Driving impression: New Holland T6080 tractor The format is familiar from New Holland’s TS-A tractors and the lower hp T6000s that have since replaced them, plus, of course, the more recently introduced T7000 models. But the latest – and last – pieces of New Holland’s ‘T’ tractor jigsaw, the high-hp T6000s, are very different to the superseded TM140 and TM155. Martin Rickatson drives the T6080 flagship in Nottinghamshire.
Tracing their history right back to the 8160-8560 tractors launched in 1996, New Holland’s TM models were nothing if not long-serving. They were also among the marque’s better sellers, and this is why New Holland’s European dealer network has been champing at the proverbial bit for a replacement range since NH began to revamp its whole line with the debut of the TS-A back in 2003.
The TS-A range, of course, has since been superseded by the current T6000 family, but when T6000 was introduced back in early 2007, there was a glaring power gap at the top of the line-up – or, depending on which way you look at it, at the base of the T7000 range that came later. In the interim, the TM120, 130, 140 and 155 units have soldiered on in this popular power sector, flying the blue mass-market flag.
At Agritechnica ‘07, though, New Holland filled in one of the last pieces of the ‘T’ jigsaw by previewing the T6050, T6070 and T6080 models, which slot in directly above the T6010-6040. New Holland is extremely keen, incidentally, to put right any misconception regarding where its tractors are made. All the T6000 and 7000 models are assembled at the Basildon site, a plant that has now manufactured 1.6 million tractors. Engines, meanwhile, come from the CNH/Iveco/Cummins joint venture factory in Turin, Italy.
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