Whizz kids

Below: pedalling to victory in the Settrington Cup, a perennial Revival favourite

whizz kidS

This year’s Revival marks 10 years of the Settrington Cup, which sees junior racers competing in Austin J40 pedal cars for fame, glory… and chocolate

Words by Erin Baker

Occupying pride of place in my teenage son’s bedroom is an old beige-and-red race suit, which hangs on the back of his door. It evokes a precious moment when he stood, aged seven, in the middle of the Goodwood Motor Circuit, a breathless hush all around, heart pounding, under starter’s orders in the Settrington Cup, a Revival Meeting race in Austin J40 pedal cars for children aged 4-11.

I can still see my boy staring hard at me – or rather at my right hand, which was raised aloft, until I dropped it in synchronicity with the starter’s flag. Then, as the crowd roared and commentator Murray Walker (who else?) yelled “And it’s go, go, go!”, he sprinted to his red Austin J40, jumped in and pumped his spindly legs for all they were worth, the entire 220 metres of the Pit Straight, weaving past some cars, being overtaken by others, and crossing the finish line, where Sir Stirling Moss was waving the chequered flag.

In the event, having drawn pole position, he lost five places because, ever his mother’s boy, he had run to the far side of the car at the start of the race so as not to mess up the 50-year-old red leather seat by stepping on it. No matter: he won a slab of UBS-sponsored Swiss chocolate and those overalls, but sadly not the car, which was on loan from The Duke of Richmond’s family and will be raced by another lucky child at this year’s Revival.

This year the race celebrates its 10th birthday. As The Duke of Richmond recalls, “We dreamt up the Settrington Cup a decade ago, after taking the view that the Austin J40 pedal car deserved its own moment of race glory at the Revival Meeting. The race has exceeded all our expectations to establish itself as a firm favourite with visitors each year, and we’ve got great plans for it in the future.”

It should come as no surprise that this event has become for many the secret highlight of Revival races. Hang the rare Aston Martin DBR1s and the Jaguar D-Types: the sight of muddy knees revolving on a human crankshaft fuelled by sweets and lemonade, shoulders hunched over steering wheels, concentration constantly wavering and tugged back with a well-timed parental yell from the crowd, is enough to reduce the stiffest of upper lips to jelly.

It would be easy to drown this race in a saccharine outpouring of nostalgia, but its organisers are more astute than that, and realised at its inception that the success of the Settrington Cup (the name derives from one of The Duke of Richmond’s family titles) lies in its adherence to strict race rules and regulations, and in the fact that it is just another proper race in the calendar. The intrinsically absurd nature of the spectacle – which sees the diminutive competitors parading down the Pit Lane in their vintage finery of flat caps and mechanics’ overalls, parents pushing their chariots beside them – is gloriously brushed over. Hence there is a serious drivers’ briefing, as well as an opportunity for official testing at a Breakfast Club meeting, and whoever starts on pole position on the Saturday begins at the back of the grid on Sunday in the second part.

Unsurprisingly, the race has fuelled not only dormant competitive spirits in parents, but also a huge hike in the value of Austin J40 pedal cars. Seven years ago, I found a J40 body in need of total renovation on eBay for £600; now there are none, but, tellingly, you will find plenty of parts for the aftercare market. The cars themselves exchange hands for several thousand pounds and arrive at Goodwood on race day with gleaming liveries and new upholstery.

The best part of the story today is that the J40s are part of a miniature (in every sense) circular economy: a sustainability and ethics success story concerning recommissioning rather than manufacture that modern-day car brands can only dream of. The humble Austin J40 began life in South Wales in 1949. Production was paid for by the government on a not-for-profit basis to give disabled coal-miners work. The car metal came from offcuts from the Longbridge Austin factory, so really these cars are several lives on from inception. Production ran until 1971, and J40 pedal cars were exported to children’s homes all over the world. The ethos brilliantly exemplifies Revival’s upcycling mantra, “Revive and Thrive”.

Now, the majority of the world’s surviving J40s appear on the Settrington Cup grid every September, each an evocative symbol of 1950s and 1960s childhoods. Indeed, you half expect to be viewing the entire grid in sepia. The determination of Goodwood to shine a spotlight on these classic toys, to give them a new richness of life, is a rare joy that is being carefully nurtured at the Estate, a decade on. The fact that it comes with a healthy dose of the charmingly absurd is the cherry on this very British icing.

PHOTO BY DREW GIBSON