SAME: air-cooled tractors from Treviglio since 1942

SAME — Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici — is an Italian tractor maker founded in 1942 by the brothers Francesco and Eugenio Cassani in Treviglio, in the province of Bergamo. Air-cooled diesel engines became its signature, and the company grew into the SAME Deutz-Fahr group. The models kept in this gallery, among them the Centauro series of 1965, belong to that history.

SAME at a glance

Based on one source: the Italian Wikipedia article on SAME, the only Wikipedia page about the make; there are no separate pages for the Leone, Centauro, Silver, 100 or Condor models, so model-specific figures appear only where the brand page gives them (the Centauro series of 1965).

History of the SAME

The story begins before the company. In 1927 Francesco and Eugenio Cassani designed and built a farm tractor called the Cassani 40 CV, driven by a two-stroke diesel. The engine was a horizontal two-cylinder of 12,723 cc that produced 40 hp at 550 rpm, started by cigarette ignition and by air from a pressure tank, and it drove through four gears — three forward and one reverse — for a top speed of 15 km/h. The tractor cost 28,000 lire and was sold under licence by the Officine Gaetano Barbieri of Castel Maggiore.

The new company, founded in 1942, first made petrol and diesel engines for civil and industrial use, as well as winches, cranes, ploughs and fire pumps. In 1946 it showed a three-wheel motor-mower at the Milan Fair, to whose engine other farm machinery could be coupled; this was the beginning of its “universal tractor”. The SAME 3R/10 of 1948 was a small universal tractor with a single-cylinder 10 hp petrol engine, two driving wheels, one steering wheel, variable track and reversible steering. It won a gold medal from the Accademia di Agricoltura di Torino, and on 24 October 1948 the Giornale dell’Agricoltura called it “a jewel of Italian industry”.

Air cooling and four-wheel drive

Petrol models continued in 1950 with the 4R/10 of 10 hp and the 4R/20 of 20 hp. The DA 25 of 1952 was the turning point: the first modern tractor built on an industrial scale with four-wheel drive, powered by a two-cylinder air-cooled diesel of 25 hp and 2,280 cc, with seven gears and a top speed of 24.3 km/h. The letters DA stood for Diesel Aria, air cooling, and that layout became a SAME tradition. In 1957 the DA 30 DT replaced it in eight versions, offered with a range of implements from ploughs and harrows to rotary tillers, rear dozers and tipping trailers; early examples were orange with green wheels, later ones red with a dark grey engine.

Centauro and the V engines

The SAME 240 of 1958, nicknamed the clever tractor, came with the S.A.C. (Stazione Automatica di Controllo) as standard, a draft-control system on the lower lift arms that was later applied across the range; its two-cylinder engine gave 42 hp through six forward gears and one reverse for 28.9 km/h. In 1961 came the Puledro and the Samecar, a tractor that could also carry produce in a load bed, together with new six- and eight-cylinder engines. At the Verona fair of 1965 SAME presented its V engines and the Italia V, Atlanta, Sametto V and 450 V tractors, with a change from rounded to squared bonnets. That same year the Centauro series arrived with three models: a 3,500 cc V4 of 55 hp, eight forward and four reverse gears and a maximum of 34.8 km/h. The Corsaro 70 and Saturno 80 followed in 1972.

From SLH to SAME Deutz-Fahr

In 1973 SAME bought Lamborghini Trattori from Ferruccio Lamborghini, adding tracks and fully synchronised gearboxes to its range, and in 1979 it acquired the Swiss maker Hürlimann. The group was renamed SLH — SAME, Lamborghini, Hürlimann — and became the second tractor manufacturer in Italy. The Explorer range of 1983 was one of its greatest successes: the first tractor made in Italy to reach 40 km/h and the only one with integral braking on all four wheels. At the end of the 1980s came the Twin Vision camera system and the modular 1000 series, which could be ordered with electronic injection control. The Titan range introduced Electronic PowerShift in 1991, while the Frutteto II was developed for orchards and vineyards. In 1995 SLH took over the agricultural machinery division of Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz, creating the SAME Deutz-Fahr group.

Into the present

In 1999 the Rubin 200 brought the Galileo self-levelling system, which won the Golden Tractor for design award in its Millennium Edition in 2000. SAME marked the eightieth anniversary of the Cassani tractor in 2007, and on 12 October 2012 it celebrated seventy years at Treviglio, announcing the Virtus, a tractor of 100 to 130 hp designed by Italdesign Giugiaro.

Design and features

• Air-cooled diesels: the “Diesel Aria” layout, introduced with the DA 25 in 1952, became the maker’s signature.
• S.A.C. draft control: fitted as standard to the 240 of 1958 and later spread across the range.
• Early four-wheel drive: the DA 25 was the first modern mass-produced tractor with four-wheel drive.
• Speed and braking: the Explorer of 1983 was the first Italian tractor to reach 40 km/h, with braking on all four wheels.
• Electronic PowerShift: launched with the Titan range in 1991 for higher power outputs.

SAME versions

• 3R/10 and 4R (1948–1950): small universal tractors with single-cylinder petrol engines of 10 and 20 hp.
• DA 25 and DA 30 DT (1952–late 1950s): air-cooled diesels with four-wheel drive; the DA 30 DT was built in eight versions.
• 240 (1958): 42 hp two-cylinder with S.A.C. draft control.
• Centauro (1965): three models with a 3,500 cc V4 of 55 hp.
• Explorer (1983): the range that took SAME to 40 km/h.
• Titan and Frutteto II (1991): Electronic PowerShift and a fruit-growing range.

More SAME tractors are collected in the SAME gallery.

Video: SAME LEONE

Video on YouTube.

Sources

• SAME, Italian Wikipedia: company history, models, engines, dates and production figures