- 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!
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