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Triumph TR6 - Blacked out back

was the TR6 ever available without the blacked out rear end and if so, what were the years and was it optional? Thanks
Frank

The blacked out rear panel was used in the North American market (it was sort of a period "fashion statement"). Home market (and as far as I know ROW) cars were not blacked out.
SteveP

Just reading the road tests by Brooklands Books on the TR6 and they all have the matte black rear vertical panel. It was , so far as I can determine , applied to all TR6 cars at the factory.

Having said that I have seen a few with body coloured panels holding the tail light clusters but I have no idea if they have been repainted or not.

Cheers , Pete.
Peter Thomas

I think Pete is right.
As far as I can check in documentation every TR6 had a black bud. Mostly it is lost in respray. Even with costly restorations it is forgotten and the back is color sprayed.
Eric de Lange

Based on the pictures I've seen in both the "Original Triumph tr4/4a/5/6" and "The Triumph tr5/250 and tr6 Companion" books, all were blacked out. Quoting from "The Triumph tr5/250 and tr6 Companion" book page 48:
"Turning his (Bruce McWilliams) attention to Karman's other end, after careful analysis, he merely blacked-out the modernized, chopped-off tail. Their collaboration in this area resulted in a design detail which ended up as a tr6 trademark and would go on to be copied by many other manufacturers."
This feature was a Triumph First!!
benji

I thought the 69's were body color. I guess I guessed wrong.
DON KELLY

Don,
You're not the only person that I've heard this debate.
The front window frame for tr4/4a/5/250 and the 1969 tr6 were painted in matching body color. Tr6s' after 1969 were matt black.
SteveP is correct to say that it was sort of a period "fashion statement" to have matt Black in the paint scheme with less chrome. Think about the other manufactures during this time and how they began to put less chrome and more black colors into their cars.
I personally like the color matching tail but, the black tail is original to the design and it's a signature statement of that time period that was copied by many other manufacturers like Datsun, Dodge, Ford, chevy, toyota, etc.
benji

The first cars that I remember seeing with blacked out rear panels were some of the Mustangs running in the Trans Am series in 1967 and 1968. They also had most of the top surface of hood blacked out. This in turn was carried over into production on certain performance Mustang and Torino models for the 1969 model year. Two blatant examples of homolagation car usage were on the Mustang Boss 302 for the Trans Am series and the Torino Talledega for its special body work to be used on the high speed NASCAR Tri-ovals.
SteveP

This thread was discussed between 10/08/2006 and 26/08/2006

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