The Austin J40 continuation – The ultimate pedal car for Christmas?

Picture the scene. It is Christmas Day, 1958, and beneath the tree is a large package – more to the point, a pedal-car-sized package. Could it possibly be the Austin J40, the country’s ultimate pedal car? You have dropped subtle hints for the past few weeks, but your parents claim it is “far too extravagant”.

Sixty-five years ago, receiving an Austin J40 on the 25^{th of} December was the hope of countless children across the UK. After all, this was the pedal car with an opening boot and bonnet, chrome-plated bumpers, and a dummy engine with Champion spark plugs. Twin 4.5-volt batteries powered the horn and the lights, while the ‘cabin’ featured a leather-cloth trimmed seat and a dashboard with Art Deco fake instruments. The pedals were adjustable for legroom, and there was even a choice of handbrake positions.

And now J40 Continuation | Austin Pedal Cars offers the Austin J40 Continuation – “the first new Austin pedal car in over 50 years”. The lucky owner will gain a hand-stitched leather upholstered seat, a wooden rim steering wheel and hand brake lever, and “a fully functioning electronic dash display”. The specification also includes rack and pinion steering, aluminium bodywork, “artillery style wheels”, chrome hub caps, a leather document folder with an “Austin pen”, and an “Austin tool kit”. The paint finish is Ensign Red, and the cost is £25,000.

Austin Pedal Cars will make only 49 of the J40 Continuation to commemorate the original ‘Junior 40’ launch in 1949. As many readers know, its story commenced in 1943 when the government devised a scheme to create factories employing coal miners suffering from pneumoconiosis. Businesses were offered attractive rates and rents as an incentive, and Austin responded with a plan to build a toy car in the South Wales town of Bargoed. The new plant opened in 1949. Austin’s Works Manager George Harriman told the press that the J40 had “a quality and character beyond anything previously attempted in this field, and the price is correspondingly higher”.

One brochure boasted, “Children will be thrilled to possess such a model which will induce a satisfying sense of ownership”, and this was no mere hyperbole. If £20 9s 4d may have represented several weeks’ wages for the average parent, there was no comparable pedal-powered rival. The J40 was “Just Like Father’s Car” and “What a thrill for ‘Junior’ to drive a car just like father’s, to polish it even better than he does”. All of which does now read like the script for a Harry Enfield/Paul Whitehouse sketch.

Autin gained invaluable publicity when J40 guest-starred in the 1954 Norman Wisdom vehicle One Good Turn.

Prince Charles received an aquamarine blue J40 with a custom-devised windscreen, wing mirrors, and side and spot lamps. Many police forces also used the pedal-powered Austin for road safety instruction.

The last of 32,098 pedal cars departed the factory in 1971, and this writer has already decided he wants a J40 Continuation for Christmas. This is because a) he is a devotee of the miniature Austin, and b) it will prove more economical than his full-sized car. Not to mention c) - as with the original Junior 40, the Continuation model is a car “to show it off to admiring friends and relatives”.