The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Tractor tells colourful tale of star Doddie
Visitors to spring and summer shows across Scotland will be hard-pressed to miss some colourful commemorative tractors this year.
Not least the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation fundraising Fastrac that Scot Agri will display in its tartan colour scheme.
The ‘Doddie Icon’ JCB Fastrac, owned by contracting firm Crop Services, commemorates rugby star Doddie Weir and his campaign to raise awareness of motor neurone disease (MND) and funds to help research into the debilitating condition.
Doddie’s school friend Douglas Stephen, of Crop Services, added references to the foundation on his existing Fastracs but wanted something even more eye-catching for his latest machine.
“Our Doddie was born into a farming family, was part of the farming community and tractors,” he said.
“He was also accustomed to wearing big, bright, garish tartan suits, so this tractor is right up his street. What JCB has done is beyond all expectations, they have really pulled out all the stops.”
Wherever the Fastrac 4220 iCON wrapped in Doddie’s own-design tartan livery is displayed, visitors can donate to the foundation simply by loved
scanning a QR code on its flanks.
Just as eye-catching is the New Holland T7.300 AutoCommand given a psychedelic 1960s paint job to commemorate six decades of production at the Basildon plant.
Britain’s sole surviving high-volume tractor
factory opened in 1964 to build Ford’s new 37-65hp 6X series before switching to the ‘Ford Force’ in 1968.
Tractors built in the Essex plant from 1991 carried Ford New Holland, then just New Holland after Fiat acquired it.
Today, the plant is focused on the 125-300hp
T6 and T7 models for worldwide sales (and their Case IH equivalents for North America).
It is also the group’s development centre for alternative fuels with an area dedicated to equipping methanefuelled versions of selected models.