Streifthau Manufacturing Company was created in April 1958 by Middletown, Ohio resident, Edgar Streifthau. At the time, Edgar was the majority owner of LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park, located between Middletown and Hamilton, Ohio on State Route 4. A few years earlier, Edgar, Edgar's son Linday and Oxford resident Frank Dodd teamed up to develop the "Streifthau car." The cars were manufactured in a red brick building on the grounds of Fantasy Farm and sold to parks around the country. The company also manufactured Erie Motorbikes.

Frank visited the newly built Disneyland just after returning from a stint in the military. Frank saw the gas powered cars of Disney and was hooked. Upon his return home Frank sculpted the body of a car to resemble the features of the average car of the time. Frank then turned to Sam Neihoff also of Oxford. Sam built the chassis for the first generation car. They found a frame of a cart with a wheelbase of 47 inches and the overall width of 32 inches. The first chassis used 1 inch square tubing, as did the King Midget Junior that the chassis was somewhat copied from. The early cars from the late fifties had two headlights and tall narrow tail fins. They were steered by the driver. Some of the earliest runs for the cars were through a maze of straw setup on High Street in Oxford for a street fest in the late fifties.

A number of engines and clutches were experimented with. the Cushman engine and clutch combination was found to be the combo of choice to handle the heat of running in an enclosed box all day for years. Once setup in amusement parks kids would drive them hard and run into guardrails and each other. The frame was not up to the rigors of amusement park service so Lindy set out to build a second generation car that had a frame built from angle iron and was much heavier. The chassis had rack and pinion steering and grease fittings on the bearings. The bodies had four headlights and wider but shorter tail fins and a fiberglass floorpan.

The company was dissolved after the Edgar's death in 1985.

Check out the Streifthau Turnpike Car preservation effort taking place!