Welcome to the first edition of this regular feature on Ferguson Formula, the vehicles and the people behind them and who own them now. Though of course by far the greatest number of club members are tractor enthusiasts, there are some amongst you who do have an interest in what is the second great project to which Harry Ferguson’s name is associated, I hope to find a few more fans out there.
I specifically chose to say that Harry Ferguson’s name is associated with the fourwheel drive company that bears his name, as many people believe that it was Ferguson himself who instigated the four-wheel drive business, and indeed designed the early vehicles. In fact, as you may have read on The Ferguson Club website, the story goes back to the mid-1930’s and to racing drivers Freddie Dixon and Tony Rolt, who, through their company, Dixon Rolt Developments Ltd developed a prototype car, called ‘The Crab’, which had four-wheel drive and four wheel steering.
‘The Crab’ in the Ferguson Family Museum on the Isle of Wight
War held up progress, but when peace returned, Rolt knew that he needed finance to develop the company’s ideas and approached Harry Ferguson, who had known Dixon since the days when he garaged Dixon’s Riley during the Ulster TT races. Ferguson was impressed, and being the man he bought the company outright and renamed it Harry Ferguson Research Ltd. When the second-generation car, retrospectively named R2 failed to cope with the specially selected wet going in tests at Abbotswood, Ferguson identified the means to solve the problems. What was wanted, he said, was “a diff that diffed when it was supposed to and didn’t when it wasn’t”.
That idea, brought to fruition by HFR’s engineer Claude Hill evolved into the Ferguson Formula and was the core of the prototype ‘Research Cars’ that were demonstrated at Abbotswood, the Jensen FF and all other vehicles that followed. Thus Harry Ferguson’s contribution to Harry Ferguson Research Ltd, the fourwheel drive company that bore his name, was to fund it, to define the principle upon which the technology worked, and to put monumental efforts into trying to sell it. Ferguson’s direct involvement lasted for barely more than a third of the thirty-two years between the creation of Dixon Rolt Developments in 1939 and the closure of Harry Ferguson Research in 1971, Ferguson himself dying in 1960.
That said, it was always the Ferguson name that was to the fore, and although Dixon would never have the temperament to work with Ferguson, Tony Rolt, an exarmy officer who fully understood chains of command, held Ferguson in the highest esteem. That is why Rolt remained with the company as its driving force until 1971 and subsequently, with Tony Sheldon’s full agreement, formed a successor company, FF Developments Ltd.
Four-Wheel Drive News
Since the publication of Traction for Sale, I’ve kept in touch with all the people I interviewed, including owners of many of the unique prototype cars that were built by Harry Ferguson Research LTD, FF Developments Ltd and GKN Ltd.
Ferguson-Climax P99
The Ferguson Climax P00 at a Goodwood Revival.
Stuart Rolt informed me in May of this year that he had sold P99 to a German owner. He’d owned it for quite some time and thoroughly enjoyed being its custodian, but felt it was time to move on. Following a disaster at the start of The Richmond Trophy at the Goodwood Revival in 2017, when a driveline sheared, Stuart pulled the car out of its racing programme. After a lengthy and, presumably costly gearbox rebuild, he decided to retire the car from racing, though he planned to run it in demonstrations as and when asked.
The new owner, though wanted to race it and after satisfying himself that the chassis and suspension were in sound condition, he bought it. He entered it in the 2024 Historic Monaco Grand Prix and, in its class, Série A2: Front-engined Grand Prix cars built before 1961, Australian driver Thomas Schlereth brought it home in a creditable seventh, from tenth on the grid, behind the winning Ferrari Dino, four Maserati 250F’s and one of P99’s old nemeses from Goodwood, the Tech-Mec Maserati.
The GKN Ford Capri FF
The Ml1 Ford Capri converted to four-wheel drive by Harry Ferguson Research and GKN.
Several of the original Mk1 Ford Capris were converted to four-wheel drive by Harry Ferguson Research and GKN, all of which were powered by 3-litre V6 engines. Unique amongst them is a one-off car fitted with De Dion independent rear suspension. This system, which first appeared on De Dion Bouton’s earliest cars had the differential firmly mounted to the chassis, with driveshafts connected to the rear wheels by universal joints. A transverse bar keeps the hubs in a vertical position. Expensive to make, it was not widely adopted. Perhaps the car fitted with it that is most familiar to British eyes is the Rover 2000 (P6) series.
The power train of the Mk1 Capri four-wheel conversion.
The owner of the Capri pictured above spent seven years rebuilding it, completing it in time for its first appearance in public at an Old Ford Show at The British Motor Museum at Gaydon last June.
The 1969 Matra MS84 F1 Car
Matra, the French Aerospace company had several links to the French automobile industry. They began building racing cars in 1967, moving to Formula 1 in 1969. For that season, they had HFR’s Derek Gardner develop a four-wheel drive system for the MS84 F1 car, to investigate whether it had any advantages over conventional twowheel drive. Matra engaged up-andcoming drive Jackie Stewart to the team, offering him the option of the MS84 or a conventional MS80. Stewart tested the car and, in an email exchange with me, much later described the car as not having a brain in any particular area. Team-mate Jean-Pierre Beltoise declared the car “undriveable”. The project was abandoned and the car was scrapped. However, last November I received an email from a team who is rebuilding the car. Almost unbelievably, all that remains of the car is the unique transfer case and driven front axle. The car’s owner is also said to have other four-wheel drive F1 cars, including the Cosworth, the McLaren M9A and one of the Lotus 63’s.
Published in Journal No. 110 Autumn 2024: Bill Munro.
Bill Munro – accomplished Author and Publisher
Bill was principally well known for being the published expert on the history of the London taxi, after having spent most of his life driving one. He was the official historian of the London Electric Vehicle Company Ltd, makers of the TX purpose-built London taxi and its commercial vehicle variant, the VN5. Another of his interests was Ferguson four-wheel drive and Bill researched Harry Ferguson Research Ltd. and FF Developments extensively, ending up writing the excellent book – “Traction For Sale” with Pat Turner in 2019.
Bill really embraced the Ferguson Club and committed to writing an article on Ferguson vehicles in every Journal. For the last 12 months Bill worked closely with me on behalf of the Club, taking Peter Warr’s detailed story of working with Harry Ferguson to the book it is about to become. Sadly, Bill passed away just before the book went to print. Peter’s and Bill’s legacy will live on through this book – “Harry Ferguson. The Man, the Machines, the Memories”
Gary Anderson.
