Beep-Beep! Rare Road Runner Pedal Car Sells for $59,000

Elmer Duellman knew what he liked and liked what he knew.

So when the creator of Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum commissioned a hand-built, steel and custom painted pedal car replica of a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird to the correct proportions of the real deal, he knew he would like it.

And, it turned out, so did someone else, to the tune of nearly $60,000.

That green, 55-inch-long beauty, with the classic purple road runner, sold for $59,000 to highlight the nearly 800 pedal cars, pedal planes and pedal tractors sold by Mecum Auctions at the Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum Collection event September 14-17 in Fountain City, Wisconsin.

Known worldwide as a preeminent authority and collector of pedal cars, the late Elmer Duellman purchased his first pedal car in 1971 and ultimately amassed one of the world’s largest and most encompassing collections of its kind. Throughout his time collecting, Duellman became so knowledgeable about the hobby and so well-known within its realm that he contributed to a series of books on the topic and was sought out by others compiling reference and price guides for contributions of information and imagery from his collection. Elmer and his wife, Bernadette, even gifted one of their pedal cars, a circa-1953 Kidillac, to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. in 2003 to be featured as part of a display called “America on the Move” within the National Museum of American History.