The Fabulous DAF Museum

"Jonee" (Jonee) 10/12/2017 at 12:45 • Filed to: DAF, Michelotti

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The third stop on my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! automotive !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of fun with Oppofreak Jobjoris was the DAF Museum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. DAF is, of course, Holland’s most famous vehicle manufacturer. They’re best known for their trucks, but they’re best loved for their cars which were quirky and cool even though they introduced the world to the enthusiast’s enemy, the continuously variable transmission. In 1954, company founder Hub van Doorne wondered if he couldn’t power a car with belts like the belt-driven machinery in his lorry factory. Five years later, DAF introduced the 600, the first small car with a true automatic transmission.

This was revelation as the cars popular in Europe at the time usually had tiny engines of less than 1000cc’s that just couldn’t deal with a traditional automatic. And the CVT was a clever innovation. As Wiki explains:

The DAF Variomatic employs engine speed, via centrifugal weights, to shift the transmission and is enhanced by an engine manifold vacuum. It was the only car ever produced which went faster by the simple expedient of gently and gradually releasing the accelerator once top speed had been reached. This increased manifold vacuum which helped the variable pulleys shift to an even higher ratio so even though the engine RPM stays the same, the transmission increases the car’s speed, in the case of the DAF 600, from 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) to nearly 70 mph (110 km/h) given enough time and level road.

The Variomatic also permitted increased engine braking by operating a switch on the dashboard which reversed the action of the vacuum on the pulley’s diaphragm, seeking a lower ratio with increased manifold vacuum.

Neat. DAF stopped making cars in the mid 70's when the automobile division was sold to Volvo, but they definitely left a lasting legacy. And DAF Trucks still builds trucks although the company is not quite the same as the original. So, here are some photos from the surprisingly fascinating DAF Museum. The company really has an incredible history. They built everything from cars to trucks to military vehicles to plane parts to huge diesel engines to race cars and more crazy stuff.

The first DAF. Hub van Doorne designed this in 1943 recognizing that there was going to be a need for cheap transportation when the war was over. It’s called the Mobile Raincoat (I consider all raincoats mobile myself, but whatever) and is powered by a 150cc engine with a torque converter transmission designed in house. Speaking of which, it’s narrow enough to drive through your front door. It was used by a clown troupe for many years, no surprise.

DAF got its start building agricultural trailers.

DAF’s first production vehicle was the 1949 A50 truck chassis with a welded frame. Engines from Hercules or Perkins, Fuller transmissions, Timken axles, Ross steering gear, Hardy-Spicer driving shafts, u-joints and wheels and Bosch electrics.

A concept for an off-roader that looks like a spider. This was built by a customizer, or maybe a dealer, I think, for possible series production, but it never got off the ground.

A DAF bus trailer. After WWII times were tough and it was too expensive and time intensive to design and engineer much needed busses. So, DAF cleverly built these, trailers that could be pulled by semis.

The absolutely splendid Daf Kini. This is a beach car designed by Giovanni Michelotti and gifted to the Dutch Royal Family on the occasion of the birth of Prince (now King) Willem Alexander in 1967.

A Ford inspired 1955 DAF A 117. The model was introduced in 1951 and it’s powered by a 91 horsepower Hercules JXE-3 gasoline engine.

A DAF S.W.A.T. van.

The DAF YP 408 is an 8×6 armored personnel carrier.

DAF even had an aerospace division that made landing gears for the F-16.

A DAF YA-66 civilian version.

A one-off DAF 44 cabrio-coupe with doors that fold down.

This is a DAF 55 with a custom body built by Moretti. Apparently the car’s owner wanted something a little roomier and with 4 doors, but still wanted the convenience of an automatic, so this was the result.

This was my favorite. It’s a 1964 Handywagon. Not only is it cute, but it was purpose built for the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company. Arkansas America! I had never heard of this thing and it blew me away. The company wanted a cheap, easy to drive small pickup for maintenance workers that they could build themselves. So they designed this little pickup in house and contacted DAF for the mechanicals having heard about their CVT. DAF built them a 2 cylinder, 30 horsepower motor mated to one of their Variomatics and shipped them to Arkansas where 97 of these trucks were manufactured. They were apparently in service for about 10 years and 3 are known to survive. I must find one of the others. There’s got to be a couple out there somewhere.

1968 DAF Siluro, another beautiful Michelotti concept. It was his idea of a “dream coupé.”

This is was probably the most impressive thing there. The DAF Porter, a 4 wheel drive amphibious buggy that looks like it belongs on the set of Space: 1999. Based on the videos of it playing, it could go literally anywhere.

