Racing was the ultimate test for the cars and the technology. But before their first ralley, an Austrian named Rudi Hunger had discovered the potential of the Daf for racing. He entered one of the first 600īs for the Austrian Winterwertungsfahrt in the beginning of 1960. In spite of a meager 22 horsepower, he outperformed many of his competitors due to the fact 
that his car was always in the right gear. He won the event and a year later he achieved second place in the Alpenfahrt.
Reason for the official entrance into competition are the testing of 
new components before use in production cars and the improvement of the image.
But Daf couldnīt match the competition, not even with the slightly more powerful engine of the 750. So Koch decided to participate in events where perseverance and navigation were more important than power and speed. His personal statement was that participating was more important than winning. In 1971 Daf decided to enter into Rally-cross. This type of racing was very popular with the public. Jan de Rooij was Dutch Rally-cross champion in 1970 and 1971. They used a 128 hp 1.300cc Gordini engine, later succeeded by a 185 hp Daf 55 from the ZAV Hofnar team. 
In 1972 Daf used two of the three prototypes, called 555. These cars were introduced in 1970 as Group 6 Rally cars. They used the same Variomatic as the Formula 3 car. The rally cars used a 1.300cc or 1.440cc Renault-Gordini engine. For Rally-cross the cars were utilized with Ford Cosworth BDA engines, developing 185 upto 200 hp. The engine was placed besides the driver, were normally the passenger seat would be. The Variomatic was underneath the seat of the driver, propelling both the front and the rear wheels. The cars were very successful.
The most important for Daf was the London-Sydney Marathon in 1968. A journey of 16.500 km from London through Europe, Asia and Australia. 
The preparation for this event was 100%. Daf carried out a lot of tests. 98 teams participated in this event, among them the Dutch Daf team of David van Lennep and Peter Hissink (01-55-HD) and Rob Slotemaker and Rob Janssen (02-55-HD). Reliability being more important then performance, the engines of the cars didnīt produce much more power then the standard 55 engine. Slotemaker and Janssen finished 17th, van Lennep and Hissink 56th.
Due to the success in the London-Sydney Marathon, Daf produced a kit for the 55 called Marathon which made the car more sportier. Later, the 55 and 66 were delivered as Marathons from the factory.
But Daf wasnīt only active in Rallying, they also built a Formula 3 racing car. In the fall of 1963 the Dutch racing driver Henk van Zalinge turned to Daf with his plan to produce a race car with Variomatic. The company immediately liked the idea. They bougt an Alexis chassis with a 110 hp Cosworth BDA engine and installed the Variomatic behind the engine. In November 1963 the first testruns were made on the Welschap airport near Eindhoven. On the 9th of May 1965 the car was to race for the first time on the Belgium circuit of Zolder. But the engine wouldnīt start, so the car didnīt compete. At the end of that month it did race in Monaco with Rob Slotemaker at the weel, finishing 7th.
In the meantime, Daf had come in contact with Brabham. End of August 1965 a Brabham-Daf with variomatic was entered for the race on Zandvoort. The car finished 8th. For the next season the car was driven by the Englishman Mike Beckwith. He won 2 out of 16 races. The following season, 1967, Gijs van Lennep won in Stockholm and Mike Beckwith in Brands Hatch. 1968 was the last year of Formula 3. Daf had already handed over the project to the Racing Team Holland. They used Tecno-chassis for the cars. In the last race of that year, van Lennep and Beckwith were in first and second position, when they came in contact with each other.