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Dexta Special

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:45 am
by Brian
Barry in Aus. has found some more strange tractors!

A Dexta Special from Sweden. Any information would be welcomed, as far as we can see it has two batteries. One in the normal place for a diesel and one in the same place as a petrol Dexta.

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Is this an entry form for Dexta racing? If so, perhaps Dietmar needs to pass it on to his wife :D

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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:10 am
by Grani
It´s a shame that the text of the competition rules is so blury that I can´t read it. :cry:

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:21 pm
by Brian
Sorry Grani,
The original from Barry is very blurred and that is the best I can get. Barry might send me a second attempt which I will post but it is interesting to think that they were racing Dextas. :D

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:13 pm
by jan
hi all

the first picture shows a prospect about a spezial dexta,
that you can only buy in this conversion/setup in germany.
it is a german prospect. i have some copies from those
prospects,only in black/white.the mudguards where made
fore the german market,and sometimes the 6gear was blocked
when i was younger,ca 20 years ago,i saw here in germany a dexta
whith the two-batterie version.i think,we must ask stefan ,perhaps
he has the right answer.and i will have a clooser look for my
black/white prospects etc.

mbg jan

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:31 pm
by Stefan
Chaps,

the Dexta Special is a special problem. I've looked for years to find out the secret behind the Dexta Special and the search end up abortive :(

There's no evidence that the Special's were only sold in Germany. I also saw them in the Netherlands. But here it could be that the tractors were sold to the Netherlands as used tractors in their later life.

Fact is, that the Special were only in 1964 sold. I was read in a Vintage Tractor Magazine that Ford had problems to sold-out the Dexta's because the Super Dexta costs just a few Pounds more. Ford tried to sold-out the huge stock of Dexta's with a marketing trick. The trick should have been to fit many optional extras for a low price. These limited edition was called Dexta Special.
But there seems to be something fishy about the story, because the german sales brochure doesn't mention that the tractors were fitted with many optional extras. All the available extras have to be payed extra.

So in my opinion it was just a marketing gag to sold-out the Dexta's before the new Ford tractor range came to light.

Fact is also, that the Special were not axiomatic fitted with the huge fenders (see brochure).

Fact is, that the huge rear fenders were already fitted in 1958. And not all Dexta's that came to Germany were fitted with them. My Dexta is built in 1959, came brand new to Germany and is fitted with the small rear fenders. There's absolutely no system to see ... the tractors seems to be delivered to Germany as they came from the assembly line, with or without huge rear fenders.

Fact is, that in the 1950th and 1960th tractors were limited in speed (20 kilometers / hour) to comply the law. So the Dexta's delivered to Germany were fitted with a 6-speed-gearbox but a lock was fitted to the last gear. So they had just 5 gears. It just needed a hack saw to free the top gear :lol:

Fact is, that many many Dexta's were fitted with two batteries. And not only the Special in 1964. My tractor (1959) was also fitted with two batteries. Seems to be an export version. Brian, did Ford fitted just 1 batterie for the domestic market?

You guys are wondering about the Dexta Grand Prix? Ford started a promotion tour through UK and continental europe. Belgium, France and Germany just to name few. In every country a couple of fairs were held. A special attraction was a radio controled Dexta. And a competition called Dexta Grand Prix took place on every fair. The participants had to drive a Dexta through an obstacle-course. The best driver of all the fairs took home a brand new Dexta :shock: :shock:

The form shown in the entire topic shows the attendance-form.



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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:34 pm
by henk
What would we do without Stefan when it comes to Dexta's. :clap:

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:08 pm
by hervold
Sorry, just testing.
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The original hand book for my dexta. The bars in the grills are not painted blue. :P

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:23 am
by bobfaecullen
Hi All,

Just back from our annual Tour de France (no not the bike race, although we did see a bit of a stage in Pau).

Catching up on the Dexta news I see this article on Dexta Special and guess what I found on a campsite beside Bergerac - a Dexta Special.

Here are some photos. The campsite warden doesn't know the history, he just uses it for odd jobs around the place. It looks in remarkably original condition.

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