19d Lotus Racing Car

[Idris]

The NAMC’s “Catalog of all Series Matchbox Models” (second edition) lists the green version as having decals with either a light green or a dark green stripe, or labels with either a bright yellow or a dark yellow stripe. The orange version is listed as having either decals with either a light yellow or a dark yellow stripe, or labels with a light yellow stripe.
The AIM's “1-75 Series Regular Wheels” catalogue (second printing, 1983) has the following note: "The decals come in various shades of yellow and the decals applied to green models changed the shades to appear green or various shades of yellow-green".
Stannard's liating is essentially a one-on-one match for Nick's, except Stannard's variation code 19D-9 has small baseplate text whereas Nick's variation code 9 has mixed baseplate text. I therefore suggest that Nick's listing contains a typo in this respect and his variation code 9 entry should list small baseplate text.
Houghton's list is also a one-on-one match for Stannard's and offers additional support for the typo suggest above.
U.K. Matchbox examined the model in Vol. 1 no. 7 (Oct.. '77) p119, with a follow-up in Vol. 1 no. 12 (Feb. '78) p194. The driver is listed as being found either with or without the left overall pocket, and moulded in either cream or white. The exhaust bracket is listed as having three different lengths (3.5, 5, or 6 mm) as opposed to the two lengths ('short' and 'long') listed by other cataloguers. Furthermore, although no mention is made of the text size differences, it is pointed out that there are two versions of the baseplate immediately below the front axle. In the first, the "...the baseplate area containing the words MATCHBOX and MADE IN ENGLAND is recessed, leaving the X of Matchbox and the E of ENGLAND partially recessed and partially raised...", whilst for the second,"...the baseplate area immediately below the front axle is at the same level as the remainder of the base. Several states of this type exist, including faint lines where the edges of the recess were previously and slight differences in the position and height of some of the letters...". (It is unclear to me whether by 'height', Rob Newson is here referring to the text size.)