Ferguson Research
Ferguson Research Ltd. was a British company belonging to Sir Harry Ferguson and mostly known as a racing cars constructor and a 4WD transmission systems supplier.
The company was set up while Harry Ferguson was still engaged in tractor design and production. Once he had finsihed divesting his interests in the then Massey-Harris-Ferguson company, he was able to increase the funds available to the company.
In 1960 Sir Harry Ferguson the famous tractor designer and industrialist allowed Ferguson Research Ltd. to build a Coventry-Climax powered 4WD Formula One car. Despite the death of Harry Ferguson in 1960, the Ferguson P99 was raced during 1961 season in UK F1 races by Rob Walker's team. The car raced only once the World Championship at the British Grand Prix. However the car won a non-championship race, the Gold Cup at Oulton Park with Stirling Moss as the driver. As of today, this is the one and only victory of 4WD car in F1 (and incidentally the last race won by Moss in Europe), and it might stay so for long as 4WD is now banned in F1. Despite its promising beginings this front-engined car was soon made obsolete by mid-engined cars.
The Ferguson Research Ltd. went on in racing supplying the Novi-powered P104 to the STP team for Indianapolis.
Ferguson would later supply 4WD transmissions to various F1 teams. BRM used the Ferguson 4WD system on the P67 in 1964.
Ferguson also developed the 4WD system for the Jensen FF GT car, the FF standing for Ferguson Formula.
In 1969, there was 4WD boom in F1 with the top teams of the era Matra, Lotus and Mc Laren building 4WD cars using the Ferguson system (Cosworth built also built a 4WD car but using their own system). The 1968 seasons had seen many wet races and the constructors were searching for means to increase the grip of the cars. The 1969 British GP, saw a record number of four 4WD cars using the Ferguson system entered.
1969 also saw the introduction of wings in F1 and there was no wet race that year. All the competitors ceased develloping 4WD F1 cars as wings appeared as an easier way to increase grip, with the exception of Lotus that made a last attempt with the Ferguson system on the gas turbine powered 56B in 1971.
Complete Formula One results
(Note: grands prix in bold denote points scoring races.)
| Yr | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | J.Fairman | MON | DUT | BEL | FRA | GBR | DEU | ITA | USA | Walk. |