4WD Development Timeline |
| 1900 |
The Cunningham Engineering Company of Boston, Mass., constructed a steam wagon with all four wheels driven by chains. |
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| 1902 |
Aultman & Co. of Canton, Ohio, announced another steam-driven machine, with chain-drive to the rear wheels and shaft-drive to the front. The Columbia & Electrical Co. of Hartford, Conn., produced a truck driven by four electric motors - one for each wheel. The Cotta Automobile Company, of Illinois introduced a steam car with four-wheel drive by chains. |
| 1903 |
Spyker, of Hilversum in the Netherlands, showed a new four-wheel drive car at the Paris Salon. The first car to be driven by a six-cylinder engine, it is now on display at the Lips Autotron Museum at Drunen in the Netherlands. |
| 1904 |
Formation of the FWD Wagon Company to produce trucks with both four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. The company was based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul Daimler, the son of Gottlieb Daimler and head of the Austro Daimler firm since 1900, designed a four wheel drive armoured car. |
| 1905 |
Austro-Daimler armoured car with four powered wheels. It was first demonstrated during manreuvres of the Austrian army in 1906. It was turned down because Emperor Franz-Josef said it was unsuitable for military use since "it would frighten the horses". |
| 1906 |
A 4 x 4 armoured vehicle designed and built by Heinrich Ehrhardt AG of Dusseldorf was turned down by the German army for the same reason. |
| 1908 |
Seventeen years before it was to build its first car, the Skoda company's armaments works in Austria made a four wheel drive truck for the Austro-Hungarian army at the suggestion of Archduke Leopold Salvator. |
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| 1909 |
Otto Zachow, a blacksmith and Reo dealer in Clintonville, Wisconsin, developed a constant-velocity joint, which he fitted in an eight-seater, steam-driven, four-wheel drive vehicle christened "The Battleship". |
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| 1912 |
Zachow and some associates formed the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company and persuaded the U.S. Army to replace its mule carts with their four-wheel drive trucks. The newly introduced vehicles were to prove of great value to the U.S. forces in Europe during the 1914-1918 war. |
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| 1913 |
Ferdinand Porsche, head of AustroDaimler, designed and built massive fourwheel drive tractors for carrying the Austrian army's 12-inch mortars, which played such an important part in the defeat of the fortresses of Liege, Namur, and Maubeuge, among others, in the early days of World WarI. |
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| 1932 |
Ettore Bugatti introduced his Type 53, with all four wheels driven by an eight-cylinder engine. Without the benefit of constant-velocity joints, the car was only moderately successful, recording a few good performances in hill-climbs in the hands of Louis Chiron and Rene Dreyfus. Two cars were built, and they still survive today, one in the Schlumpf collection at Mulhouse and another with the Automobile Club de Monaco. |
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| 1933 |
Miller envisaged a range of "Pleasure Cars", four-wheel drive coupes with supercharged Vl6 engines. The project was still-born and Miller went bankrupt. One car was built, but it was unsuccessful as a result of lack of development. |
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| 1934 |
Mercedes-Benz built a series of gigantic, six-wheel G4 cars for use by leading members of the Nazi regime. Some of them had drive to all six wheels'. |
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| 1938 |
Harry Miller returned to Indianapolis with the rear-engined Gulf Oil Specials, which again featured four-wheel drive, this time in association with disc brakes, but the cars had no success. Miller's cars have been well preserved: the 1936 Miller- Hartz and the Gulf Special are in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and the 1932 FWD Special is still in existence in Clintonville. |
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| 1940 |
The U.S. Army placed an order for the Bantam Reconnaissance Car (BRC), the predecessor of the Jeep, and approximately 3000 vehicles were built. |
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| 1941 |
Willys Overland and Ford won the contract for the definitive general purpose vehicle, the Jeep. More than 600,000 were built during the war. Among the early prototypes built by Ford and the Checker Cab Co. were a number with four-wheel steering. |
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| 1942 |
Ferdinand Porsche was responsible for the design and construction of 564 Typ 87 Volkswagen saloons with four-wheel drive in the Beetle body. |
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| 1946 |
The war over, Willys introduced its first civilian Jeep, the CJ-2A, with a closed body and well upholstered seats. At Indianapolis, the Fageol Twin Coach Special featured two engines and fourwheel drive. |
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| 1947 |
Piero Dusio, Carlo Abarth, Rudi Hruska, and Ferry Porsche constructed the four-wheel drive Cisitalia Formula 1 car. Two examples of the supercharged Vl2 car still exist, one in the Schloss W olfegg Museum in Germany, and one in the Wheatcroft Collection at Donington Park, England. |
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| 1948 |
The first of the Jeep-influenced vehicles makes its debut; the Land Rover is introduced at the Amsterdam motor show. |
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| 1950 |
