Explore motoring.im
daf-variomatic.motoring.im
Every fact

176 facts, every one sourced

Every fact on this site in one list, each linked to its source. Our build stores the source text and checks that the key words and figures in each fact really appear in it; see the sources page.

  1. 1 DAF showed its first car, the 600, at the Amsterdam motor show in February 1958. It drove through two rubber belts, and the DAF Club calls the Variomatic the first car CVT ever to enter production. DAF Club: history
  2. 2 Production began in 1959, and the 600 was sold until 1963. DAF Club: 600
  3. 3 The Variomatic was Hub van Doorne’s invention. He founded DAF with his brother Wim, six years younger; Hub was the inventor, and Wim had the head for business. Martijn Lak
  4. 4 There were only two pedals, accelerator and brake: the driver just steered, pressed the throttle and braked. Martijn Lak
  5. 5 By the end of that first show, DAF had 4,000 orders. Martijn Lak
  6. 6 Historian Martijn Lak puts the total at about 820,000 DAF cars before the name was dropped after 1975. Martijn Lak
  7. 7 Figures from the DAF Owners Club, quoted by Driven to Write, give 815,646 DAF-badged cars built from 1959 to 1976. Driven to Write
  8. 8 The DAF Museum says more than 800,000 DAFs with the Variomatic took to the road. DAF Museum
  9. 9 In 1975 DAF’s car division became Volvo Car BV. Volvo Cars
  10. 10 Volvo kept building belt-driven cars until 1991, and the very last car of the 340 range was fitted with the CVT as a nod to its DAF roots. DAF Club: Volvo 340
  11. 11 Van Doorne’s Transmissie in Tilburg, founded in 1972 and bought by Bosch in 1995, made pushbelts for CVTs and reached 100 million of them in 2024. Bosch
  12. 12 Hub van Doorne was born on 1 January 1900 in America, a village in Limburg, where his father had a small smithy. Martijn Lak
  13. 13 The Brabant archive BHIC gives his birthplace as Horst, in Limburg. BHIC
  14. 14 His father Martinus died in 1912, aged 41, and Hub was too young to take over the business. Martijn Lak
  15. 15 His entire schooling came to no more than four years of primary school. BHIC
  16. 16 In 1928 Hub and Wim set up a small workshop in Eindhoven, with 10,000 guilders of capital and a room four metres by four. Martijn Lak
  17. 17 By 1930 they were building trailers and semi-trailers, and Hub’s light designs could carry 50 per cent more payload. BHIC
  18. 18 The business became Van Doorne’s Aanhangwagen Fabriek (trailer factory), shortened to DAF. Hagerty UK
  19. 19 The name later changed to Van Doorne’s Automobiel Fabriek, and DAF’s first lorries appeared in 1949. AutoWeek
  20. 20 Hub took out about 130 patents. BHIC
  21. 21 In 1953 Delft’s technical university gave him an honorary doctorate for his inventiveness. BHIC
  22. 22 During the war he built a tiny one-seat car only 75 cm wide, later nicknamed the ‘driving raincoat’. It never went into production, and Hub gave it to a circus clown. Martijn Lak
  23. 23 According to the DAF Club, DAF decided in 1953 to build cars as well, so that it could actually use the Variomatic. DAF Club: history
  24. 24 BHIC dates the invention of the Variomatic to the early 1950s. BHIC
  25. 25 AutoWeek says the car work began in earnest in 1955. Hub first pictured a two-seat minicar with a 250 cc engine in the back; Wim, the business mind, insisted it had to be a proper four-seater. AutoWeek
  26. 26 DAF had never made a car engine. It bought engines from other makers and took them apart, then settled on its own air-cooled 590 cc four-stroke flat twin. AutoWeek
  27. 27 The body was drawn in-house by Willem van den Brink, who had worked at Fokker; no Italian styling house was involved. AutoWeek
  28. 28 One requirement, says the DAF Club, was that passengers could sit in it wearing a hat. DAF Club: 600
  29. 29 Martijn Lak dates the unveiling to Friday 7 February 1958, at a packed RAI hall in Amsterdam. Martijn Lak
  30. 30 AutoWeek gives the date as 13 February 1958. AutoWeek
  31. 31 The DAF Museum’s own page says the 600 was first seen at the RAI in May 1958. DAF Museum
  32. 32 The slogan was ‘DAF Variomatic automatisch de beste’: automatically the best. Martijn Lak
  33. 33 It was the first Dutch car since Spyker stopped production in 1925. Bill Vance
