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Matchbox Models of Yesteryear Y5-1 Le Mans Bentley

The Le Mans Bentley joined the range in 1956 and was the fifth model to be released that year, It was of course only painted in the one colour scheme - British racing green, It had a gloss black baseplate which included the wings as part of the casting and it had gold trim to the radiator grille and grille shell, This was later reduced to just the radiator shell being silver trimmed, Later still the trim was omitted completely only to be reintroduced but now in silver for the final issue,
The first few runs had the cast in folded roof trimmed with grey paint but this was quickly deleted as a cost cutting exercise, The seats were painted red and the final run had the steering wheel which had always been bare metal until now painted in the body colour of British racing green.
The wheels were a rather odd looking filled in spoke pattern which were not as nice as some of the earlier types, These were unpainted metal which can be laquered on some of the later issues giving them a coppery colour. It was the first Yesteryear model to be fitted with black plastic tyres.
It had the usual crimped axles on the early issues and rounded axles on the later ones. Decals were limited to just two racing number '5's one being applied to each side, The supercharger or 'blower' was a seperately cast & plated fitting which was mounted in front of the radiator grille, It was deleted in 1962 when it was replaced by another Bentley which was an altogether nicer model.


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The ones to look for, The grey folded roof versions and the green steering wheel are both hard to find.