Austin J40
The Austin J40 and Other Tales of Pedal Cars
Spring 2026
It all began in 1974. My father had “rescued” a pedal car from the Esopus dump and it sat in front of his garage, a small rusting presence, where I spied it.
“What are you going to do with it?” I inquired.
“Why? You want it?” he replied.
It was in my Saab trunk before he could change his mind. I drove directly to Mike Kusmick, my go-to-man for anything auto-body.
Mike looked at it, tapped it with his wrench, and proclaimed, “It’s made out of better steel than your Saab.”
I did not recognize it at the time, but it was the beginning of my pedal-vehicle addiction […]
This story is presented here as a downloadable PDF file:
