Thank you for speaking up
I never thought for a moment that the 1975+ dash inserts were anything other than a vinyl overlay;
I have a 1975 dash insert that I pulled from an unmodified Esprit roughly 25 years ago - as I recall it has an un-natural orange tinge to it...
I have long thought that the 1973/1974 (which look the same as far as I can recall) were fake, but the Smoke Signals article made me wonder what vehicles the wood was used on - thanks for clarifying!
Even though there is little written on them, my first had experience around unmolested 70-72 models has always impressed upon me that each year was different;
add to that the fact that the 1970-1972 non-TA dash inserts were unique in construction from the 1973+ counterparts, so I was wondering now if a part of that unique construction was actually using a real wood veneer!?
At the chance of being repetitious, this is roughly how I have long differed or described the difference;
1972 = the darkest of the years; a deep chocolaty brown, not "dark" chocolate, but a deep brown milk chocolate hue.
1970 = the next darkest; a nice soft brown, but not near a "chocolaty" complexion
1971 = this one has an almost bleached look to it and can have touches of grey