The Politoys M-525 Ferrari 250 LeMans is generally considered to represent the absolute zenith of Politoys' quest for ever-greater levels of detail. 

This family photo shows four of the five known colour variants. The model was first issued in silver or metallic red (although silver seems to be marginally more common), with red-and-white stripes and racing number "12" on the doors. A rear-mounted number plate read "PROVA-8931". All these were waterslide transfers. 

Later issues also came in the non-metallic red, which is harder to find, metallic blue, which is very rare and the ivory-and-black combination pictured, which was unknown before this example surfaced and is thought to be from a very late production run when the factory just wanted to use up the castings. Interiors on all the cars are brown.

On all these later cars the earlier transfers were switched for easier-to-apply stickers consisting of Politoys' now-standard black-and-white chequered racing stripe and (usually) oval number roundels on the doors. On both the examples shown these are either missing or were never applied. The rear numberplate was now MI-7032, one of the standard plates used across the range.

The earliest models had the standard moulded open wire wheels used on numerous sporty models from the M-Series, and as with all the models that used this wheel, the Ferrari soon switched to the "solid" moulded wires when Politoys discovered that their open wire wheel mould was difficult to keep clean enough to give good castings consistently.

This picture shows the early and later type wires in close-up;

On the later examples, the wires were dropped entirely, in favour of alloys. These are the same wheels as used on Politoys' Export Series Iso Grifo. This picture shows these later alloys along with an example of the first type "open" wires produced later in the production run than the above example. Here you can see fairly copious amounts of flash between the spokes; undoubtedly the reason for the introduction of the "solid" wires above.

Interestingly,  even on later models with moulded alloy wheels, the spare wheel which lives under the rear engine cover always seems to be of the wire-spoked variety!

Besides the wheels and colours, there are three other variations to look for. Firstly, on the earliest models, the hinges of the rear engine cover and roof hatch are held in place by the plastic window moulding and a small metal brace. Later versions had this altered; now, the windscreen was a single, smaller moulding and a larger silver-plated, diecast brace fitted to the inside of the roof held the hinges in place. 

Secondly, the heat shields under the rear window can be found either plated or unplated. There seems to be no clear timeline to this. It appears that some days the factory workers just felt like leaving them unplated, as both early and late models can be found with either plated or unplated shields.

The difference, as you can see from this picture, is quite easy to spot at a glance. 

And lastly, the final models (which were sold in clear plexiglass cases) have two tiny indentations cast into the baseplates for the pegs in the case bases to fit into. None of my models are boxed, but there are three box variants. The earliest type is a window box identical to those used for the rest of the range, in yellow and black with a line drawing of the car on the side. The second type is a much larger window box with a fold-over header card-come-flap showing a colour painting of the car at speed on the racetrack. The last models came in the abovementioned clear plastic cases with white bases (again common to all the models in the range by that point). 

The one thing that ALL the cars have in common however, are the opening features. 

While the M-Series' Lamborghini Miura technically has more separate parts (55 as opposed to the Ferrari's 50), the Ferrari boasts no less than SEVEN opening features, more than any other model in the range and possibly a record for a 1/43 scale mass-produced toy car.  As such, it was referred to in contemporary Italian adverts as "La 7 Aperture" (The Seven Openings) and the name has stuck amongst collectors - hence the title of this entry. 

Here's one of the silver examples with doors, roof hatch and front lid open...

And here's the red car with the rear engine cover and fuel filler flaps open...

And here's the metallic red car (which had a few contemporary aftermarket decals added by its original owner) with all seven parts open...

The opening fuel filler flaps are especially amazing, as they are both tiny metal castings and NOT plastic - it's easy to see how this model must have cost a fortune to manufacture (and why Politoys almost went bankrupt in 1968!).  Here's a detail shot. Note also the intricate Pininfarina logo on the side of the car. 

Fillers on red cars (metallic and non-metallic) are usually painted silver-grey, and fillers on silver and metallic blue cars are painted red. The ivory/black car has them unpainted. 

Now,  about those 50 separate components... To end, here's a picture of a disassembled playworn example from my spares box, showing all the bits. Note that the headlights (two components each side!) are still on the bodyshell, the two tail-lights are still in place on the rear engine cover, the steering wheel isglued to the dashboard moulding, the interior unit is made up of two seats, one gear lever, one cabin moulding and one suspension leaf all heat-sealed together and that the assembled wheel/axle units are made up of 5 pieces each (2 wheels, 2 tyres and an axle).

Note that this is an early example, with the larger window moulding encompassing the hinge braces. Also, although it's not clearly visible in this photo, this example has broken front and rear over-riders and damage to one of the clear plastic headlight covers. These are the parts of the model that are most fragile, and played-with examples are often found with them damaged. Some examples may also be missing the fuel filler covers, but luckily all of these components are fairly easy to replace from scrap examples and other than these minor weaknesses, in spite of its high detail levels, the model is pretty robust.

Also, while the rare colour variants described above are hard to source, the commoner versions of the model are far from rare. Good, unboxed examples should be pretty easy to find and not too expensive. This it was one of the most popular models in the range, stayed in production for a fairly long time and sold well. In fact, this is often the first Politoys model collectors buy, and a great introduction to the M-Series it is too!

The model has been described as something of a work of art. Personally, I take my hat off to those who designed it and who worked on the assembly line, because getting all these bits together is an art in itself!