Yesteryear Collection - 1920 Rolls-Royce Armoured Car

The Belgians were the first to use armoured cars in World War I when they fitted Rolls Royce Silver Ghost touring cars with steel boiler plates and equipped them with Vickers .303 machine guns. This prompted the Royal Navy to outfit several cars and were sent to Gallipoli and Egypt to defend the Suez Canal.
By 1915 the armoured cars were transferred to the British Army - Motor Machine Gun Corps which operated in the Middle East countries. Although other cars such as Austin and Peerless were in service, the Rolls Royce was preferred because of its performance and dependability in this unyielding terrain. Colonel T.E.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) used this vehicle (Blue Mist) against the Turks in Palestine. Many of the armoured cars were given names by their crews as 'Wedding Bells' and 'Cockatrice'.
The Rolls Royce 1920 Pattern Mark IA was different to the earlier version. It had a machine gun mounted on a revolving turret, heavier leaf spring suspension and dual rear wheels. The interior consisted of a wooden floor and bench seats. The tyres were often filled with semi solid material to counter having the tyres shot out. This improved version had a large radiator and louvred radiator doors and a self starter, but the vehicles still required considerable driver skill because of their weight (3,5 tonnes) and lack of synchro-mesh.
Rolls Royce armoured cars saw considerable service in ares of conflict and revolutions of the time - Russia, Ireland, Iraq, Shanghai and Palestine and were even used in the Second World War.

The (Y38-1) 1920 Rolls-Royce Armoured Car was introduced in 1990. Although the Crossley had been released as an RAF Ambulance this Rolls Royce was the first armed military vehicle.It was a highly detailed model and proved to be very popular.

The total production run was 35,000.

Comments/Features: It was packed into a box that was marked as a 'Special Limited Edition' and 'YS-38' but the baseplate inscription simply read Y-38.

Livery: (Tampo)
'HMAC' and 'AJAX' in black on both sides of bonnet.
Red, white and blue roundel on both sides of body and turret top slopes.

Variations/Rarities: There are two distinct shades of paint which are light or darker khaki. Apart from the colour shades no other variations have come to light.

Interesting Facts: HMAC = His Majestys Armored Car 'Ajax'.

Information as from "The Yesteryear Book 1956-2002"
Issue	Year of Release	Colour	Turret	Gun	Head Lamps	Wheels	Engine Underside Armour Plating	Baseplate	Rarity	Box
1	1990	Light khaki	Light khaki	Black	Pinky beige	Dark khaki solid	Dark khaki	MATCHBOX © 1990 SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION MACAU		O
2		Darker khaki	Darker khaki	Black	Pinky beige	Dark khaki solid	Dark khaki	MATCHBOX © 1990 SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION MACAU		O
Box: O - Large red and gold 'Special Limited Edition'


1920 Rolls-Royce Armoured Car				Box marked as a 'Special Edition' and 'YS-38'