From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE AUSTIN J40: Pedal cars date back to the very early part of the 20th century, but few have a more interesting history that the pedal cars which were manufactured by the Austin Motor Company between 1949 and 1971.
In 1946, Sir Leonard Lord, chairman of Austin, conceived the idea of creating a factory in an area of very high unemployment in Wales with the specific idea of providing work for former coal-miners. As the principal motive for the project - which was to be run on a non-profit making basis - was to create employment, a large part of its funding came from government funds.
The official opening of the new factory took place in July 1949 and the 2,275 square metre facility initially employed 50 men. The first pedal car to roll down the production line was called the Pathfinder, and was based in appearance on the famous pre-war Jamison Austin 750 twin-cam racing car. The Pathfinder was superbly built and sold at an expensive £25. Initially, it was hoped to reach a weekly production figure of 250 but this was never attained and in 1950 the Pathfinder was replaced by a new model.
The Pathfinders replacement was based in appearance on the then-current Austin A40 Devon and was given the name 'Austin Junior Forty Roadster'.
Not surprisingly, this quickly became abbreviated to simply 'J40'. The J40 was an even more realistic creation than its predecessor. Of very robust construction, it featured a hinged bonnet and boot, as well as inflatable Dunlop tyres.
Under the bonnet was a dummy engine fitted with four real spark plugs and batteries which operated the working headlights and horn. On the J40's bonnet was a scaled-down replica of the 'Flying A' mascot carried by all the full-size Austin models.
The J40 proved very popular and was manufactured until 1971, by which time no fewer than 32,098 had been manufactured with a very large proportion being exported.
Today, they are much valued by collectors and can often be seen forming the cars on fairground rides.
EARLY PEDAL CARS: It was natural that as early motor cars became a more common sight on our roads, some children yearned for cars of their own. As a result the first pedal cars appeared at the very beginning of the 20th century. Initially, like their full-size counterparts, they were available only to the well-off. Often they were individually made to an owner's specification, sometimes being replicas of "father's automobile".
These early pedal cars all featured spoked cycle wheels by virtue of the fact that they were all manufactured as a sideline by the established cycle manufacturing concerns. One very obvious feature of these early pedal cars is that they had large - often very large - rear wheels and much smaller front wheels. Their bodies were almost invariably made of wood, with the better examples being superbly made by craftsmen while cheaper models often had a wooden frame which was then panelled with metal.
By the end of the first decade of the last century, the pedal car was a well-established item in many households and had begun to be manufactured commercially in quite large numbers. In their 1910 catalogue, the toy manufacturer G and J Lines of London, then the leading British toy manufacturer, offered a range of pedal cars ranging from a very basic £2 model to £18.10s for their most expensive model, the "Featherweight Champion".
This model came with every conceivable extra including Dunlop inflatable tyres. It also featured a fully operating hand-brake and for the first time, four wheels of the same size.
By 1919 mass production techniques had been introduced to the manufacture of pedal cars and as a result their prices fell dramatically while their engineering improved immeasurably. The pedal car had come to stay.