to establish a virtual meetingplace for Daf enthusiasts. If you have any tips or suggestions, please let us know. We are also looking for more pictures and data on the cars. Contact us if you can help.
What makes Daf special?
The answer is: the variomatic transmission. In that period Daf was not only the sole manufacturer that had a small car with automatic transmission but it was standard equipment too.
The idea of Hub van Doorne, co-founder of the company, was to build a small affordable "luxury" car, which should compete with the Citroën 2CV, the Renault 4CV and the Fiat Topolino. Van Doorne started planning in 1954. He wanted to equip the car with an automatic transmission because he liked his Buick Dynaflow with automatic transmission. The problem was that such a transmission was too big, too complicated and too expensive to use in a small car.
Inspired by the belt-driven machinery in the factory, he came up with the idea to produce a car transmission using belts called variomatic.
