I couldn’t make my mind up. Is he a Tractor Correspondent, or a European Correspondent? Both, I concluded…
Nick’s comment regarding the beauty below is:
‘It‘s been a while since I‘ve been able to photo a tractor - and this one is not all visible - nevertheless I guess not too difficult to identify.’
Judging by the logo, I would guess that AlanR will come back with something like ‘made in Middlesbrough on a Tuesday afternoon in 1965, painted in the colour of the last trolley bus to pass Ayresome Park before the overhead lines were removed, and exported to Holland shortly before the Teesside Docks closed’.
So how come it finished up in Germany?
A few days later, Nick was getting into his stride:
‘This time from Austria - the Wachau region on the Danube is known for its wine, but unvisited by us until now. This rather new tractor is used on one of the local vineyards, where we walked yesterday, then drank more than enough local Grüner Veltliner wine!’
Thanks Nick – you might have made AlanR happy enough to treat us to a coffee tomorrow!
5 comments:
Hi Martin,
The “German” tractor is a very nice looking MF135 produced in Coventry from 1964 until around 1978.
It replaced the old 35 model that you saw the other week. Theses were a really good utility tractor and there are loads of them still about. The brakes were pretty crap though. It’s good to see that the original tyres are still being fitted as the tread pattern is quite unusual.
If you notice the front axle you will see that it is adjustable. These were known as “Holy bars” to employees.
Engine wise it used a 3 cylinder Perkins Ad3.152. I worked on loads of these.
As for the Lamborghini, very nice. I don’t know much about the newer models, we never got many of these in the shop. I think this is the R3 series but I could be wrong.
Sorry I didn’t buy the coffee today. Next time.
The Lamborghini is an RF Target. Just had a look at the website. Thought I might be wrong with the R3.
Hi Martin - thanks a lot for sharing, and Alan for the comments - tractors are ideal for a ‘quiet news day’, don’t you think? Although I am no expert, the M-F is for me the archetypal red tractor - I always thought tractors were red until I moved to Germany, where they are mostly green - I just sent you another to prove my point. As for the Lamborghini, I couldn’t ignore it, after the Porsche I saw a while back...
Hi, Going off my number plate lists this MF was registered in Nürnberger Land / Lauf/Pegnitz. Its not unusual to find a red MF or for that matter a yellow MF in Germany as they bought loads of them direct from the factory and from the many franchisees throughout Germany.
Tractor colours are corporate statements, each company having not just their own colour but there own shade of colour and it was registered. Thats why you see MF with a bright red and Case with a cherry red etc.
Green tractors are usually John Deere, Fendt, some Valtra, the good old Oliver tractors and a few more besides. Hope this helps.
Excellent. Perhaps one day we will be able to publish 'Great European Tractors' as a sequel to the 'Great British Tractors' book I received for Christmas a couple of years ago...
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