According to ford it was produced 7/20/74. ....
Well that puts it just about as close to the end of the production run for that model year it's possible to be and still be a '74!
Not sure what the last day was, but likely it was in late July to sometime in August.
Ford played with that habit some, as we've found for '76's and '72's and such, but August is generally considered to be when the changeovers started.
So I guess it wasn't much of a '74 thing after all.
And with all this, I did drive a beat to crap POS of a '73 recently and it had to have had the sweetest shifting J-shift I've ever experienced. Not sure what was different, other than extreme wear maybe?
Paul