Rare Miniature ATCO Training Car Up for Auction

Webb’s is set to auction a rare and historically significant piece of motoring history, offering up an ATCO Junior Safety-First Training Car from the 1930s.

It was used to teach children aged 7–17 years the fundamentals of driving and road safety. Not many examples are left, with possibly only a handful surviving from an original production run of 200 units.

Estimated to fetch between $10,000 – $20,000, this well restored example runs like a regular ICE power car. It comes complete with clutch, brake, handbrake, gearstick (forward and reverse), starter lever and an accelerator on the steering column (common at the time). It even has a period-correct toolbox in the footwell!

The ATCO Junior Safety-First Training Car was a pioneering initiative to combat rising road fatalities. British engineering firm Charles H. Pugh Ltd of Whitworth Works, Birmingham, created the vehicle. With 8000 deaths recorded on UK roads in 1935, this educational tool was developed to instil early road awareness in children.

A 1hp 98cc single-cylinder, two-stroke ATCO-Villiers lawnmower engine powers the ATCO Junior. It has a crank start, chain transmission, and can hit up to 16km/h. 

The miniature car formed part of a broader safety education campaign inspired by the 1931 Highway Code. Demonstration programmes helped children understand traffic rules long before formal driving tests became commonplace.

Production of the ATCO Junior was short-lived. Launched in the months before the outbreak of World War II, by September 1939 the project ended as manufacturing priorities shifted to wartime machinery. The engines from many examples ended up as 12V generators in army tanks.

The kiddy car originally sold for £35, about $17,000 in today’s money.