  34. 34 The chairman of the Royal Dutch Automobile Club took delivery of the first 600 on 23 March 1959. Martijn Lak
  35. 35 It cost 3,980 guilders, or 4,380 for the de luxe. Martijn Lak
  36. 36 Lak gives the 600 22 hp, a top speed of 90 km/h, a weight of only 575 kg and 17 km to the litre. Martijn Lak
  37. 37 Bill Vance gives the weight as 676 kg. Bill Vance
  38. 38 DAF built about 700 cars in 1959, 16,000 in 1961 and more than 23,000 in 1962, and the 100,000th came off the line in 1964. Martijn Lak
  39. 39 Even Queen Juliana used one in her spare time. Martijn Lak
  40. 40 People called it the car with the ‘pientere pookje’, the clever little gear lever. Martijn Lak
  41. 41 The DAF Club counts 30,150 DAF 600s built from 1959 to 1963. DAF Club: 600
  42. 42 The DAF Owners Club table, via Driven to Write, says 30,591. Driven to Write
  43. 43 In December 1966 Wim announced a new car factory at Born, in Limburg’s closing mining district. About 900 former miners went to work there, and it opened on 27 June 1968. Martijn Lak
  44. 44 The automatic was a strength and a weakness: most drivers who had learned to change gear found it childish, and DAF never shook off its image as a car for the elderly and for women. Martijn Lak
  45. 45 Wim van Doorne admitted they never saw that coming: they had simply thought the idea was wonderful. Martijn Lak
  46. 46 DAF had a US dealer network from 1960 to 1967 and sold just over 1,600 cars there, stopping partly because of federal regulations. Hagerty
  47. 47 Lak says strict American rules held DAF to a few hundred sales there. Martijn Lak
  48. 48 Hub stepped down in 1965, with a gift of a million guilders for the staff. Martijn Lak
  49. 49 Wim died on 3 May 1978 and Hub on 23 May 1979. Martijn Lak
  50. 50 Each pulley is a pair of cone-shaped discs. Move the discs apart and the belt sinks to a small diameter; push them together and it rides out to a large one. DAF Club: Variomatic
  51. 51 In each pair one disc is fixed and one slides: the outer disc on the engine side, the inner disc on the wheel side, so the belt always runs straight. DAF Club: Variomatic
  52. 52 The belt cannot change length, so when it climbs in one pulley it is forced down in the other. That swap of diameters is the gear change. DAF Club: Variomatic
  53. 53 Power went from the engine through an automatic clutch and a shaft to the primary box, then through two pairs of discs and two V-belts to two more pairs of discs in the secondary box at the back. DAF Club: Variomatic
  54. 54 On the 600 there were two belts, one for each rear wheel. Driven to Write
  55. 55 Bill Vance describes cogged V-belts, with engine vacuum and spinning weights setting the front pulleys while springs worked the rear ones. Bill Vance
  56. 56 Three things set the ratio: centrifugal force from engine speed, the pull in the belts, and suction from the engine’s inlet manifold. DAF Club: Variomatic
  57. 57 As engine speed rises, weights inside the front pulleys swing outwards and push the sliding disc in, raising the gearing. DAF Club: Variomatic
  58. 58 On the wheel side a coil spring and a set of disc springs keep the belt squeezed. DAF Club: Variomatic
  59. 59 On a climb, the extra pull in the belts drags them deeper into the front pulleys, and the Variomatic changes down by itself. DAF Club: Variomatic
  60. 60 A diaphragm splits each front pulley into two chambers. Suction in the outer chamber helps it change up; suction in the inner one pushes it to change down. DAF Club: Variomatic
  61. 61 Floor the throttle and the ratio drops for a kick-down; ease off and you get an overdrive effect. DAF Club: Variomatic
  62. 62 Hemmings lists engine torque, throttle-spring pressure, centrifugal force and the filling and emptying of vacuum chambers as the things that worked it. Hemmings
  63. 63 On long descents, suction can be used the other way to hold a low ratio, giving strong engine braking. DAF Club: Variomatic
  64. 64 Driven to Write says a switch on the dashboard reversed the vacuum for engine braking on steep hills. Driven to Write
  65. 65 Depending on the model, the DAF Club gives overall ratios anywhere from 3.60:1 to 28.83:1. DAF Club: Variomatic
  66. 66 For the 600, Bill Vance gives 20:1 for pulling away, rising to 4.4:1. Bill Vance
  67. 67 Hemmings quotes 14.22:1 to 3.60:1 for one later range. Hemmings
