank, some have a frame carrying three flap vents. T4 at Gaydon also has a slot vent over this area in the outer cover panel and I believe Ian Trapp's Talago prototype did as well? There is also an illustration on the web of the surviving P7 protoype (P6 with a straight 6 3 litre version of the 2000 engine) having pressed through grills in the rear decker panel below the rear window.
My interpretation of this is that Rover originally intended the P6 to have "aeroflow" ventillation exactly as the later Ford Cortina Mk1 facelift (1965?) did. The combination of flap vents and the slot in the outer panel is a dead ringer for the Ford set up. Logically the Rover would not then have needed the opening 1/4 lights.
My best knowledge to date is that early cars didn't have the flap vents and nor did late cars. Certainly my NADA in 1970 has them.
Does anybody out there know whether fitting of the flap vents is consistent to particular years and if so which?
My speculation is that Rover initially had trouble getting the car to suck interior air into a suitable low pressure area and didn't put the vents onto production cars until some way into production (1967?), by which time the opening 1/4 lights were so popular they gave in and reinstated them shortly after. But when did fitting the flaps stop?
How about it Ian and Jay; you must have broken enough cars to have some idea?
Chris