What are the differences between a Piper Lance ll and a Piper Lance?

Question

both aircraft built around same time; is it the T Tail ?

Answer 1

The Lance came into production in 1976 a descendant of the Cherokee Six series.  Piper was re-branding (kinda of) with the introduction of the tapered wing on the Cherokee Warrior.  

The Lance was basically a retractable Cherokee Six (it did not get the tapered wing that was just coming into its own) but Piper decided instead of calling it a Cherokee Six retract to simply give it a new name Lance.  Originally made with the conventional tail for 1976 and 1977 and then in 1978 it was renamed the Lance II with the new T-tail design.  

The T-tail was not well received so in 1980 the dropped the Cherokee Six and the Lance II branding them all under the name Saratoga.  The Saratoga offered the conventional tail, tappered wing and was offer in 4 models, Saratoga FG (fixed gear) and Turbo Saratoga FG (basically the direct descendant of the Cherokee Six - with new wing), The Sartoga SP (retractable gear) and the Turbo Saratoga SP (the descendants of the Lance & Lance II - with the new tapered wing and the tail back where it belonged.)

Answer 2

They had the T tail 2 years before they were called Lance II. They seemed to go with the Lance II designation when they removed "Cherokee" from the name. Cherokee Lance became simply Lance II.