Had lunch today with an ex-work colleague who purchased YG2S8-1020 new in February 1972 from Kellow-Falkiner in Melbourne. It had a black gear knob, not a chequered one.

So I withdraw my statement at the start of this thread suggesting all GT's came with the chequered knob. OK, I admit, I'm a knob.

The outstanding question is - when was the changeover in production to the chequered knob? Those GT owners striving for a concours car will need to know. It may save some a whole lot of money that otherwise will go purchasing an unnecessary chequered knob when a plain black one is correct.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

as far as i`m concerned there was (what seemed to be) an overlap in the fitment of the knobs.
As a kid (probably 9 or 10 years old), i saw GT`s come into our shop for services & warrantee jobs on cars that were near brand new, from a whole heap of Leyland car dealers in Qld,,, we did a lot of servicing & warrantee jobs for a lot of the car sales dealers like UK motors, Wedmiers, etc,,, Jack (my dad) was well known to actually "Fix" the crap that the factory did wrong,,, so altho it wasn`t "public Knowledge" it was well known "within" the car-dealer scene here in Brisbane,,, that Dad "fixed" things properly,,, & i`ve personally seen GT`s come through, early & late with both types of knobs,,, i`m sorry but i can`t remember a Date for a change-over, but both knobs were fitted,,, it`s 500million years ago now.

I saved my knob (black) for years & years from one of my own GT`s thinking it was such a funky rare knob,,, never did i expect it to fetch nearly $400 on ebay,,, i believe (& again from memory only) that there were more brown than black... & i "Thought" (back then) that the brown was first,,, then they ran out & made Black,,, then re-introduced the brown,,, but again that`s just the way i remember it,,, no cold hard facts tho... My dad would have been able to tell you more... he knew everything

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

here`s a couple of shots of the Black knob of the 2x GT gear knobs.

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

I know where this knob is if anyone wants to confirm it.

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Sitting in a silver custom leyland mini isnt it?

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The Black knob is a totally different shap & texture to the brown one, but i believe the top plastic piece is the very same item

I have always wondered tho, if this knob was the same as the Marina TC coupe knobs that iv`e seen over the years???

i can look up the parts books & micro-fiche but i`m too lazy right now & am on holidays in Byron
more when i`m back next week
cheers

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

well i`m not sure but i think he has it in his display case at home & only fits it for car shows actually

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

2 of the test cars for the magazines appear to be sporting the Black GT gear knobs in the photos. Gear knobs were spoken about on the old GT Spot a few times. I think the general consensus was that the cars left the factory sporting the standard gearknob, then the dealers fitted the GT knob. The Black GT knobs were fitted to very early cars July/August 1971 until production of the Brown GT knob took over.