In 1955, Mec­ca­no Ltd intro­duced a new series of Dinky Toys Eng­lish sports cars, which would prove high­ly pop­u­lar, very col­lec­table, and much loved. These would be the 100 series, which at first were mod­eled as com­pe­ti­tion cars, com­plete with rac­ing numer­als and dri­vers clad in a white com­pe­ti­tion suit. In 1957, they wise­ly decid­ed to extend the series by offer­ing the same mod­els as “tour­ing” ver­sions with­out the numer­als, and with a civil­ian dri­ver. These tour­ing ver­sions were : 101 Sun­beam Alpine; 102 MG Midget; 103 Austin Healey 100; 104 Aston Mar­tin DB3S; and 105 Tri­umph TR2.

These were all offered in two dif­fer­ent paint schemes for each mod­el, and were extreme­ly pop­u­lar. An out­lier in this group, and a bit of an odd­i­ty, is the 129 MG Sports Car. This was also intro­duced in 1955, but only as an export mod­el, and it was real­ly an ear­ly tour­ing mod­el, cre­at­ed sim­ply by delet­ing the numer­als and the dri­ver, but using the same two paint col­ors that the com­pe­ti­tion ver­sion came in: white or red. This was only made in 1955 and 1956; in 1957 a new tour­ing ver­sion was intro­duced: the 102 MG Midget, now with a civil­ian dri­ver, and in a choice of two new col­ors.

This was a very nice group of Eng­lish cars, but the inclu­sion of the Aston Mar­tin DB3S was an odd choice, as it was not a sports or tour­ing car, but an all-out race car. It made sense as a com­pe­ti­tion mod­el, so when it was decid­ed to offer tour­ing ver­sions, it had to stay in. A more appro­pri­ate tour­ing car would have been the Jaguar XK140 Road­ster, but Dinky had already intro­duced the Jaguar XK120 Coupe ear­li­er, so that wasn’t going to hap­pen. These tour­ing mod­els were dis­con­tin­ued in 1960.

In this group pho­to of the tour­ing ver­sions, I am also show­ing the red 129 MG Sports Car which was acquired a few years ago with no dri­ver in it.

How­ev­er, I real­ly want­ed to show you the orig­i­nal com­pe­ti­tion cars, made from 1955/6 to 1959, so here they are! All include race dri­vers and race num­bers.

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107 Sunbeam Alpine

The Sun­beam was intro­duced in 1955 and made through 1959. This com­pe­ti­tion ver­sion was also made in light blue. The real car was quite attrac­tive but not made in large num­bers. To me, the Dinky mod­el was just ok cap­tur­ing the charm of the real one, but still a very nice mod­el for the mid to late 1950’s.

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108 MG Midget

This car was also called an MG TF. And this was such a clas­sic Eng­lish sports car, a descen­dant of the ear­ly post war MG TC, then the MG TD, fol­lowed by this one, the MG TF. So this was a per­fect mod­el for Dinky Toys to make, and I am quite sure it was a pop­u­lar mod­el and sold well. I got my first exam­ple around 1957, and it was just like the one I am show­ing: the white com­pe­ti­tion mod­el. But that one got a bit scratched up, so as a young boy, I decid­ed to paint it a dark blue. It stayed that way until about 10 years ago, when I decid­ed to have it paint­ed one of the tour­ing col­ors.

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109 Austin Healey 100

One of my favorites in this series. Dinky did a mas­ter­ful job with repli­cat­ing this well known and pop­u­lar Eng­lish sports car. Note that the tour­ing dri­ver is real­ly a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent cast­ing.

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110 Aston Martin DB3S

When the DB3S was first intro­duced as part of the com­pe­ti­tion series, that made sense, as the Aston Mar­tin was being cam­paigned in sports car races all over the world, and was very well known and high­ly regard­ed. When Dinky chose to reis­sue all of these cars as tour­ing mod­els, this became a bit of real­i­ty stretch, as it was real­ly an all-out rac­ing car, and few, if any, were ever dri­ven as tour­ers. Nonethe­less, it made a nice mod­el, and Dinky did a nice job with it. I hap­pen to have three of them: one tour­er, and the two com­pe­ti­tion ver­sions.

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110 Triumph TR2

The TR2 was a very pop­u­lar import­ed sports car to the USA in the mid-1950’s, and a very nice sport car in its own right. My pink one shown here dates from around 1959, and shows a bit of play and han­dling wear. I have to admit this pink col­or isn’t my favorite for the Tri­umph.

A year of two after the intro­duc­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion cars, Mec­ca­no wise­ly decid­ed to broad­en the series by offer­ing the same mod­els in new col­ors as tour­ing cars. Both these sets of cars proved to be very pop­u­lar then, and even now they are favorite col­lectibles for many peo­ple.