Austin J40

The Austin J40 was a luxuriously finished children's pedal car made by the Austin Motor Company, a scaled-down roadster that copied the styling of the full-size Austin A40 Devon and Dorset. It was built at the Austin Pedal Car Factory in Tir-y-Berth, Bargoed, in Wales, a works set up as a social employment project for coal miners declared unfit for pit work because of lung disease, using some scrap and surplus material from the Longbridge factory. It succeeded the Pathfinder pedal racing car, entered production in autumn 1949 and stayed in production until 1971, with 32,098 made. Its fittings included an opening bonnet and boot lid, an imitation engine with real spark plugs, battery headlamps, a horn, a handbrake and detachable wheels with Dunlop tyres. Sold in London by Selfridges and exported widely, it was also used to teach road safety to children and as a fairground ride. A new J40 continuation car went into production in 2023.