New Holland 7740

Engine: water cooled, four cylinder turbo diesel
Capacity: 321ci (5.0 litres)
Power: 95 hp
Transmission: 12 speed (Forward and Reverse)

It’s odd that New Holland has become the badge on so many tractors, and lives on today as part of CNH Global, the result of the merger between Case and Fiat/Ford/New Holland. Odd, because Holland itself never built tractors at all, but implements and (later) combine harvesters.

New Holland was originally founded in Pennsylvania in 1895, and specialized in nonpowered implements. A change of ownership came in 1940 (after which it produced one of the first successful automatic pick-up hay balers) and again in 1947, when the Sperry Corporation took over. In 1964, Sperry took a major interest in CL AAS, then the one of the largest combine manufacturers in Europe. Sperry New Holland concentrated on combines and implements until 1986, when it was taken over by Ford.

The New Holland name was evidently prized, since in the late 1990s, even well after the Fiat takeover, all tractors apart from the range- topping 70 series were badged as New Hollands, though they wore Ford’s blue/black color scheme. The 7740 pictured here was part of the mid-range 40 series, with a turbocharged four-cylinder diesel producing 95 hp.

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