This was probably the worlds first true sports car and it was renowned for its extremely smooth running. The model is of a V-2 four seater which had a 4 litre, side valve engine making it capable of a speed of 75 m.p.h.

The Vauxhall Prince Henry car is widely regarded as the first sports car. Built with a light body for that time, they participated in a car event in Germany in which various parts had to be passed, including a speed test. The car turned out to be reliable and fast.

The (Y2-3) 1914 Prince Henry Vauxhall joined the range in 1970. The original car from which this model was reproduced is currently residing in the famous Beaulieu Museum in England.
The colour of the model was based on authentic cars from the British company Vauxhall. The combination of a red body with a silver hood and light beige seats appeared on Prince Henry Vauxhall cars as early as 1911. At that time, however, the car was not spray-painted in metallic, but in deep red paint. The model has a non-authentic colour on the model's red coloured plastic on the radiator grille.

Variations/Rarities: The first colour scheme was a bright red body, chassis and grille. The bonnet was painted silver on this and all later issues.
The seats were light cream and it had 26 spoke brass plated wire wheels with black plastic tyres.
Fuel tanks can be either brass or copper.
There were casting modifications to the sidelights when reinforcing ribs were cast in so only issue 1 has no sidelight ribs.
It was recoloured to dark blue with light cream or bright red seats and black grille. Some of the blue issues show clear signs of red bodies being repainted in dark blue so the shades of blue can vary considerably. It now sported 24 spoke chrome wheels.
Early into production of the blue issue a 1mm wide by 1mm high floor brace was cast behind and in front of the front seat.
It was recoloured again to orange-red or bright red body and black chassis with cream seats and red 12 spoke plastic wheels. This version had a small spare wheel rivet.
The final colour scheme was a lighter red body and black chassis with cream seats and 12 spoke red plastic wheels, but this issue had a larger rivet to hold the spare wheel.

Several castings of the rear tank were plated with copper. These versions are rare.

This model was also released as both a silver and gold plated version in the Matchbox Giftware series.

The real 1914 Prince Henry Vauxhall: The label on the box says a little exaggeratedly that this was probably the first real sports car. Vauxhall Motors introduced it in 1910 and named it after Prince Henry of Prussia, who organized a large endurance car race. Under the designation C-type, this car was manufactured between 1911 and 1913 and with an increased engine capacity until 1915.
The car is famous for its very flexible smooth running of the engine. The four-cylinder four-cylinder fork with side valves had a power of almost 60 horsepower. This predestined him to many successes in international races and even speed records. After the victory in the St. Petersburg-Sevastopol race in 1911, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II also bought two of these Vauxhalls. In the civilian version with a four-seater body, Prince Henry Vauxhall weighed 1,250 kilograms and reached a top speed of up to 102 kilometers per hour.

Scale: 1:47

Bright red body and chassis; silver bonnet; light cream seats; brass 26 spoke wheels

Dark blue body and chassis; silver bonnet; light cream seats; chrome 24 spoke wheels

Bright red body, black chassis; silver bonnet; light cream seats; red 12 spoke wheels; whitewall tyres; large spare wheel rivet

Green body and chassis; silver bonnet; gold trim; from the 1996 Matchbox Collectibles 40th Anniversary Collection

The rare (on red models) copper tank example on the right

The sidelight with reinforcement on the right

A shows the floor without brace.
B shows the later type with a brace