IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 50s Austin J40 and Jaguar E Type pedal car

Описание: Today's video is less about the driving (mainly because I can't fit...) and more about the cars and their history. We are talking about there Austin J40 - Austin Joy car - and the Tri-ang Jaguar E Type pedal cars.

Today's video is sponsored by Adrian Flux!

The walk around text is below if you're hard of hearing like me!

Our first car we’re looking at is the Austin J40.

The Austin pedal cars were something special and in fact, the story of how and why they were made is just as interesting as the cars themselves.

Although the pedal cars were sold under the streamline ‘just like Father’s car’, the Austin J40 and other Austin pedal cars were made in a specially designed factory in Bargoed in South Wales.

The area might seem an unusual choice for the factory, but the cars were actually a result of the Welsh government developing a subsidised scheme to ensure disabled coal miners were given a way to earn a living.

The scheme was targeted at miners who suffered from a lung disease called pneumoconioiss and not only were the miners retrained but given special medical treatment.

For context, the factory opened in 1949 and the NHS was founded in the summer of 1948, so specialised medical care was a massive deal and something so rarely provided to the working man.

The first prototype was developed in 1946 and was the Joy 1 prototype. Leonard Lord who headed up Austin asked three Austin workers to develop a pedal car with Alfred Ash’s design based on the Austin 8 road car. Although the car didn’t go into production, it set the scene for the arrival of the J40 we see here to today.

So with all the background work in place, the new factory in Wales opened in the summer of 1949 making the Austin J40 we see here today. The factory had an intended build target of 250 cars per week, but this was never met or exceeded.

The cost of the car was roughly £3,000 in today’s money and went miles beyond the quality of pedal cars we see today.

The metal used to make the cars was off cuts and scraps from the Austin Motor Car Factory and the cars were even built and painted to the same standard as the full size cars using the same paint and finishing techniques.

Although the lights and horn do not work on this example, they worked from new and as you can see, the bonnet lifts to reveal genuine spark plugs and leads. The wheels are also detachable and were sold with real Dunlop tyres.

The boot also lifts and on the boot floor is usually the chassis number although on this example as you’ll see on the walk round, it is near impossible to see.

Although this model is fitted with a flying A as per full size cars, this was later removed for safety reasons.

The car was primarily intended to sell overseas in America but quickly gained popularity in both Canada and Denmark. And just over 32,000 of these rather marvellous cars were made before production ended in 1971.

The cars are still hugely popular today as collectors items and the car even has its own club who have members meets and supply parts.

With such care and attention to the build, good quality, a specialised race at the Goodwood revival and an owners club to boot; it truly feels like the J40 does as it says when it stated ‘just like father’s car’.

After production ended, the factory continued to operate and made A series engines and rocker covers until it was closed in 1999.

This E type Jaguar Tri-ang pedal car is a little more simple and lacks the refinement of the J40 although was a lot cheaper to purchase new and more affordable for average family to buy.

This is a little newer and would’ve dated from some point in the 1960s.

I did a bit of digging online for a similar example and this one is missing the windscreen chrome outline and a few little bits and pieces, but far better it is here than in the landfill where it was headed!

Tri-ang of course are famous for creating children’s toys and were a brand of Line Bros who were at one point in time, the largest toy makers in the world.

Many of your childhood favourites were sold under Tri-ang including Scalextric, Dinky toys and Sindy.

Although the horn doesn’t work on this one, many of the pedal cars made by Tri-ang did have horns on them which were made by PIFCO, who seemingly made every electrical item under the sun at one point.

If you fancy one of these nowadays for you or a smaller family member, a decent example can set back up to four figures!

Now before we say goodbye until next time, I thought we’d have a chat to the owner Kev.