THE mystery surrounding the origins of a luxury toy car has been solved – with the help of Oxford Mail readers.

A red Austin J40 Roadster stood out at an open day at Oxfordshire County Council’s museums resource centre in Standlake, near Witney, earlier this month.

Centre manager Christiane Jeuckens asked for help in unearthing the early history of the toy, which was thought to have been used at Botley Nursery School in the 1960s — though no proof of this existed, nor any records of who donated the item and when.

But Nick Deacon, a police inspector from Witney, contacted the Oxford Mail to say the car used to belong to his family.

The 48-year-old, who used to live in Botley, said: “My uncle Charlie was moving house and he donated it to us.

“I was at Botley Nursery when I was three in 1964, and it was a bit big for our semi so we donated it to the nursery.

“My mum said I wouldn’t go to school without it.

“I used to drive it around and I remember thinking, ‘Why are other people playing with my toy?’”

The J40 Roadster pedal car was based on the 1948 A40 Devon and Dorset and was built in the Austin Junior Car Factory in South Wales, using offcuts of metal from the Longbridge Austin factory in Birmingham. They cost £27 plus £6 purchase tax and featured working headlights and horns, detachable wheels with Dunlop pneumatic tyres and leather seats.

More than 32,000 were built before production stopped in 1971.

Michael Dyer, 65, from Littleworth, near Wheatley, said he remembered the cars on display in central Oxford.

He said: “On Park End Street, where the exhaust centre is now, was Hartwell’s car showroom.

“My father Jim worked there and I remember going down there as a small boy. There was always a red one of those toy cars.

“I used to sit in it and pedal it around.

“I’m pretty certain that nowhere else around here sold them.”

Mrs Jeuckens, who has been put in contact with Mr Deacon and Mr Dyer, said: “This is fantastic. We need our records up to date and for the items to have a meaning and a connection to Oxfordshire.

“It would be really good if we can get the complete history.”