Matchbox/Lesney 53c; Ford Zodiac MkIV

What a splendid model, a first class model of a big, imposing car, the MkIV Zodiac. I know that the Ford Zodiac, Zephyr, Executive or whatever it was variously called was a numb article and only really at home as a Police car or in black at the undertakers, but I always had a bit of a soft spot for it. This car was the V6 3 litre version which had 136bhp so had a bit of umph, but the 2 litre, 88bhp must have been a slow beast, although at the time it was big and flash and as ever with Ford in the sixties had a bit of style and kitsch while BMC was giving us the 1800 land crab and Vauxhall had the Cresta and Viscount on a similar scale to the Fords, but only the big Fords really cut it.

The Matchbox model had a very eventful production life with some really very rare and sought after (read valuable) versions. The first releases were in 1968 with regular wheels. Most of these are a light metallic blue with black plastic wheels, not a very rare or valuable model. They have been seen with violet coloured seats and these are very rare, even more rare is a version with chromed hubs and black plastic tyres although this is thought to be a pre-production prototype. The car was re-coloured metallic green for the changeover to Superfast and some of these green bodies found their way on to the market with black plastic regular wheels. This is the real prize, they are worth thousands.

In 1970 the car with Superfast wheels was released, initially in the same metallic blue as before but quickly recoloured into metallic green. The shades of green vary through the production run and as the larger & wider Superfast wheels were introduced the wheel arches were enlarged. For the final year of production in 1972 the colour was changed again to a yellowish lime green. In terms of value the best Superfast by far is the one with the metallic blue body, the metallic greens vary across a small range and the lime yellow/green gets a fair premium.

Matchbox/Lesney 53c; Ford Zodiac MkIV; Metallic Blue, Cream Seats, BPW	Matchbox/Lesney 53c; Ford Zodiac MkIV; Lime Green, Superfast	Matchbox/Lesney 53c; Ford Zodiac MkIV; Metallic Emerald Green Superfast

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Last Edit: 12/06/2024		Page Added 13/03/21