Lamma was the first opportunity to see, in the flesh, the Turkish-made Armatrac tractors that are due to go on sale in the UK this year. They’re good-looking machines, with both interiors and interiors pretty well screwed together.

We had a sit in the Luxe version of the top-of-the-range 1104 model. Cabs are surprisingly wide and control layouts somewhat different from most machines on the market.

The silver dial on the right-hand side of the dash turned out to be the hand throttle. The idea is that it doesn’t get in the way as you get in and out of the cab, unlike a foot throttle or one that sticks out the right-hand side of the dash. There’s also some nice groupings of buttons for lights, fans and heating.

The gearbox is fairly old-school, with 16 forward and 16 reverse gears, including a small button that operates the splitter and a range change on the left-hand side of the seat. Electronic hitch was a surprise, as were external mudguard-mounted hydraulics and pto. Air-con is standard on this model.

The engine on this machine is the familiar Perkins 4.4-litre unit, with 110hp and Stage 3 emissions regs. Some of the smaller models get Deutz engines instead.

Price is ‘mid-£30,000’ according to the fledgling UK importer that is being set up in Co Durham.

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