Mike, according to a German magazine sent to me by Roland Jaeckel a few years ago, DeTomaso was very busy with the then-new Pantera in '70, so he sent the last 52 Mangustas in unfinished form to a German distributor to finish. Starting with about 8MA 1192-onward, the cars were delivered via Germany with e-brake handles and other parts sourced from a Mercedes road car! When the Mercedes Parts mgr became aware of this, they threatened to sue the DeTomaso distributor! After that point, Merc' e-brake handles were still used but from clandestine sources, not the Mercedes factory.
The last 52 cars also were the source of most of the RHD examples. So your Mangusta probably differs in a number of small ways (plus the RHD steering) from earlier serial numbers.