TIME FOR T!

PART TWO

Of all the estimated 6,550 Diamond T 980 series tractors that had been built mainly for the British Army, from the Chicago assembly plant in the USA between 1941 and 45, Sam had amazingly just saved ‘MY’ DT.

20 YZ 65 had been one of the many which had gone through the British Army’s re-engineering programme during the 1960s which swapped its original Hercules DFXE 895 cubic inch six-cylinder diesel for a shiny new Rolls Royce C6 to improve performance and economy; not all the Army’s DTs went through this process.

The ‘T’ became so widely respected that it went on after the war to form the backbone of the British Army’s tank transporting fleet. Seventy percent of the tank transporting was performed by Diamond Ts. They gained a second life when around half the fleet was progressively retro-fitted with the latest Rolls Royce C6 NFL-143 12,170cc six-cylinder diesel rated at 210bhp when ‘revved’ to 2,200. The converted vehicles usually carried a ‘Powered by Rolls Royce’ stencil above the louvres of the bonnet side panels; the British Army was obviously very proud of having their heavy haulers powered by British Rolls-Royce diesels.