DAF 66 Estate

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The Dutch firm Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (more familiarly known as DAF) surprised the motoring establishment with an ingenious and relatively simple form of gearless transmission in the late 1950s.

Hub van Doorne had the idea to use belt drive for the transmission on a car, just like many of the machines in his factory that were belt-driven and the following year the first designs were drawn up. Over the next few years, these designs were developed and refined, resulting in the DAF 600.

The first DAF passenger car created a sensation when a prototype was presented in 1958. The car featured a unitary steel construction, with independent suspension all round: MacPherson struts and a transverse leaf spring at the front; coil-springs and semi-trailing-arms at the rear. An air-cooled two-cylinder boxer engine under the bonnet drove the rear wheels through a centrifugal clutch and the unique Variomatic CVT transmission, for which DAF was to become well-known. This was the world's first car with a continuously variable transmission, thus eliminating the need for a conventional gearbox.

The 600 was replaced in 1961 by the Daffodil and the 750, both cars featuring a larger 749cc twin, the Daffodil being the better-appointed version intended for export, the 750 a simplified version with fewer embellishments. A larger version known as the DAF 44 was introduced in 1966 designed by Giovanni Michelotti with a further increase in the engine capacity to 850cc, followed by the DAF 55 two years later with a bigger water-cooled 1,108cc OHV four-cylinder engine derived from the Renault 8 engine.

Introduced in 1972, the DAF 66 had a re-designed suspension and modified transmission, the engine was reworked to have lower emissions, which increased power output slightly from the 50bhp of the DAF 55, to 53bhp. All 66s retained the unique Variomatic belt-driven continuously variable transmission with no manual transmission available. Three different body styles were available for the 66; a 2-door saloon, a 3-door estate and a 2-door 2+2 coupé. The DAF 66 remained in production until 1975, by which time a total of 146,297 had been built.

Unfortunately at the time of cataloguing no paperwork had been located for this vehicle, but a quick Experian check confirms that it was first registered in November 1972 and suggests it may have only had one owner before the museum. The DVLA confirms that the last tax disc ran out in 1999 and bearing in mind the last change of keeper was in 2000, we assume this was when it entered the collection. 

AMENDMENT: Extra documents have now been located including the V5C, two old tax discs from 1986 and 1996, two DAF maintenance booklets, a 1972 directory of DAF service centres and dealerships, plus the original purchase invoice from FM Haward & Son, Colchester, dated 10th November 1972 when the car cost Mrs Leverill of Holland-on-Sea £1,225. She was to keep the car until ownership transferred to Stondon in April 2000.