THEY certainly weren’t Noddy and Big Ears, but they still brought smiles in their red and yellow car.

Shoppers in Oxford city centre were shocked to see a mechanic and museum worker in a motorised toy vehicle heading down the road.

Mechanic John Bitmead brought his life-sized model of a Little Tikes car – his ‘cozy coupe’ – to The Story Museum, in Pembroke Street, yesterday.

It advertised a workshop writer Clara Vulliamy will hold with children there on June 28, about the adventures her characters Dixie and Percy get up to in a red convertible.

Alex Coke, the museum’s marketing officer, said: “We drove around and hopefully we got everyone smiling a little bit more – it was a smile on wheels.”

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