Keeping Up With The Others

by Paul Audley, a member of The Ferguson Club

Ihappened to be chatting with our Ferguson Club area representative, John Selley, recently about my Ferguson TEA20 tractor and also about my other passion, my MGB GTV8 race car. Although I had some doubts that the MG would be of interest to Vintage Scene readers, John has asked me to write a few words about these two apparently opposite interests.

I purchased the TEA 20 as a semi-derelict tractor from Scotland several years ago, and have since restored it to a respectable, usable condition. With the help of the Ferguson Club I have been able to register it for road use with an age related registration.

One of the attractions for me of restoring old tractors is that the issue of rust is far less of a problem than say, an old classic car for instance. What little 'bodywork' there is on a TEA 20 is entirely 'bolt on' so that every panel can be removed, and restored or replaced, and then bolted on again.

My tractor is by no means a concours show queen, but it is reliable and presentable, and I enjoy using it on tractor runs and occasional shopping trips! John has very kindly been able to help me with one or two parts I needed for the restoration. I was keen to retain its 1949 originality as much as possible, but for practical reasons I have changed it to a 12 volt system, and have changed the PTO drive to the more useful one and three eighths spline shaft to enable the use of modern PTO equipment. It will enable grass cutting and hopefully, at some time in the future, some light rotovating with, of course, the use of an overrun PTO shaft link. Neither of these slight changes detract from the appearance of the tractor. With originality in mind, I am currently preparing an old pair of 'correct' 19 inch front wheels for the tractor. It is currently on part worn grass rear tyres, which are of a slightly smaller diameter than V ribbed field tyres, and I found that on tractor runs the top speed is therefore slightly reduced, sometimes making it difficult to keep up with the others!

Keeping up with the others is of course also the name of the game for the 1972 MGV8. I built the car approximately fifteen years ago, on a tight budget, as a circuit racing car to take part in classic sports car events. I managed to keep the car road legal, which has proved very useful for testing certain aspects of developments and changes over the years, without the expense of always having to hire testing time at race circuits.

The car currently has a 3.9 engine, originally a Rover SD1 Vitesse block, bored out, but I have put together a new 4.6 engine, originally from a Range Rover, which is just waiting to go in.

Whilst at first appearing to be at the opposite end of the technical spectrum, the MG really isn't that much different to the tractor in terms of engineering simplicity. Both vehicles are comparatively old school, and easy to work on, and neither one requires much in the way of specialist tools and equipment. Consequently, they are both, in their separate ways, a joy to tinker with and maintain. They are both reasonably inexpensive to work on, but unfortunately motor racing entry fees and the price of race tyres, for example, has rocketed over the years and consequently the privateer entrant is gradually getting ousted from the sport.

Fittingly for a tractor magazine, this brings me back to my trusty TEA20. I still enjoy driving it,and tinkering with it, and if anyone is looking for a relatively simple and rewarding restoration project, I can think of nothing better than choosing a good old Ferguson T20.

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