  68. 68 A centrifugal clutch took up the drive, so the only lever was a simple forward and reverse selector between the front seats. Hagerty UK
  69. 69 With no gears to change, there was no clutch pedal. Bill Vance
  70. 70 DAF told Commercial Motor in 1966 that the transmission was 96 per cent efficient in top gear. Commercial Motor, 1966
  71. 71 Two separate belts worked like a differential without having one: the torque split between the rear wheels shifted with the load on each. Commercial Motor, 1966
  72. 72 Driven to Write likens it to a limited-slip differential. Driven to Write
  73. 73 The catch was some rear tyre scrub on full lock; the 66 added a differential to smooth low-speed turns. Driven to Write
  74. 74 As Commercial Motor put it in 1966, the car was designed round the transmission. Commercial Motor, 1966
  75. 75 Under full throttle, once near full power, engine speed stays roughly constant while the ratio changes. DAF Club: Variomatic
  76. 76 Road & Track tested a 600 in 1960 and found the transmission did its job, with revs at full throttle that hardly changed from 10 to 50 mph. Bill Vance
  77. 77 It took 41.5 seconds to reach 50 mph and topped out at 54.5 mph, did 31 to 40 US miles to the gallon, and slowed quickly on hills. Bill Vance
  78. 78 Testers found the very quick steering, 2.2 turns lock to lock, needed constant attention. Bill Vance
  79. 79 Hagerty remembers DAF’s puttering flat twin and its slurring engine note. Hagerty UK
  80. 80 Hagerty UK says the 30 bhp Daffodil took more than 30 seconds to reach 60 mph. Hagerty UK
  81. 81 The DAF Club calls the 600 the first car in the world that needed no greasing, with no lubrication points at all. DAF Club: 600
  82. 82 Bill Vance credits rubber bushes for ending the need for chassis greasing. Bill Vance
  83. 83 At launch, Driven to Write says, DAF claimed the belts had been tested to last at least 80,000 km (50,000 miles). Driven to Write
  84. 84 But in 1966 DAF told Commercial Motor that on average a car ran over 20,000 miles before the belts needed replacing. Commercial Motor, 1966
  85. 85 Belts stretched with use. A warning light came on, and an adjuster under the rear bumper took up the slack. Driven to Write
  86. 86 Belts and pulleys sat open under the car; DAF said stones and mud would simply be thrown off. Driven to Write
  87. 87 Bill Vance flags a possible cold-weather problem: snow or ice fouling the open belts. Bill Vance
  88. 88 AutoGids says buyers outside the Netherlands did not trust a belt drive. AutoGids
  89. 89 Driven to Write calls the system robust, needing no lubrication or regular maintenance. Driven to Write
  90. 90 Commercial Motor doubted in 1966 that rubber belts could serve cars of over 50 hp unless most of the torque went through gears. Commercial Motor, 1966
  91. 91 There was no separate reverse gear: DAF simply reversed the drive in the gearbox, so in theory the 600 could go as fast backwards as forwards. Autocar
  92. 92 Hagerty UK says ‘technically’ as fast backwards as forwards, and dares you to try. Hagerty UK
  93. 93 Goodwood’s Gary Axon goes further, saying reverse performance was exactly the same as forwards, at up to 80 mph. Goodwood
  94. 94 Driven to Write sticks with ‘theoretically’. Driven to Write
  95. 95 In the Netherlands, DAFs were raced backwards, first at Zandvoort; Goodwood says the sport faded out in the late 1980s. Goodwood
  96. 96 The races were part of the TROS television show Te land, ter zee en in de lucht. Youngtimer says 40,000 people came to Zandvoort, 500 drivers entered the second edition in 1979, and 4.5 million watched on TV. Youngtimer
  97. 97 Youngtimer adds that the reverse races were not meant only for DAFs. Youngtimer
  98. 98 The German DAF club dates the races to the early 1980s, and says DAFs were unbeatable, often only as far as the first bend, so they ended up racing only each other. DAF-Club Deutschland
  99. 99 AutoGids says DAFs could reverse at almost 100 km/h. AutoGids
  100. 100 Later, a Park position that locked the transmission was added to the selector. Driven to Write
  101. 101 The 750 of September 1961 had a 746 cc fan-cooled twin of 30 hp, 8 more than the early 600s, and a top speed of 105 km/h. DAF Club: 750
