There must have been a huge buzz surrounding the late lamented Royal Smithfield Show at Earls Court in London 50 years ago.
By 1964 the show had become well known as a major shop window for farm machinery as much as for the traditional fatstock entries.
That year the machinery lines were to be dominated by the launches of brand new tractor ranges by the big two sellers in the UK, Massey Ferguson and Ford.
Farming was in relatively good shape and farmers were keen to re-invest in machinery with tractors particularly in demand as the first generation of post-war British tractors were beginning to show their age.
Both manufacturers offered new looks and better specifications.
However, the major talking point was the larger numbers of machines offered in each range with both MF and Ford offering four instead of two tractors to eager customers.
Massey Ferguson had been going well since the formation of the new brand in 1958.
It came about after Massey Harris Ferguson realised that a two-line policy of selling both Massey Harris and Ferguson equipment through a huge complex dealer network had to be rationalised.
The resultant Massey Ferguson products which had taken designs from both former lines had gone down well prior to December 1964.
Following the show and into 1965 things were to get even better for MF as their new range of tractors were to sell well all over the world, with manufacturing plants producing variants of the range on several continents.
Unveiled at Earls Court that December were Massey’s new worldwide range of tractors known as the 100 series or as the Red Giants by MF’s marketing men.
MF’s stand at Smithfield saw four new models destined for the UK displayed alongside MF implements including the new MF 29 grain drill also being launched and the modern 400 and 500 range of combines.
Behind the scenes the code name for the range was the DX range which stood for Detroit Xperimental indicating the process was initiated at MF’s head office.
Like Ford, MF realised a unified range of tractors with common parts, assemblies and designs was needed to suit all types of farming in all parts of the world.
Massey management had decided to build all their own tractors after a short period of sourcing higher horse power machines for the North American market from Oliver and Minneapolis Moline in the late 1950s.
The plan was for a range of three, four and six-cylinder-engined tractors to be built in three factories.
The Southfield Road factory in Detroit, Beauvais in France, MF’s current European manufacturing plant and the most famous as far as the UK went Banner Lane in Coventry.
This former shadow wartime aero factory had been operated by the Standard Motor Co who had built Harry Ferguson’s famous T20 grey Fergie’s.
MF had actually started to research the viability of a new range back in 1959 but the DX range was not officially sanctioned until December 1962.
The research had allowed MF to set out the basic tractor layout by January 1963 which was followed by intensive work by the engineering, manufacturing and marketing arms of the company.
It was a huge undertaking costing an estimated $40 million.
Hand-built prototypes were sent from the US for evaluation in UK conditions in 1963.
Later that year Banner Lane built 34 pre-production tractors with 14 going out for testing, racking up more than 15,000 hours of work in arduous conditions.
The early pre-production tractors were painted grey to disguise them, with men like the legendary Dick Dowdeswell doing this work.
American designers came up with the modern styling, with GKN Sankey commissioned to produce the sheet metal for UK tractors.
March 1964 saw the work of producing the technical, service and advertising material begin in an old cowshed at MF’s Park Farm at Stareton, near Stoneleigh.
Parts distribution from the UK to overseas distributors began in August 1964.
Tractors produced for the North American market included the 135, 150, 165, 175 and 180 models using either Perkins diesel engines or the Continental gasoline versions which were still a popular option in the States.
Two larger models were the six-cylinder 1100 and 1130 models, the former eventually became available in the UK in 1967.
Beauvais allowed access to the EEC market and it produced the 122, 130, 135, 140, 145 and 165 models with the little 130 being offered in Britain.
Models built at Banner Lane were the 135, 165 and 175 models with horse powers of 45, 58 and 66 respectively.
The three would go on to sell in huge numbers both home and abroad with the total build of more than one million units unlikely to be matched.
A somewhat revolutionary aspect of the tractor launch was the option of fitting Massey Fergusons Duple cab.
These were among the earliest cabs to be offered by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
The Duple cab was revolutionary in itself, being built from modern glass fibre.
However, many buyers specified other cabs to be fitted by local dealers of varying manufacturers.
This was probably due to cost but many a 100 series Massey were subsequently cabbed with Duncan, Winsam, Lambourn or Sekura examples.
Many of the smaller 135 tractors were also fitted with fore end loader mostly of MFs own manufacture.
Like so many tractor manufacturers of the period the issue of four-wheel drive was left to outside parties to cater for.
Four wheel drive units with origins in the Italian Selene design could be fitted taking drive from the rear PTO assembly or by fitting a transfer box in the transmission housing.
Robert Eden units and latterly Four Wheel Traction units were the most common.
These systems used the smaller front wheel layout although it is thought that County evaluated the possibility of an equal sized four-wheel drive Massey.
The range was a huge success story for MF with its final bow coming in 1979 when the 135 was phased out at Banner Lane.
Production of the DX design continued as a basic unit in other countries for less developed markets. It has only now been earmarked for replacement 50 years on.
Today the 100 series still lives on in farming businesses and in the classic tractor movement.
Collectors do, however, have to compete with the commercial tractor trade which sees many of these tractors bought to be exported to parts of Africa where a simple robust design of tractor is necessary.