23e and 221 'Speed of the Wind' Racing Car (1936-56)

Hi All, Here is my latest acquisition. An early 23e with the 'peened in' base plate. The body is very good with no obvious fatigue although the wheels are suffering a little. The tyres are non-original as far as I can tell, they have no tread but an obvious mouding mark around the circumference. The paint is as you see not great but the racing number panels, and one of the numbers, are still evident. I was the only bidder on the well-known auction site and got it for a very reasonable price. it's not great but I'm very pleased to have it. John

Somebody must have had great fun playing with it, John! It is striking that on such an early one a model name is still wanting, down below, at the rear. Kind regards, Jan

Hi John, the 23e Speed of the Wind was introduced in May 1936 (Meccano Magazine), first without racing numbers, then with racing numbers, like yours. Take good care of it. Best regards Walter

Thanks Jan, do you know when the name was introduced? Walter, thanks for that information. I was delighted with it when it arrived as it was even better than I imagined it would be. The baseplate is not damaged at all apart from a small scratch and some rubbing on the engine sump and differential. The body edges and the ridge on the tail are still crisp and the nose and tail show no damage so whoever played with it they treated it gently. I, on the other hand, remember how badly I treated my Talbot Lago in the school playground. This one I SHALL look after.

Well, it's happened again! I was just browsing ebay and what should I see? A badly repainted and very chipped 23e. It was obvious straight away that it had pre-war wheels and a quick jump to the photo of the underside showed that it was indeed a pre-war model - complete with baseplate! With a buy-it-now price of 9.99 I couldn't hit the button too quickly. it's now mine and will join the little band of not very pretty, but extremely enjoyable pre-war racers and record cars in my collection.

Such a pre-war bargain, congrats! Kind regards, Jan

Thanks Jan. I still haven't told everyone (except Walter) about my other recent pre-war find. I'll get some photos up soon.

Clamping the initial base plate of an early pre-war example in some more detail:

With this pre-war addition comparison of base plates in one picture is easy now: Top > down: 1952-1956, 1938-1952 and 1936-1938.

Jan, a very nice and interesting comparison of the pre-war base with the post-war one. You will of course immediately see the difference. The large post-war lettering against the small pre-war and the omission of the wheel drive on the post-war because of the lettering. The earliest without name of the model. The latest with model number. I like comparisons like that. What is also immediately noticeable are the holes in the base of the pre-war and the differences in rivets. I wonder why the holes in the base were needed. Was this perhaps necessary for pressing the wheel drive bulge? Kind regards, Jan Oldenhuis

There is another small change to the baseplates of the 23e Speed of the Wind: the prewar-baseplates have those two little 'angel wings' behind the differential. The late post-war baseplates (ca. 1948/49) had them omitted, before the new black baseplate was introduced. brgds Walter

Thank you, gentlemen, for your comments. I presume the holes are for fixing the models during paint spraying, that is, for the models which have base plates in the same colour as the body only. I had not noticed that angel wings difference before! My two examples without are models with domed axle ends. The others have crimped axle ends. So I produced an adjusted picture below. Kind regards, Jan