Zetor 3011 tractor: In the 1960s Czechoslovakian firm Zetor was among the first foreign tractor makers to target the UK stranglehold held by the domestic builders MF, Ford, International Harvester and David Brown. Martin Rickatson tracks down an early import.
for over 60 years, the roots of Czech firm Zetor extend much deeper than that. Still manufacturing within the town in which it was founded – Brno is now in the Czech Republic rather than Czechoslovakia – the origins of Zetor can be traced right back to the steelworks that was situated there in the mid-19th century. It was not until after the Second World War, though, that the plant started to build tractors.
During the war itself, the factory, like many across all countries of Europe, was requisitioned to produce aeroplane components, in this case for Germany. During the latter stages of the conflict, though, it was destroyed by Allied bombing. When the factory was rebuilt after the hostilities had ended, it was re-founded as a tractor plant, producing the twin-cyl 25 model to design plans drawn up by the former car engineers on the existing staff. The 25 gained a stablemate the following year in the single-pot 15, a different and more basic machine to its bigger brother
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