As you can see, it achieved 4 wheel power with friction drive. The small wheel makes the big wheels go.

Adorable DAF pedal car.

This concept was called the BATU which stood for Basic Automotive Transport Unit. It was meant to be an easily assembled all-purpose vehicle for Asian and African markets.

The DAF Pony, the coolest utility vehicle ever produced.

1967 Kalmar DAF. Originally ordered by the Swedish postal service, this one was repurposed for a restaurant. These were based on the DAF 44.

This was a cool little military transport thing where your feet dangle off the front of the vehicle. It was actually designed for the U.S. Army.

DAF Shellette, another beach car designed by Michelotti. This one was owned by Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

1966 DAF O.S.I.-City concept, built in Turin, Italy and designed by Ghia.

DAFs made quite successful rally cars.

1965 Alexis Mk5 Formula 3 with Variomatic.

The Huron 4A track and hillclimb race car. Powered by a 2 liter Cosworth and featuring a big DAF Variomatic.

Variomatic - swing axle combo used in the 600, 750, Daffodils, 33, 44 and 55. No differential. The belts were made by Good Year.

The first DAF car, the 600. It was powered by a 591cc motor.

The 750 had a larger motor and was called the Daffodil.

Daffodil Type 31 sporting some chrome.

DAF 32 van. The 32 was a Daffodil with a Giovanni Michelotti designed facelift. It was the last Daffodil/600 based car and Michelotti’s first venture with DAF.

DAF 33 Pickup

The DAF 44 was an all new car designed by Michelotti and released in ‘66. It had a DAF 844cc motor.

The DAF 66, the last DAF model, introduced in 1972.

After Volvo purchased the company, they kept producing DAF 66s with a Volvo badge.

This is a prototype for a GT Coupe built in 1965 and designed by Michelotti. DAF didn’t think they would sell enough to justify the cost of putting it into production which is a shame because it’s gorgeous.

This was really one of the best single manufacturer museums I’ve ever been in. Not knowing anything really about DAF’s history, I was constantly being surprised.

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bhtooefr > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 12:57

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“powered by a 150cc engine with a torque converter transmission designed in house”

Any more details on this?

“Torque converter”, after all, is often used to refer to Salsbury-style transmissions - read: centrifugally-shifted CVTs - and given that we’re specifically talking about DAF here, and given that DAF is known for centrifugal+vacuum-shifted CVTs...

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 13:00

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Awesome, I love that place. I really like the fact that they managed to gather so many one-offs and prototypes (the P300 and P500 being most interesting). My absolute favourite of the museum is the orange Coupe concept, though the TurboTwin is a close second due to it being legendary.

Also, it is called the Driving Raincoat, which is a bit less weird than Mobile Raincoat.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 13:01

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That Porter is freaky. Also, the Variomatic doesn’t need a diff with the separate left and right belt drives, since the CVT ratio change takes care of that... but it’s better than that, even. It actually works like a limited slip setup.

One of my favorite DAFs is the YA-328, which had parallel drive trains for left and right outside the frame setup:

Jonee > bhtooefr 10/12/2017 at 13:07

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I’m not sure exactly what the transmission was. It’s only referred to as a hydraulic torque converter transmission.

bhtooefr > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 13:15

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Ah, hydraulic, that means there’s no connection to the Salsbury torque converter, then.

Amoore100 > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 14:26

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I simply love DAFs—they’ve got almost an Eastern Bloc flair to them (perhaps because they were quite separated both geographically and ideologically from most of the other contemporary automakers) and that imbues them with a sense of charm and just makes them happy little cars!

The Michelotti ones, though, dear lord...had they ever found the money for the Siluro or GT then those would be on my automotive bucket list for sure—as it is, I’ve got to get myself a Volvo/DAF 66 someday!

Jonee > Amoore100 10/12/2017 at 15:06

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I agree. It’s like they were castaways on their own vehicular island. I think Michelotti did some of his most interesting work with DAF. If that Siluro made it to production, it’d be a legendary car.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 18:22

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Thank you for taking the time to put together that post. I really enjoyed it. A couple of thoughts and or observations:

That tire looks too new for the car.

Same here.

There’s nothing not to love about this truck.

I don’t know how an automotive designer would describe this feature of having a roll of hood above the fender, but there was a good deal of it here and I really like the look.

And here, for example. Very spiffy.

And the insignia... Way past cool.

So much style for what would otherwise be, honestly, a clunky little shitbox. And it’s got the hood.

