Australian Car Guide

Early days of four wheel drive vehicles and significant technical developments:

AEC

• 1898: Latil (France) making front wheel drive units and then 4x4.
• 1898: Tatra starts manufacturing.
• 1900: Ferdinand Porsche's La Toujours Contente is battery-powered with 4 electric motors, one per wheel. He later patents the Mixte transmission: a petrol engine drives a dynamo and electric motors drive the wheels (too expensive for the day).
• 1902: Spyker (Dutch) full-time four wheel drive car built. Exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in December 1903 [Sco61].
• 1907: Felix and Norman Caldwell of South Australia apply for a patent for four wheel drive plus four wheel steering; they go on to build Caldwell Vale 4x4 trucks with Henry Vale.
• 1911: FWD sells its first 4x4 [Bal87].
• 1913: Jeffrey Quad 4X4 truck goes into production.
• 1915: Big Lizzie road train (Au).
• 1917: First Oshkosh four wheel drive truck [Bal88].
• 1922, December 17: Citroen half-tracks leave from Touggourt in Algeria to cross the Sahara Desert.
• 1924, December 28: Citroen half-tracks leave to traverse Africa.
• 1929: AEC start to build AWD trucks in conjunction with FWD (UK).
• 1931-1932: Citroen-Haardt expedition, using Citroen half-tracks, follows part of Marco-Polo's route from Beirut to Beijing.
• 1932: Miller 4x4 racing cars at Indianapolis.
• 1934: AEC road train (one of three built) brought to Australia. It consisted of an 8x8 prime-mover and two 8-wheel self-tracking trailers.
• 1934: Dodge start building 4WD trucks (- George Miles).
• 1934: Prototype PX-33 four wheel drive car built for the Japanese government; the car did not go into production (Mitsubishi). Thanks to Balazs Toth.
• 1938: GAZ 61 - Russian 4x4.
• 1940: Jeep specification issued.
• 1940-1941: Bantam build 2700 light 4x4s, early "Jeeps".
• 1941-1945: Ford and Willys-Overland build 700,000 General Purpose vehicles for WWII (GP becomes Jeep).
• 1946, October 10: Unimog introduced (- H. J. Feil).
• 1948: Series-1 Land-Rover released.
• 1948: Ford release first of the F-Series vehicles.
• 1950: Ford GPA, or amphibious Jeep `Half Safe' crosses the Atlantic ocean (I am not making this up).
• 1951: First Toyota Landcruiser built, as the `BJ Jeep', the LandCruiser name came in 1954.
• 1951 - NAPCO (Northwestern Auto Parts Company) starts to produce 4x4 conversion units. The earliest documentable truck to be converted by NAPCO was a 1951 Chevy 3/4 ton owned by Butch Gehrig of Odell, Oregon.
• 1954-1956: Amphibious Jeep `La Tortuga' "drives" from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
• 1955-1956: London to Singapore overland (except for Channel!) 2 x Land-Rovers.
• 1958: First Toyota LandCruisers imported into Australia.
• 1959: Haflinger by Steyr-Daimler-Puch.
• 1960: A Jeep and a Land-Rover traverse the Darien Gap.
• 1961: Stirling Moss driving a Ferguson Project 99 (P99) with the Ferguson 4WD system wins the Oulton Park Gold-Cup race.
• 1964, 17 July: Bluebird (4WD) raises the land speed record to 403 mph.
• 1966: Jensen FF all wheel drive road car is put into production (until 1971), using a Ferguson Formula 4WD system with centre diff' (the FF also had ABS brakes) - John Wild.
• 1970: Range Rover released - luxury full-time 4WD.
• 1971: Ford Falcon XY ute 4WD (Australia)
• 1971: Four wheel drive on the Moon
• 1971-1972: British Trans-Americas Range Rover expedition.
• 1974: Subaru Leone L-series - four wheel drive passenger car.
• 1979: AMC produce the Eagle 4x4 car
• 1981: Humvee or Hummer (HMMWV - High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) specification issued.
• 1981: Audi revolutionize rallying with the Quattro 4WD rally car.
• 1981: Porsche must have been watching Audi as they showed a Porsche 911 AWD concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show [Porsche].
• 1983: Land Rover 110, coil-sprung, full-time 4WD.
• 1984: A Porsche 911 AWD wins the Paris Dakar rally.
• 1986: Porsche 959 AWDs finish 1, 2 and 6 in the Paris Dakar rally.
• 1994: Range Rover completely revised.
• 1996: Jeep Wrangler gets coil springs!
• 2002 and onwards???

[Email and contacts]

Further Reading:

Go to the Military Vehicles, Museums and Book pages