The History of Four Wheel Drives
Early days of four wheel drive vehicles and significant technical
developments.
- ......
- 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.
- 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].
- 1981: Jeep made the CJ-8 scrambler. (Joe)
- 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!
- 1999/2000:
4WD of the Century
- ...
