DAF: Hub van Doorne's Belt-Drive Cars, 1958 to 1975

DAF at a glance

Hub van Doorne and the trailer works

Hubert "Hub" van Doorne was born on 1 January 1900 in the village of America in Dutch Limburg, the son of a blacksmith. The family moved to Deurne in March 1912, and his father died soon after. Hub was thought too young to take over the forge, so he trained at the Mandiger machine factory in Eindhoven. After the First World War he worked as a chauffeur-mechanic and then at the De Valk brewery.

In April 1928 he set up a metal workshop on the brewery's grounds, backed by its managing director A. H. Huenges. It began with four people, including his brother Wim, and employed 30 within a year. Hub ran the technical side and Wim the finances. In 1932 the business was renamed Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek, the trailer factory that gave DAF its name, and from 1936 the brothers owned it outright. Before the war DAF developed the Trado conversion, which turned two-axle Ford lorries into three-axle off-road vehicles.

Lorries from 1949

In 1949 DAF began building lorries, trailers and buses and became Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek. The first lorry was the A30. In the 1950s DAF supplied the Dutch army with soft-skin vehicles such as the YA-126 and the YA-328, the "Dikke Daf".

The Variomatic and the first car

In late 1954 Hub van Doorne proposed a belt-driven continuously variable transmission for road vehicles, and in 1955 DAF produced its first design. The Variomatic uses two pulleys, each made of two cones, linked by a V-belt. Moving the cones apart or together changes the diameter the belt runs on and so the gear ratio, without steps. On DAF cars, engine vacuum and centrifugal weights controlled the cones. Reverse used a separate mode, so a DAF could drive backwards as fast as forwards, and DAFs had their own class in the Dutch reversing championship.

The first car was shown at the Amsterdam Motor Show, the AutoRAI, in February 1958, and about 4,000 were ordered. The DAF 600 went into production in 1959. Its air-cooled 590 cc flat-twin had 16.2 kW (22 hp) at 4,000 rpm and gave a top speed of about 97 km/h.

The Variomatic was the Netherlands' first automatic gearbox and the first commercially successful CVT. One of the first two cars went to Truus Smulders-Beliën, the first woman to be a Dutch mayor. In the 600 to the 55 each rear wheel had its own pair of cones and belt, which gave limited-slip traction and helped DAF in rallies but wore tyres quickly. By 1963, 30,591 had been built. The model is covered in DAF 600 history and specifications.

Daffodil, 44 and 55

The 750 had a larger 749 cc twin, and the better-equipped Daffodil series followed as the DAF 30, 31 and 32. When the larger DAF 44 appeared in 1966, the 32 became the 33. The 44 was styled by Giovanni Michelotti and had an 850 cc twin and swing-axle rear suspension. In 1967 DAF opened a new car factory at Born, and the 44 was the first model built there.

The 55 of 1968 moved to four cylinders. Its 1,108 cc water-cooled engine came from the Renault 8. Italian coachbuilders also used DAF parts: Michelotti built the Shellette beach car, and OSI the City Car.

The 66 and the Volvo years

The DAF 66 of September 1972 replaced the 55. It had a squarer front, Renault engines of 1.1 and 1.3 litres and a De Dion rear axle with a stronger Variomatic and a differential. Standard cars had 39 kW (53 PS); the 1.1-litre Marathon had 44 kW (60 PS), and the 1300 Marathon of 1973 had 42 kW (57 PS). Compared with the 600, the most powerful 66 had 27.8 kW more. In all, 146,297 were built. The Dutch armed forces ordered a military version, the YA 66, in 1974, and 1,201 were made. The single-belt DAF 46 combined the 44 body with the 66's rear axle.

Outside money arrived in 1972. International Harvester bought a third of the company, and in December 1972 Volvo bought a 33% stake. On 1 January 1975 Volvo raised its holding to 75%, and the car division with the Born plant passed to Volvo Cars, leaving DAF with lorries. The DAF 66 was replaced by a reworked Volvo 66. The P900 project, planned as the DAF 77, was launched in 1976 as the Volvo 343 with a Variomatic, and the Volvo 340 and 360 sold more than 1.3 million cars until 1991. Volvo's own history is told in the story of Volvo.

After the cars

Volvo sold its share of the Born plant, by then called NedCar, to Mitsubishi in 2001; car production there ended in 2024. The Variomatic patents went to Van Doorne Transmissie in Tilburg, which Bosch bought in 1995. Its steel push-belt CVT, first used in the Ford Fiesta and Fiat Uno, spread to many later cars, and belt CVTs became standard on scooters from 1985. Williams built a CVT for its 1993 FW15C Formula One car, but it was banned before it raced.

The lorry company merged with Leyland Trucks in 1987, was listed in 1989, went into administration in February 1993 and was sold in a management buyout as DAF Trucks. PACCAR bought it in October 1996. Hub van Doorne died on 23 May 1979.

Who these cars suit

A DAF suits owners who want a simple, economical classic with an automatic gearbox and very easy driving. The early twins are the lightest and slowest; the 55 and 66 have four-cylinder Renault engines and up to 44 kW. The belt is the part to check, because a broken belt on the single-belt 46 stops the car. The power converter turns the PS and hp ratings into kW, the surviving model is listed in the DAF catalogue, and later cars from the Born plant are in the Volvo catalogue.

DAF timeline

Landmark DAF models