  102. 102 Alongside it came a better-equipped Daffodil. Updated versions became the 31 and 32, and the Daffodil name was dropped with the 33 in 1967. DAF Club: history
  103. 103 The 33 was the last car on the original small body. When it ended in January 1974, the DAF Club says, the ‘one and only DAFje’ was gone. DAF Club: 33
  104. 104 The 44 of 1966 was the first of the larger B-body DAFs and the first complete design by Giovanni Michelotti, with the twin now 844 cc and 40 hp. DAF Club: 44
  105. 105 Hagerty UK calls it the 1967 DAF 44. Hagerty UK
  106. 106 The 55 of 1967 swapped the twin for a water-cooled 1,100 cc four bought from Renault, and a rear-window sticker spelled out ‘DAF 55 1100cc automatic/variomatic’. DAF Club: 55
  107. 107 Driven to Write says the extra power could make the 55 unpredictable at the limit. Driven to Write
  108. 108 The 66 of 1972 brought the final layout: a Variomatic with a differential, driving a De Dion rear axle. DAF Club: 66
  109. 109 That layout carried on in the 46 and the Volvo 66, 343 and 340 until 1991, more than 25 years. DAF Club: 66
  110. 110 The 46 of 1974, which turned out to be the last real DAF, used a single Variomatic with only one belt. DAF Club: 46
  111. 111 DAF entered two 55s in the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon, and both finished. Hagerty UK
  112. 112 Rob Slotemaker and Rob Janssen came 17th overall. Driven to Write
  113. 113 DAF then sold a Marathon tuning set, and from 1971 a Marathon package came fitted at the factory. DAF Club: 55
  114. 114 DAF also went Formula 3 racing with Brabham and Cosworth, with a handful of wins and podiums, mostly in the wet. Hagerty UK
  115. 115 By 1966 a Variomatic had been put in a Formula 3 car of over 90 bhp. Commercial Motor, 1966
  116. 116 It found odd jobs too: a mail van for the Swedish post office, a light truck for an American gas company, and motor sleighs for Norway, France and Italy. Commercial Motor, 1966
  117. 117 Racing driver Gijs van Lennep and his brother David drove a DAF 44 in the Monte Carlo Rally. Youngtimer
  118. 118 About 62 DAF 600s were still registered in the Netherlands in 2023. DAF Club: 600
  119. 119 Wanting a smaller model, Volvo bought a 33 per cent stake in DAF’s car division in 1972. Volvo Cars
  120. 120 The car factory was renamed DAF Car BV. Martijn Lak
  121. 121 1973 was the last year of growth. Sales slipped from over 26,000 in 1972 to 21,000 in 1975, with Japanese cars biting. Martijn Lak
  122. 122 On 1 January 1975 Volvo took 75 per cent of DAF’s car division. Martijn Lak
  123. 123 DAF had been advised to separate cars from lorries; the truck side carried on under its own name. DAF Club: history
  124. 124 DAF Trucks has belonged to the American firm Paccar since 1996. Driven to Write
  125. 125 The Volvo 66 of 1975 was made in the Netherlands and developed from the DAF 66. Volvo Cars
  126. 126 It had rear-wheel drive and the belt automatic, now called CVT. The Volvo Owners Club gives 106,137 built from 1975 to 1980. Volvo Owners Club
  127. 127 Driven to Write gives 113,431. Driven to Write
  128. 128 Volvo renamed the Variomatic CVT. DAF Club: history
  129. 129 The Volvo 343 was the car that should have been the DAF 77, developed by DAF as project P900. DAF Club: Volvo 343
  130. 130 At first the 343 came only with a 1.4 litre engine and the CVT, which sat at the back next to the differential. Volvo Owners Club
  131. 131 It had teething troubles, and things improved with the arrival of a manual gearbox in 1979, says the DAF Club. DAF Club: Volvo 343
  132. 132 Driven to Write dates the manual option to 1978. Driven to Write
  133. 133 The DAF Club counts 373,824 Volvo 343s, about 235,000 of them with CVT. DAF Club: Volvo 343
  134. 134 Hagerty UK says Volvo sold more than 1.1 million 343s, 340s and 360s by 1991. Hagerty UK
  135. 135 AutoGids says Volvo assumed the transmission came with the factory, but a Dutch court ruled otherwise. AutoGids
  136. 136 Hemmings says that after retiring in 1965 Hub opened Van Doorne’s Transmissie to work on a second-generation Variomatic with tougher flexible steel belts. Hemmings
  137. 137 BHIC says this last invention, the Transmatic, was developed from 1965 and is still made. BHIC
  138. 138 NRC says he started on it in the shed behind his house. NRC, 1995
