European whiskey makers Ardberg wanted a unique and cool promotion vehicle to promote their brand and their company so when the idea of building some sort of hot rodded tractor came to life, they called England’s Turnham Autos Rod and Kustom to get the job done and boy did they ever. Starting with a 1959 Massey Ferguson 35, they went full house with custom and classy paint, added a supercharged big block Chevy engine that breathes out a set of zoomie style headers, built what has to be the world’s largest pair of Cragar mags, and still managed to keep the tractor flavor and not shy away from that.
Why would a whiskey distiller want a promotional tractor? Well the pete used to flavor the scotch was certainly hauled around by tractor and there’s the whole visual impact side of the equation as well. People who see this thing remember it for sure and the company that has been making whiskey since 1815 was interested in creating memories on its TracTOUR that this machine was the centerpiece of a couple of years ago.
Along with the engine, wheels, and amazing detail work, we love stuff like the suicide springs that spans the front of the machine, the moon tank, and just how well the whole thing is built. For a shop that builds some stunning rods and customs it had to have been fun to work with something as off the wall as this build. They did an awesome job of showing what they are capable of with the finish work on this machine. As weird as it is to say, their level of detail had to be on point because there is little to nowhere to hide anything on an old tractor because every inch of it is visible!
To complete the win, here’s a video of the tractor being driven in a race against a classic Lotus grand prix car. We’re not kidding –
That’s Paul Burnham driving the tractor, his company was the builder and their pretty popular for their quality of work, mostly in the hot rod/custom/american car scenes