The Austin J40 was a luxuriously appointed

pedal car A quadracycle (also spelled quadricycle) is a four-wheeled human-powered land vehicle. It is also referred to as a quadcycle, pedal car or four-wheeled bicycle amongst other terms. Quadracycles have been in use since 1853 and have grown into ...

as a children's toy, which was manufactured to order by

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

Bargoed Bargoed () is a town and community (Wales), community in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly. It straddles the Historic counties o ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

History

The Austin J40 was born from a social employment project in Wales.

Miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

s who had been declared unfit for work because of

black lungs Black Lungs is a Canadian punk rock band, formed by Alexisonfire guitarist and vocalist and Gallows (band), Gallows vocalist Wade MacNeil. MacNeil originally envisioned the project's music as similar to his first punk rock band, Plan 9.. ''Char ...

were able to participate in this project that was set up for them. The material came from waste material from the Austin factory in

Longbridge Longbridge is an area in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire, historically being within this place. Public transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus ...

. Apart from the fact that this company offered work to the ex-miners, it also offered a good training ground for future

managers Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...

of the Austin Motor Company in dealing with personnel. The company employed 250 men. The 1946

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

, the Joy1'','' was based on the 1940 Austin 8 road car. Following the Joy2, Joy3 and Joy4 prototypes, the Pathfinder came in 1949, with a

body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anim ...

based on the 1930s OHV Austin Seven Racer. Production started in July 1949 at a small factory, the Austin Junior Car Factory, in Bargoed in South Wales, but ended in 1950 due to disappointing sales figures. Its successor was the Austin Junior 40 (J40), which was based on the popular

Austin A40 Devon :''See Austin A40 for other A40 models and Austin A40 Sports for the sports car version of the Devon.'' The A40 Devon (and similar 2-door A40 Dorset) are automobiles that were marketed by Austin from 1947 to 1952 – the first post-war ...

and Dorset model and went into production from 1950. It featured an opening bonnet, an imitation engine with real

spark plug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

powered

headlights A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for t ...

, a

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

, a seat upholstered in imitation leather, an imitation instrument panel, detachable wheels with Dunlop tyres, an opening boot lid and a

handbrake HandBrake is a free and open-source transcoder for digital video files. It was originally developed in 2003 by Eric Petit to make ripping DVDs to a data storage device easier. HandBrake's backend contains comparatively little original code; t ...

. Furthermore, many parts were chrome-plated. In 1957, a lengthened version with a working

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American and Canadian English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends ...

in the boot and rear-axle drive was released, and in which the pedals were omitted. The J40 was initially intended as an export item to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, but later also to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. In the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, the Austin J40 was imported by the company R.S. Stokvis. Every year, rallies for children are still held at the

Goodwood Revival The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September at Goodwood Circuit since 1998 for the types of road racing, racing cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit's original period—1948–1966. History The ...

, since the Austin J40 Pedal Car Club was founded in 1983. Furthermore, the cars were used on

traffic park A traffic park or children's traffic park is a park in which children can learn the rules of the road. A traffic park is also called a ''transportation park'' or traffic garden or ''safety village'' depending on locale. Traffic parks are frequent ...

for children, in a

merry-go-round A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

at fairs and as an advertising object. A number of copies were also converted with a petrol engine. Up to the end of production in 1971, 32,098 copies of the J40 were sold. The car was available in various colours and a red one was also used as an attraction for taking children's photos, such as at

Diergaarde Blijdorp (; ), officially Rotterdam Zoo, is a zoo located in the northwestern part of Rotterdam. It is one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands, and has been operated by the ("Royal Rotterdam Zoo Foundation"). Divided into several zoogeographic regio ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. In 2022, British company Burlen Fuel Systems acquired the rights to the Austin Pedal Cars name and subsequently revealed a new Austin J40 at the

later that year. The car entered production in 2023, featuring a hand-formed

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

body, hand stitched

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

seat and electronic instrument gauges, priced at £25,000.

References

{{Reference list Austin Motor Company Toy cars and trucks 1950s toys