  139. 139 The Tilburg plant opened in 1972 to make the pushbelt, then still rubber, and switched to metal in the mid-1980s. Aftersales Magazine
  140. 140 Until 1987 mass production of the steel belts would not get going; the parts had to be accurate to a thousandth of a millimetre. NRC, 1995
  141. 141 The company survived only with support from the Dutch state. NRC, 1995
  142. 142 The Van Doorne family pulled out of the firm completely in 1982. NRC, 1995
  143. 143 Ford, Fiat and Van Doorne worked on the steel-belt CTX from 1976, spending $120 million. Motor Sport, 1987
  144. 144 Motor Sport described its belt as 320 V-shaped links on two sets of steel bands. Motor Sport, 1987
  145. 145 Commercial Motor described the Fiat Uno Selecta’s belt as 300 blocks guided by two strips of 10 thin rings each. Commercial Motor, 1987
  146. 146 Motor Sport found the CTX Fiesta pulled away without a pause, but needed more refinement, with a noticeable snatch just before stopping. Motor Sport, 1987
  147. 147 By 1995 Ford, Fiat and Fuji (Subaru) used the Van Doorne CVT, with Nissan, Lancia, Rover and Volvo to follow. NRC, 1995
  148. 148 Subaru says its 1987 Justy had the world’s first electro-continuously variable transmission, ECVT. Subaru Canada
  149. 149 Tests in Williams-Renault Formula One cars proved the idea, says NRC, but the FIA vetoed it. NRC, 1995
  150. 150 AutoRAI dates the Williams-Renault CVT experiments to 1993. AutoRAI
  151. 151 Hemmings says Bosch bought the business, and names the Ford Festiva, Fiat Uno and Mercedes-Benz A-class among the users. Hemmings
  152. 152 Hemmings found CVTs in everything from the Toyota iQ to the Nissan Murano. Hemmings
  153. 153 Aftersales Magazine estimated in 2024 that one in four automatic transmissions worldwide is a CVT, most of them with a Bosch pushbelt. Aftersales Magazine
  154. 154 It noted that electric cars usually have no multi-speed gearbox at all. Aftersales Magazine
  155. 155 Bosch is moving production to Ho Chi Minh City by 2028, ending mass production in Tilburg. Bosch
  156. 156 Belts and cones were not new. The DAF Club traces the idea to the American H. C. Spaulding in 1897, and says a French drive by Fouillaron went into dozens of cars from 1900. DAF Club: Variomatic
  157. 157 Hub, says the club, rescued Spaulding’s idea from oblivion. DAF Club: Variomatic
  158. 158 AutoGids says Hub bought a Buick with a Dynaflow automatic in the 1950s, and adds that stories differ on where his inspiration came from; one points to the rubber belts driving machines in his own factory. AutoGids
  159. 159 Bill Vance calls it the first successful production CVT, and the 600 the first small car with a fully automatic transmission as standard. Bill Vance
  160. 160 The DAF Museum says the 600 was the first small car fitted with an automatic. DAF Museum
  161. 161 Until then, as AutoRAI puts it, automatics had mostly been for big American cars. AutoRAI
  162. 162 Belt CVTs are common in snowmobiles, golf carts and scooters. Bill Vance
  163. 163 DAF Club Nederland, founded in 1980, had more than 1,800 members keeping about 2,600 DAFs going in 2018. AutoRAI
  164. 164 In the US, owners formed the DAF Club of America in 1985, and a DAF museum opened in Mount Tabor, Vermont. Hagerty
  165. 165 Hemmings says the Variomatic first appeared in the ‘DAF Daffodil’ at the 1958 Amsterdam show. Hemmings
  166. 166 Autocar calls DAF the first to use a CVT, in the 600. Autocar
  167. 167 Autocar describes a separate rubber belt for each rear wheel. Autocar
  168. 168 DAF 750 saloon: built 1961 to 1963, 23,045 made. DAF Club: 750
  169. 169 DAF 33 saloon: 1967 to 1974, 106,534 made. DAF Club: 33
  170. 170 DAF 44 saloon: 1966 to 1974, 152,635 made. DAF Club: 44
  171. 171 DAF 55 saloon: 1967 to 1972, 111,906 made. DAF Club: 55
  172. 172 DAF 66 saloon: 1972 to 1975, 75,766 made. DAF Club: 66
  173. 173 DAF 46 saloon: 1974 to 1976, 28,344 made. DAF Club: 46
  174. 174 Volvo 343: 1976 to 1982. DAF Club: Volvo 343
  175. 175 Volvo 340 and 360: 1982 to 1991, 536,558 made between them. DAF Club: Volvo 340
  176. 176 In the 340 and 360 the CVT played a smaller part as manual versions arrived: the 1985 diesel and the 1.7 litre engine came only with a manual gearbox, and the 2 litre 360 was manual only. DAF Club: Volvo 340