Myths vs facts

Tall tales about the DAF

As fast backwards as forwards! Impossible to stall! Belts that snap! Some of this is true, some is half true, and some nobody has properly tested.

1. MythA DAF goes exactly as fast backwards as forwards.

   FactThere 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 Hagerty UK says ‘technically’ as fast backwards as forwards, and dares you to try. Hagerty UK Goodwood’s Gary Axon goes further, saying reverse performance was exactly the same as forwards, at up to 80 mph. Goodwood

2. MythThe Variomatic was the first CVT ever.

   FactBelts 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 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

3. MythThere was no clutch at all.

   FactA centrifugal clutch took up the drive, so the only lever was a simple forward and reverse selector between the front seats. Hagerty UK With no gears to change, there was no clutch pedal. Bill Vance

4. MythThe belts were always snapping.

   FactAt 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 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 Driven to Write calls the system robust, needing no lubrication or regular maintenance. Driven to Write

5. MythIt all worked on spinning weights.

   FactThree 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 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

6. MythVolvo dropped the belt as soon as it took over.

   FactIt 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 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 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

7. MythThe car shown in 1958 was the Daffodil.

   FactHemmings says the Variomatic first appeared in the ‘DAF Daffodil’ at the 1958 Amsterdam show. Hemmings Martijn Lak dates the unveiling to Friday 7 February 1958, at a packed RAI hall in Amsterdam. Martijn Lak 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

8. MythOnly pensioners drove them.

   FactThe 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 Even Queen Juliana used one in her spare time. Martijn Lak DAF entered two 55s in the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon, and both finished. Hagerty UK

“It can’t stall”

You will often read that a DAF cannot stall. A centrifugal clutch took up the drive, so the only lever was a simple forward and reverse selector between the front seats. Hagerty UK With no gears to change, there was no clutch pedal. Bill Vance With an automatic clutch, there is no clutch pedal to let up too quickly, which is how most people stall a manual car.

We found no source that tests the claim directly, though, so we treat “can’t stall” as plausible rather than proven. An engine with an automatic clutch can still stop for other reasons.

Reverse racing

In the Netherlands, DAFs were raced backwards, first at Zandvoort; Goodwood says the sport faded out in the late 1980s. Goodwood

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

Youngtimer adds that the reverse races were not meant only for DAFs. Youngtimer

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

AutoGids says DAFs could reverse at almost 100 km/h. AutoGids

Was it the first?

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 The DAF Museum says the 600 was the first small car fitted with an automatic. DAF Museum

Autocar calls DAF the first to use a CVT, in the 600. Autocar

Until then, as AutoRAI puts it, automatics had mostly been for big American cars. AutoRAI

The DAF Club’s history page calls the Variomatic the first car CVT ever to enter production, yet its own Variomatic page describes a belt drive fitted to dozens of cars from 1900. So the claim needs a qualifier. We call it the first modern production-car CVT, or, in Bill Vance’s and the DAF Museum’s terms, the first small car with an automatic as standard.