Junior Central


Powercar page

Powercar company products

click on any picture to follow that link or increase an image size

Plymouth JR’s.






Mustang JR’s.






non-car products on my old site






58 full line brochure middle






65 full line brochure front






66 full line brochure front






67 full line brochure front






65 small sheet






Firebird fire truck






Fire chief car






Just in case you came to this page directly from a search engine I have links to all of the other Powercar product pages from here. of course you can click on the Home page link at the bottom of this page to get to the home page.
This page will concentrate on the History of the Powercar company For general Powercar company information read below! For model specific information click on the image of the link you are most interested in.

To quote an iterview done with George Ford in 1990.
     The power Car Company of mystic Connecticut produced power driven kiddy cars at their willow street plant in Mystic from 1954 through 1967. With George A. Ford running the company. After reading an article on the new sports car that the ford motor company was coming out with in the Feb. 22nd 1954 issue of Time magazine he contacted the Ford motor company about making a miniature version of the new car. Not only did he receive their blessings he also received some assistance. And production began with the 1955 thunderbird Jr. as each year went by the body style of the miniatures changed to match that of their full size cousins. And they were introduced at the same time as the full size cars. Built in 1/3 scale with a fiberglass body on an all steel welded chassis complete with functioning head and taillights. Power to run everything was provided by a 6-Volt battery. The drive train was a modified ford starter motor that was connected to the rear axle via a V-belt. Forward and reverse were selected with a polarity reversing switch and the accelerator could put the car to the break neck speed of 5 mph. If you wanted to go any faster you could drop in a 12 volt battery or wait until 1964 when you could get one with a two stroke gas engine connected through a Fairbanks Morse transmission with an automatic clutch. This would get you to the 15-mph range and was considered an adult model. Construction was not a simple task the fiberglass bodies were made on-site along with approx. 60 other pieces and another 60 were purchased from outside vendors. They also produced the mercury jr. and the mustang jr. with the cooperation of the ford motor company.Production for the Thunderbird JR's is estimated at 5,000 over the 12-year period they were produced. And approximately 600 Mustang JR's, no estimates are given on the run of Mercury JR's The company also produced the Plymouth Fury jr. kiddy car from 1958 - 60. The Fury jr.

As time goes on more and more information is coming to light about the company and it's products. In the statement above Gerge Ford said that you could get a gas powered model starting in 1964, I have uncovered proof that gas powered models were available in 1957 as I found factory pictures and literature for a gas powered Thunderbird. go to the Thunderbird Page to see it! it was surrounded by a steel bumper and looked like they were made for bumper cars.

In 1967 the assets of the power Car Company were sold to Conval Industries. Conval continued to produce the older body styles of the cars for a couple of years and even worked with Ford to produce another car in 1970 or 71 in the form of another Mustang. They declared bankruptcy in the early 70s.

Molds


In order to make the molds for these little cars and have them come out at the same time as the full size cars The Powercar company worked with the styling divisions of Chrysler and the Frod Motor Company. I have pictures of a Clay master for the 58 Fury Junior beind built and an article in the December 1958 Issue of Ford Times magazine. and there are a couple of original wood a clay mold masters still in exsistence. A group of shriners bought out much of the inventory of the Powercar company back in the 70s and over the years many of the original parts and molds were disposed of. I did manage to buy some of the molds off of the group and all of the original water transfer decals that they still had off. I am offering the water transfer decals and lots of other parts for sale on the resources page along with other parts that I reproduce. I have the following body molds in my possession.
1957 Thunderbird
58 Thunderbird (also makes 59 and 60 body)
65 Mustang (also makes the 66 body)

and a 1967 Mustang Junior body mold that will also make the 1968 Body that was never made by Powercar since they went under in 1967. I often get people coming to my website looking for Mustang juniors for sale and Thunderbird juniors for sale. Obviously since they have not been made since the 60s you can not run down to Walmart and get one and since the originals were so expensive not many were made. Many were wrecked and tossed so the survivors are rare. With the availablity of replacement frames, bodies and many parts they can now be recreated. Go to the resources page to get more information

Just where are all of cars that were produced? there are a few still hiding out there! but many of them have beeen lost to poor driving and age. mostly so little is known about them theat people assume that they are something someone made in thier garage. this website is here to try and save some of these cars when they surface but letting people know that they are very rare factory promotional cars. So next time you see one worn out at a garage sale. Don't think that it was something that someone produced at home. Just pay the $100.00 and take a piece of history home.

