Large front number plate on the right. You would think this change would have been made so that the number plate stickers Dinky were using in the late 60s could be applied, but I have never seen an Imp fitted with these (apart from the rally version, which wore its front number plate on its bonnet). This change was made after jewelled headlights were fitted, and the large plate appears on some red and all blue versions (unless someone can prove otherwise!)
Rear number plate on the right. This would have been added to make it easier to apply the number plate label on the rally version.
It doesn't show too well in the photo, but hopefully you can see that the top model has a raised edge around the swage line along the side, added to facilitate painting the white stripe on the rally Imp.
The crossover between these features is not straightforward, and there are more variants than you might expect. I chose this model a few years ago as an example to see how many different variations I could find, and so far I have 15 different 138s. I'm glad I haven't done the same for all Dinkies! I need to get around to taking some pictures to show all the variations. I don't have one with a white roof though!