Irish driver and engineer, Archie Butterworth, built his AJB special on a Jeep chassis with an air-cooled Steyr V8 and retaining four-wheel drive. The vehicle was later exported to the U.S. where it was modified. It is now to be seen in the FWD Museum at Clintonville. |
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| 1950 |
The foundation of Harry Ferguson Research Ltd. at Coventry. The aims of the new company were to study and promote safer vehicles using four-wheel drive. The firm was to develop a number of prototypes for study by the motor industry, together with some models, notably a series of 20 Ford Zephyr 4 x 4 police cars, produced in limited numbers. |
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| 1954 |
In competition with Goliath and Porsche, Auto Union won a contract from the German army for the construction of 55,000 DKW Munga vehicles. The predecessor of the modern ntis, the Munga was notable for identical front and rear suspension components. The threecylinder engine was mounted in a cantilever frame at the front of the vehicle. |
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| 1956 |
Rover announces its T3 turbineengined research vehicle with four-wheel drive. |
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| 1958 |
Citroen announces the 2 CV Sahara with twin engines and four-wheel drive. Between 1960 and 1966, 694 examples of the model were produced. |
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| 1961 |
In pouring rain, Stirling Moss wins the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup Formula I race in the FergusonClimax P 99. This is another four-wheel drive car that is now in the Wheatcroft Collection at Donington Park. |
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| 1965 |
At the London Motor Show, Jensen introduced its CV 8 FF, a GT coupe with a Ferguson transmission featuring asymmetric fore and aft torque split. |
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| 1966 |
As a follow-up, Jensen introduced the more stylish Interceptor FF. Fewer than 400 examples were sold before it went off the market in 1971. |
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| 1967 |
Andy Granatelli entered the STPPaxton gas-turbine-engined Turbocar with Ferguson transmission at Indianapolis. Iil the hands ofParnelli Jones, it held the lead from the start until three laps from the finish, when the car retired with a broken gearbox. |
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| 1968 |
Mike Spence was killed during qualification at Indianapolis while driving the four-wheel drive, turbine-engined Lotus 56. Joe Leonard took pole position with a car of the same type, and held the lead until he retired. The two other Lotus 56s entered also fell out of the race. Al Unser drove a Lola-Ford Tl50, another four-wheel drive design, but had no success. |
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| 1963 |
BMC entered a twin-engined, fourwheel drive Mini Cooper (the Twinny Cooper) for the Targa Florio, driven by Paul Frere. Two examples were built, one by Austin at Longbridge, and one by Cooper. |
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| 1964 |
At the British and German Grands Prix, BRM entered the type 67 with Joe Leonard was forced to retire with a broken-down fuel pump only Slaps short of the 500 Miles. |
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| 1969 |
Colin Chapman built three Lotus 64 models with Ford engines and Ferguson transmission for Indianapolis, but withdf'~ N them before the race as the result of a snies of accidents. Four-wheel drive LolaOffe.lhauser T152s finished third and seventh in the hands of Bobby Unser and Mark Donohue respectively. The following year, the Indianapolis organizers banned cars with four-wheel drive. |
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| 1970 |
Rover introduced the Range Rover, the first luxury cross-country vehicle. |
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| 1971 |
Lotus entered the 56B four-wheel drive turbine car in Formula 1 events, but without success. The car's best placing was an eighth in the Italian GP at Monza. |
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| 1977 |
Japanese constructor Subaru introduced its Leone station wagon with offroad capability. |
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| 1978 |
VAG introduced its Mungaderived litis, which was to give engineer Bensinger the idea for the successful Audi Quattro. |
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| 1979 |
In A,'1(eF,\s'a, Ab1C }l}tmDua:D tbe Eagle 4 x 4 with Ferguson transmission and a self-locking viscous drive coupling. In Europe, VW showed prototypes of the Typ 2 Microbus with four-wheel drive through a hydraulic torque convertor. |
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| 1980 |
Audi introduced the Quattro at the Geneva show, whilst Giugiaro used the Turin show as the launching pad for a Panda 4 x 4 design study. |
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| 1981 |
Porsche showed a 911 Turbo prototype with four-wheel drive at the Frankfurt show. |
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| 1982 |
The Marreau brothers won the Paris-Dakar Rally in a prototype Renault 20 with turbocharging and four-wheel drive. At the Turin show, Lancia announced a Delta Turbo 4 x 4, and Pininfarina |
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| 1983 |
New rules for Formula 1 banned the use of four-wheel drive, but Peugeot introduced its 205 Turbo 16 with Ferguson transmission elements with a view to its use in internationaL raLLying. Fiat's Panda 4 x 4 entered production, and Renault, Alfa Romeo, and Volkswagen all announced the introduction of new four-wheel drive models - the 184 x 4, 33 4 x 4, and Passat Tetra respectively. |
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