Literature


I have loaded the full line brochures on this page. Literature that is specific to a series (IE Thunderbird) will be on that specific page

Powercar oddities


I have shown the Pace car, Firebird, Police chief's car and Fire Chief's car images on this page since they are based on a earlier thunderbird body with modifications. all of them are shown in the full line 1958 Brochure but the Firebird and Chief were available for more years than that as they are mentioned in the 65-66 instruction sheet. I also saw a picture of one of these bodies with Buick Skylark markings on it at a Buick Museum in Detroit. I have left the pre 1955 Powercar Junior car information on my original website for people to enjoy. if you have an interest in the Powercar Junior, Catapillar tractor, ping pong ball shooting tank, train and other early Powercar products you can see them on my original website on THIS PAGE.


More than one size does not fit all


Powercar made Juniors in 1/3rd scale and in 1/4 scale versions but not in every year. I can currently document a 1/4 scale 1959 Thunderbird along with a 1960 Thunderbird in 1/4 scale. The bodies were also offered in larger 1/3rd scale at the same time. I have been told this was a cost sving attempt to sell more cars at a lower cost. I have also heard that the 1/4 scale models even were available in Pedal versions. the 1960 Plymouth was only available in 1/4 scale.

The original website focused on Powercar products and Desoto Firemites but this site is for all fiberglass and Plastic bodied powered promotional cars. Go to the Home page to learn more about the other cars.



Powercar book?


the son of the Ex-works manager from the Powercar company who used to be a test driver and was pictured in many of the early publicity photos for the company has been gathering info on the vehicles made by the Powercar company for years. he has stated years ago that he is going to publish a book on the subject with lots of original photos and literature, keep watching this site as he gets closer to publishing the book I will probably post a message board for people that want to get on the waiting list to buy a copy, his collection is much larger and of better quality than mine so it should be a good book.

I have started a Resourses page that I will list known available original parts and reproduction parts for Powercar products. The list is only as good as the information that I am provided. or as good as i am able to update it. if you have information to share or parts to sell let me know.

Literature wanted!!!


I am always looking for more Literature to expand this site Please contact me directly if you have any for sale.

Looking for powercar parts?
Go to the resources page!



Thunderbird JR’s.






Mercury JR's






58 full line brochure front






58 full line brochure rear






65 full line brochure rear






66 full line brochure rear






67 full line brochure rear






1965 price sheet






Police Chief car






Pace Car








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Last Update:   01/07/14

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Use of images and information on this website for Magazine articles/car club newsletters

If you want to use information or images from this website for magazine articles please contact me so that I can help by providing more information addition images or Higher resolution images. So little is known about these little cars that education of the collecting public can only help find more of them and find more parts or parts sources for them. Generally I only ask for of a copy of the final issue and mention of the website in the article in return. Even though promotional cars have been around for a long time they have only recently become very collectable. Any article written about them can only help to find “Automotive archeologists” With information on these rare and unusual mini cars

Welcome to my mis-spelled word file!
These are common and sometimes uncommon ways to mis-spell the primary words on this site! I provide this as a service to the phonically challenged because they are people too! Or maybe they have a typing handicap like myself. Corvete, Crysler, Chrystler, Christler, Desota, De Sota, Desotoe, Desoda, Dasoda, Edsil, fibre, fibreglass, Gokart, Go-kart, go kart, Mo Par, Mustange, mircury, Peddel, Peddal, Peddle, pedel, Plymoth, Plimoth, Plimouth, powercar, power car, Tbird, T-bird, Thunderchicken