I've now had the chance to have a careful read of the "sources" I have at home here - primarily James Taylor's book but a few others as well.
Taylor gives the lifespan of the peculiar tall overiders as Jun '65 to Oct '66 although the '65 date feels a bit early to me. More interestingly he states Feb '66 for the reversing lights going into the rear light clusters, again that feels a bit early. One he definitely has wrong is a date of Feb '66 for the deletion of the dashrail coutesey lights and introduction of the mirror stem coutesy light - our Easter '65 SC had this set up. Perhaps he is a year out and his date should be Feb '65. The mirror stem light gives way to the roof centre courtesy lamp at Oct '67.
The rev counter detail is more elusive. I know early NADA TC's had a rev counter set up broadly similar to that finally adopted but very poorly executed. Taylor records the final version as being introduced in Oct '67 and states that it was standardised for the TC at this point, implying that it was optional before. He also notes it as a new option in July '66 - but that could have been for the SC?
The other clue that I didn't mention above is the front undertray - sharks tooth gave way the full width one in Feb '66. The car in question has a full width one and although it could have been changed, the fact that it still has its tall overiders rules out a frontal as the cause of the change. My bet is that it had full width as built.
So where are we? The TC first saw light of day at the '66 Geneva show in March and then at Earls Court in October. The car is earlier than Oct '66 because of the overiders, and later than March '66 because of the undertray. In this age range it appears that the rev counter may well have been an option, so that could be why the installation shown looks amateurish. Another way of tying down the exact date is that Taylor quotes May '66 as the change point to Girling servo's althought the Dunlop discsand calipers allegedly run on to Oct. I'm pretty sure the picture on Ebay shows a Dunlop Servo, but I'm not an expert - anyone able to be certain?
Only thing I haven't been able to pin down is the radiator catch tank. Our '65 car didn't have one, but our next was a '72 by which time they had gone crossflow. There are a few pictures I've found showing the catch tank but they are all experimental cars and I've not yet found a picture of a standard car with one. You'll be able to spot me peering at radiators at the Drivers club annual rally to verify! Update: found a photo of the engine bay of a '68 TC showing the catch tank, so looks like it was a production item - but Auto's and SC's appear not to have had them. Is this where the oil cooler lived?
My earlier supposition that it might be a conversion of an existing SC is scotched by the commission no. Incidentally 416 is 9:1 CR not 10.5:1, ie RHD low compression export of which only 3,231 were built in total.
Subject to confirmation of the Dunlop servo then, it looks as if we have a TC built between Feb '66 and May '66 and not fitted with a rev counter when built. That would definitely square with your reckoning of it being within the first 100 built Rudiger, although note that this is in the first 100 of only 3,231 total. Only departures from build spec are the new rear overiders and the lash up rev counter. Who knows, that might even be what the early optional rev counters looked like!
Chris
