DriveTimes Five

Four-wheel-drive firsts

We take 4WD for granted in modern vehicles, of both the on-road and off-road varieties. But a quick look back at automotive history reveals many fascinating firsts surrounding 4WD technology. Here are five of our favourites.

First electric

The Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid of 1900 was a lot of firsts in one big, weighty package. It was the first car a young Ferdinand Porsche ever designed, it was the first hybrid vehicle and it was also technically the first AWD car. Although to be fair, the fact that it was AWD was merely a byproduct of its propulsion system, with a hub-mounted electric motor driving each wheel. It required 1.8 tonnes of lead-acid batteries, weighed more than four tonnes and cost a fortune, but owner EW Hart loved it so much he ordered another one, this time a cheaper, lighter 2WD version.

First racer

Like the Lohner-Porsche, the Spyker 60 HP from 1903 was a bunch of firsts. As well as being the first car to have a petrol six-cylinder engine, it was also the first car that had a braking system that was connected to all four wheels and it was the first ever petrol-powered 4WD car. Oh, and it was also the world’s first 4WD car with just a single engine! Not that any of that helped it be successful in racing, mind you. Spyker slipped into bankruptcy a few short years later.

First passenger car

You can never say the Soviets weren’t innovators when it came to cars. The first-ever 4WD production civilian passenger car was the wonderfully odd GAZ-61 of 1938. Although ‘civilian’ may be a bit of a stretch, as the majority were used by army and government officials anyway; such was the state of car ownership in the Soviet Union. Created by dropping the body of the M2 passenger car on to a 4WD truck chassis (subtlety wasn’t a Soviet strongpoint), the 61 became the first 4WD with a fully-enclosed passenger car body.

First production vehicle

Making the most of the adoration heaped upon the Jeep during the war, Willys introduced the civilian CJ-2A in 1945, making it the first massproduced 4WD vehicle for sale in the general marketplace. Willys did make a CJ-1 (which stands for Civilian Jeep), which was a modified version of the military Jeep, but didn’t make many and none actually survive today; the CJ-2 was never actually available at retail, being used only to develop the CJ-2A. To distance them somewhat from the original machines of war, the CJ-2A was available in a range of bright, cheery colours: 21,760 were produced between 1945-49.

First crossover

When American Motors (AMC) purchased Jeep from Kaiser in 1970, it came over all 4WD-ish and experimented with all sorts of vehicles. Including what would unknowingly become the first off what we call a ‘crossover’ now – the AMC Eagle from 1980. The Eagle was offered in station wagon, sedan and coupe (complete with removable roof panel!) body styles with a permanent all-wheel-drive. Combining an existing vehicle (the Eagle was basically a jacked-up 4WD version of the conventional AMC Concord) with a 4WD system, Eagle essentially created the Crossover a good 15 years before it really caught on!