August 22, 2012

Pedal to the metal racing promised at the 2012 Goodwood Revival

This year's Revival (September 14-16, 2012) will feature the youngest grid ever assembled at Goodwood.  The inaugural Settrington Cup will feature a full field of 30 Austin J40 pedal cars competing in a two-part race on Saturday and Sunday, with the result declared
on aggregate timing, and the prizes being presented by Sir Stirling Moss. Expect one of the most closely-contested races of the Revival weekend!

With an average age of eight years old, the competitors will pedal a short circuit around the main Goodwood grid/pit lane (c.220 yards; a tenth of the overall Goodwood circuit), with a Le Mans-style running start, and a chicane on the start/finish straight.  Each competitor will wear period overalls and a 1950s-style crash helmet. When not racing, the J40s will be parked in their own dedicated half-scale period wooden paddock shelters.

The Austin J40 is something of a British motoring institution. The pedal car was built at the Austin Junior Car Factory in Bargoed, South Wales. This dedicated factory began Austin pedal car production in 1949, with the plant funded by the British Government. It was run on a not-for-profit basis, purely for the employment of disabled coal miners, with 250 men assembling both the J40 pedal car, plus the racy Pathfinder, loosely based around a single-seater competition Austin Seven. Production ended in 1971.


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