Bentley Continental

This is another watershed moment in the history of Corgi, they really pulled out all the stops on this one; jewelled lights fore and aft, opening boot with a spare wheel in it, steering and plated chassis and bright-work. If you look at the pictures you may see the coil spring arrangement on the front wheels. Beautifully engineered it set the agenda for the next decade - make a fine, accurate model, add some expected features like an opening boot and then do something unexpected like putting a spare wheel in the boot.

The Bentley was released in 1961 and stayed in the range until 1965. It is listed as black over silver, pale green over metallic green and white over metallic green - although my belief is that the very pale green has been mistaken for white. and in reality there are just the two colour options. You will also see the car in vacuum plated gold which was never available separately, it was part of the Golden Guinea Gift Set also released in 1961, one of a trio of gold plated cars, the other two being a Chevy Corvair and a Ford Consul Classic. All the Bentleys are valued at the higher end, the gold-plated version being most sought after.