Traction for Sale

Full-time four-wheel drive transformed road cars in the nineteen-eighties, adding speed, excitement and safety and the Ferguson Formula was at the heart of that revolution. Though the Audi quattro made the world sit up and take notice of full-time four-wheel drive, its technology was not available to any other maker and indeed Audi came to adopt Ferguson technology in their next generation of quattro models. Full-time four-wheel drive was the dream of racing driver Fred Dixon, to make cars safer on the road. Harry Ferguson, of tractor-making fame, backed the idea and, under the control of Le Mans winner Tony Rolt the talented engineering team built some astonishing cars, sometimes behind the scenes and in secrecy. Traction for Sale is the story of two companies; Harry Ferguson Research, which did all the backbreaking development work and FF Developments, who succeeded in delivering the technology to the world's car makers. In telling the story of the Ferguson Formula, the book brings life some of the most remarkable cars of the '60s, '70s and '80s, from the Jensen FF, the first car in the world with full-time, automatic four-wheel drive, through the development vehicles like the Ford Zephyr V6 and Ford Mustang 4x4, the Capri 4x4 and the British Army's top-secret Opel Senators, to competition cars like the astonishing Lotus 56 turbine Indy and F1 cars, rally cars like the Ford RS200, MG Metro 6R4 and Lancia Delta Integrale and on to production cars like the legendary Sierra XR4x4 and Escort Cosworth Turbo and the original Volvo XC90. This book is indispensable reading for all Ford and Jensen enthusiasts, students of the British motor industry and anyone interested in 80s-era 4x4 road and rally cars.