Classic pedal cars.
Children (of all ages..) have scribbled the words "pedal" and "car" onto their Christmas wish-list since the year dot, or at least since full-sized cars began to appear regularly on the roads of Britain. What could be more exciting to a young lad (or occasionally the young lady) than to be sat behind the wheel of their very own pedal car, guiding it swiftly around the living room, knocking vases and small animals out of the way without a care in the world? It certainly sounds good fun to me, and I remember alternating between a blue Tri-ang pedal tractor at the local playgroup, and a red example back at home. Unlike bicycles, pedal cars are quite tricky to fall from, so just as soon as your legs were long enough to reach the pedals, many lads like me were giving their parents some earache, until a pedalcar-shaped object appeared wrapped beneath the Christmas tree, or on your Birthday morning, tyres inflated, and ready for action.
|
|
Whereas little girls tend to grow up, little boys rarely do, and just because you develop hairy legs and a deeper voice, it doesn't automatically mean that you loose interest in the pedal-powered wonders of yesteryear, just because you no longer fit in them. Magic words such as Tri-ang, J40, Pathfinder and Murray may well still resonate and create similar levels of excitement as they did when you were knee-high to a grasshopper. These are probably the same "grown-ups" to whom other familiar names such as Lego, Hornby and Scalextric still appeal. Childhood memories of these little cars, usually a first introduction to the joys of being behind the wheel, often lead to people developing an interest in collecting old pedal cars that they either remember driving in their youth, or wished they had but never managed it for whatever reason. Personally I'm interested in classic pedal cars that pre-date me, perhaps because in the 1970s pedal cars were beginning to be built using plastic rather than razor-sharp steel, and somehow I've never warmed to anything made out of plastic where metal was previously the norm.
|
|
The idea in this section of the site is to look at some of the great pedalcars of the classic and vintage eras. Old toy cars are already well covered on the site, so it seemed high time that the larger, pedal-powered, toy cars got equal coverage.
|
|
Of particular interest are original photographs showing pedal cars, pedal tractors, pedal aircraft and other similar children's playthings. If you've any old photos of pedal toys, and are willing to share them with other pedal car enthusiasts, please email them over and I'll include them in this section of OCC. Perhaps my favourite is the Austin Pathfinder pedal car, which was based on a pre-war single seat racing Austin and made for a couple of years only, alongside the more common J40. If anyone has period Pathfinder photos, or indeed a complete example, and would like to see it in this section please drop me a line.
|
|
If you have an old pedal car, and would like to send over some photos of it for inclusion here, by all means get in touch! I hope to feature some surviving pedal cars here soon, including a few of the 'restoration projects' I've got by makers such as Tri-ang (Lines Brothers) and Murray in the USA.
|
|
|
Pedal-powered fun!
|
|
Various old pedal cars will appear in this section as it grows, so for the timebeing, some old images and material relating to these great little cars. Firstly, a period image showing the Austin Pathfinder. This was inspired by a single seater Austin racer of the 1930s and built for only a short time, by workers at a purpose-built factory in Wales.
|
|
More numerous than the Pathfinder though is the Austin "JOY 40", or J40, inspired by the contemporary A40 Devon saloon when it was first introduced in 1950. It continued in production until 1971. The earliest J40s differ slightly from later examples, primarily because the earlier cars were built from a heavier gauge of steel, and also incorporated a Flying A on the bonnet, later deleted due to worries about children impaling themselves on it. As well as being a heavy car to pedal, it was noticeably larger than many other similar toys, leading to many spending their years stored away in leaky sheds outside, rather than cossetted indoors. As a result, many examples simply rotted away. However, the J40's lengthy production run mean that a good number survive to this day, in conditions ranging from immaculate, through to the more play-worn and battered cars.
|
|
|
