Austin Junior 40

ROADSTER! takes a look at a toy car with a fascinating past, present and future…

The Industrial Revolution. The invention of the steam engine led to a huge demand for coal, the fossil fuel used to drive the engines, extracted from deep underground by coal mining. By the early 20th Century the South Wales Coalfield was one of the largest coalfields in the world.

But In the late 19th Century a disease caused by the coal dust known as "Black Lung" was found to be disabling or even killing the miners. Some 17,000 miners were forced to leave their jobs because of the disease, causing mass unemployment. Something HAD to be done.

Step forward the Austin Motor Company - at the time a very successful and important British vehicle manufacturer, based near Birmingham. Austin came up with a plan to build a TOY pedal car out of a government-funded, purpose-built factory in Wales. This “joy car” would be for children aged four to nine and based on real Austin motorcars. It would be built from scrap metal from Austin’s real car factory and would be built and sold to help the ex-miners.

The “Junior Car Factory” was set up in Bargoed and started production in 1949. The Junior 40, or J40, shared its styling with the real “Austin A40” Devon and Dorset cars.

It was made from a steel frame and sheet steel sourced from the real Austin factory, and was built using the same production methods as a real car.

It came with real car features such as dashboard, a bonnet which opened to reveal a dummy engine complete with spark plugs and leads, steering, battery operated headlamps, working brakes, a leather seat, a boot for storage, steel wheels with real tyres which you could change, a horn, and chrome bumpers. It was a really high quality toy.

The little car was immensely popular with children. As well as being a toy car for children, police forces used the J40 to teach road safety, and it was a regular feature on children's roundabouts at fairgrounds around the country. Over 32,000 J40’s were produced, with production finally ceasing in 1971.

Now, over 50 years later the J40 has become extremely sought-after by classic car enthusiasts, people wanting a bit of childhood nostalgia, and collectors. Since 2012 the cars have also been seen competing in the exciting "Settrington Cup", the Goodwood Revival pedal car race for children aged between 4 & 11 years old.

In 2020 a new company, the J40 Company, was launched to produce spare parts for people wishing to restore old J40's. The company has even acquired the old Austin name and, in April, launched Austin Pedal Cars, with a new showroom at Bicester Heritage.

Of course, Roadster Sam was on the scene. The showroom is a delightful tribute to these famous little cars, with a number of beautiful restorations on display. "We don't just love the restored models", the company's managing director Mark Burnett tells Sam, pointing out an extremely rusty model “we love the ones that can’t be restored too!”

Mark took Sam around the new showroom, pointing out special cars such as the Settrington Cup winner and an original Police car training car “We don’t just want to sell cars here”, says Mark “we want to celebrate the history of these fun little cars too!”.

After his tour Mark had an important question for Sam, Would you like to have a go?”. Sam jumped at the chance to get to try one of the cars out himself. Mark very kindly brought a model out of the Austin garage for Roadster! to try. It wasn’t all straight forward - the cars were originally intended for children aged between four and nine, and even though Sam was just turning nine at the time of the visit, he was at the very top end of the sizing, being a very tall boy. Sam’s height made it tricky for him to operate the pedals “It was very hard to control because I was a bit too big for it,” recalls Sam “it was tricky to move it on the slope”.

When Sam was on flat bits of road driving the car was fine “They are really very nice cars” said Sam, “Like the quality of the Little Car Company cars only smaller! I liked how they were built to be just like real cars. They are a bit old fashioned now [classic is the word Sam!] but they look really cool… I would have liked one of these when I was smaller!”.

During our visit Mark told us of the company’s exciting new plans: “The original Austin J40 is quite rare now as the factory stopped making them long ago. The restorations take a long time to do so they are quite expensive. We can’t help that, but we want more children to be able to enjoy the J40 so we are making an all new one!”

The new J40 “Continuation Car” is going to be faithful to the original, but with a new windscreen, larger wheels and tyres, a completely new grille, bumpers and headlights, as well as engineering upgrades including a new aluminum body.

It’s an exciting future for the little old car!