Issued ?1937 and 1950-1960   'OO/HO'scale (1:76)   Length 59mm

The second of the early 'Lilliput World' cars was the Saloon Car which shared most of its castings with LV/601 Open Sports Car. In fact the only difference was the design of the body which represented a two-door car not based on any identified vehicle.

Because of the pre WW2 style, the Saloon Car may have been planned for production from 1937 onwards but wartime disruption curtailed it. After the War in 1950 it formed part of the new Lilliput Vehicle Series and was not discontinued until 1960.

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It was constructed from three basic castings, a large chassis unit, the body, and a grille and bumper addition at the front. There were two types of chassis with two types of grille fittings. Models with the type 1 chassis had a closed rear axle and at the front a patch of solder, and the grille was secured by a tab on the bonnet. Cars with the second type chassis had an open rear axle and no front solder or tab.

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Britons used four types of wheels on the Saloon Cars, either all metal lead wheels without treads, or silver solid plastic with 'Britains Ltd England' inscribed on them, or grey solid plastic, or red plastic hubs with black tyres which had 'Britains Ltd England' on each side. 

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The Saloon Cars were painted in a variety of single or two-tone colours, and sometimes in more than one shade of the same colour. All models had an unpainted underside to the chassis with 'W Britains' and 'England' cast in panels on each side of an imbossed crankshaft.

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The first boxes for the Saloon Car were individual end-flap card boxes with dark-blue printing and a line drawing of the model on each face. On one side the Britains Trade Mark appeared, and on the other the name of W.Horton (Toys & Games) Ltd who manufactured the model under licence. The end-flaps carried the model details and number.

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In 1956 Britains upgraded the Vehicle Series and gave the Saloon Car a new open fronted box with a pictorial insert to which the model was secured. The name and number was printed on one end-flap.

Apart from being sold separately, LV/602 Saloon Car was included in three boxed Sets (LV/SA Vehicle Set, L/7 Farm Display Set, and L/11 Railway Display Set) so is quite easy to find but some of the colour variations are scarce, and the open fronted box is rare.