Lots of fun! Thanks again.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Jonee 10/12/2017 at 18:23

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Got Kinja’d. This is the one that would be the shitbox if it weren’t so stylish.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/12/2017 at 18:25

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Through racing they found out that a diff did help, though, since the CVT wouldn’t always allow for enough difference IIRC. The 66 was the only production car with a differential though:

My dream Daf would be a 55 with the 66’s DeDion rear suspension, though that would mean losing the original virtual CVT diff. Hmm

Jonee > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/12/2017 at 20:02

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Glad you enjoyed it. Excellent observations. I know that the museum restored the Raincoat, so maybe those were the only tires that worked.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/12/2017 at 23:47

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But drift?

Fl1ngstam > Jonee 10/13/2017 at 03:55

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Fantastic. It looks like I need to plan a trip to Eindhoven. Thanks for sharing!

pip bip - choose Corrour > Jonee 10/13/2017 at 08:30

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awesome!

how many cars are in the collection roughly?

how much to enter?

bhtooefr > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 10/13/2017 at 10:04

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Not the only  one - the 46 had the 66's left CVT only, going into a differential.

And, the Volvo 300 series was supposed to be the DAF 77, and basically had an updated version of the 66's setup in Variomatic models.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > bhtooefr 10/13/2017 at 11:37

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That of the Volvo 300 being supposed to be the 77 I knew, so the 66 style CVT is logical in that, but I didn’t know the 46 used half a CVT, guess you learn something new every day. (I should be ashamed, I’ve been to the museum 3 times, I should know this, haha)

Jonee > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/13/2017 at 15:11

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I’m not sure how many cars they have. It’s a pretty big place. A couple hundred vehicles in there. I think it was 9 Euros to enter.

RT > Jonee 10/14/2017 at 09:07

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I went there a couple of months ago, fantastic place. I liked how they had a physical demonstration on how the Variomatic works upstairs. The line of DAF cars with a Volvo 340 at the end did also make me wonder what could have been.

Oh, and the seats on the Kini were literally made of baskets. Well done Daf.

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/18/2017 at 09:53

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Yes! It definitely is a surprising place, one I will visit way more often in the future! That guy next to the cool little military transport thing doesn’t look much, well, military! ;-)

The off-roading spidery thing is built by Harrie Geeris. A local (Eindhoven) who tried to put into a small production. And failed. This is the only one known to have survived.

Also, you forgot to show what that Porter ended up into...

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/19/2017 at 01:14

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I would definitely go back to that museum. I want to see the Porter and the Coupe again. That military man must be incognito. On some kind of undercover mission to steal your Dutch secrets.

Was Harrie a dealer? I couldn’t remember who he was. Were there others built?

Oh, you’re right. I should have included that thing. It’s so genius.

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/19/2017 at 05:44

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There probably are no secrets for this character. Must be a friend of Torch.

I think he was a coachbuilder or something, worth looking into a bit more. I’ll ask around. There were several (“about 10") made.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/19/2017 at 23:14

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He was also lurking around that green Marathon. I’m surprised those bowler hat guys didn’t kick him out. Did you ever figure out who they were? Maybe the Cult of Torch.

Oh, yeah. He may have been a coachbuilder. It does need to be researched because it seems interesting. Did he make truck bodies probably?

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/20/2017 at 08:45

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Haha, or some fans of Kubrick or the Clockwork Orange?

I’ve asked fellow IG-er Rikkerte. His dad works at the museum.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/21/2017 at 22:04

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They weren’t particularly scary, though. Their version of ultraviolence is probably a stiff talking to.

Works or volunteers? Do we get free admission next time? I’d work there. Maybe they’d let me drive the Porter.

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/22/2017 at 04:26

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No they were not. But the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Maybe they were just Satanists.

Volunteers. And he replied. Harrie Geeris was in racing with Porsches. And ended up having a classics garage (specialized in Jaguar, sold last year) in Oirschot, nearby Eindhoven. According to Rikkerte it’s just this one concept.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/22/2017 at 21:09

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You might be right, those sneaky bastards. I always said the CVT was the Devil’s work. No wonder they go there to worship.

Fascinating. Sounds like he was an interesting fellow. Although, it doesn’t mention Porsche here:

http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/Harrie-Geeris-NL.html

And then this is funny. He entered an Alpine, but apparently never showed up to the race.

http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/archive/Harrie-Geeris-NL.html

Is this your Freek?

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/23/2017 at 11:19

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Alpine! No wonder DAF turned to Renault! All is falling into pieces now.

It was the time before our open European borders, I’m sure a competitor had him hold up by border patrol. That’s the ‘60's!

No Freek. Freek drives Toyota!

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/24/2017 at 01:21

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Yes, we’re beginning to see the web that connects all motorsports. And it all comes back to Harrie. He also drove a couple Fords. Ford is American. Chevy is American. Chevy built the Cosworth Vega. Cosworth powered the early race cars with DAF transmissions. BOOM. 

That’s funny. You could be right. That’s what he gets for trying to enter a French car.

Poor Freek. How common a name is Freek?

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/24/2017 at 07:44

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Or maybe it was just he was smuggling stuff. Butter, milk, that was quite a thing back then. Or cigarettes.

It’s common. I know at least two Dutch celebrities named Freek. Our very own Steve Irwin for example: Freek Vonk.

Actually some sort of doctor, this one. Bitten by a shark. Doing stupid stuff.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/24/2017 at 22:24

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To avoid tariffs? Using an Alpine as a smuggling vehicle is bold.

He looks like a Freek Vonk. I thought maybe Steve Irwin dying put an end to those guys. What’s the Dutch word for “freak?”

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/25/2017 at 06:55

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To outrun the customs guys with their R4s!

Engerd . Gekkerd maybe. But we use Freak as well.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/25/2017 at 23:23

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Those poor customs guys. Using an Alpine is kind of overkill. An R12 would have done it.

I think “freak” comes from old English. What does your “ Freek” mean?

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/26/2017 at 03:33

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Did you know there was an R12 Alpine? Just in Argentina IIRC but still.

I’m sure it’s just short for Frederik. Not as if every Freek is short but still.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/26/2017 at 23:11

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I have seen pictures of it, yeah. Was it a real thing, because the pictures always look like the same car. It’s pretty badass.

I think that would be funny if all short Frederiks were called Freek. Do you also use Fred and Freddy?

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/27/2017 at 05:25

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It was a real thing. Frederic Cros even made a 1/43 of it. So you know it’s legit.

He had a black&gold as well but that one was sold out already.

Yes: Fred, Freddy, Frère all to cut down on syllables.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/28/2017 at 22:58

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The silver accents on blue look really nice. I don’t know which I like better. It looks like they built around 500 of them. Really cool. I guess Renault didn’t want it taking sales from the other Alpines.

What do you have against syllables?

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/29/2017 at 06:23

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Other Alpines? To prevent Gordini from being eaten up alive! They paved way for the R5 Alpine I’m sure though.

They cost energy. I’m all for Idiocracy.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/30/2017 at 02:14

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True. Poor Gordini.

Classic movie that I think we’re beginning to live here right now. The movie overestimated us. Doesn’t it take place hundreds of years in the future? It only took 15. 

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/30/2017 at 11:02

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I feel Renault made it even worse with their last attempt to relive the Gordini hype by just giving it a blue color and some race stripes...

It did overestimate you! I was just having this discussion last Thursday with Robert. He didn’t know the movie but sent the movie poster to many of his friends. While eating a Bitterball.

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/30/2017 at 22:55

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Yeah, that’s an insult to old Amédée.

It’s funny that the poster works these days without even knowing what the movie is about. DAMMIT! I’ve got to find a place that sells Bitterballs now.

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/31/2017 at 03:45

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And only giving the treatment to the smallest ones. Why didn’t they do the Mégane, that ‘s the R8/R12 of today, not the Twingo/Clio!

Best part is when they want to grow crops. And Luke states crops needs fluids. They sprinkle the crops with Gatorade IIRC. Hahahaha.No bitterballs in the movie though.

Jonee > Jobjoris 11/01/2017 at 00:28

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It’s got electrolytes! And then he’s proclaimed the smartest person in the world because he knows to put water on plants. Hilarious.

Jobjoris > Jonee 11/01/2017 at 04:30

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Luke sure looks smart.

Jonee > Jobjoris 11/01/2017 at 23:12

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Baumer! He’s too emotionally fragile to really be considered smart.

Jobjoris > Jonee 11/02/2017 at 05:41

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Not sure if Qkinnut is that smart either. You should know as you probably met her...

Jonee > Jobjoris 11/03/2017 at 00:12

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I’ve never met her, but a friend of mine lived in her building in New York when they were growing up. He didn’t really know her either, though.

Jobjoris > Jonee 11/03/2017 at 19:03

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Haha, what is that one from?

Jonee > Jobjoris 11/03/2017 at 21:06

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Iron Man 3, I think. She still looks hot, no pun intended. Yours makes me sad.

Jobjoris > Jonee 11/04/2017 at 16:28

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Seven made me sad anyway. The Royal Tenenbaums though...

Jonee > Jobjoris 11/04/2017 at 16:54

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That’s what I’m saying. You can’t put Margot’s head in a box. I adore Royal Tenenbaums. I saw it 6 times when it was in the theater. Royal reminds me of an evil version of Lenny.