I don't know about anyone else but I for one find the history of car manufacuters fascinating. Now I'm not asking for a blow by blow account unless your so inclined or your chosen company didn't make much but I'm sure that people would find a brief outline enlightening and interesting.
So to start I will have to go with history of DAF because I know it well.
DAFs name is actually an acronym and as the company started out making trailers for lorries it stood for
Van Doorne's Aanhangen Fabriek. Hopefully spelt right which means Van Doorne's trailer factory. When DAF started building vehicles to pull their trailers the name was changed to Van Doorne's Automobile Fabriek which means Van Doorne's Automobile factory.
Hub Van Doorne the proprieter of DAF was interested in the belt drive systems used in industrial machines making his lorrys and set about making the worlds first CVT transmission in a car the Variomatic. This was unveiled for the first time at the amsterdam motor show in DAFs first car the 600.
This car was the companys only model for a short time before it was realised the the 599cc flat twin engine was just not enough. So then along came the DAF 750. This car shared the same body but had a small facelift. It had the same engine enlarged to 746cc which stayed in production in 1974.
DAF introduced a car for the american market known as the daffodil. This had a different look but still shared the same running gear and engine
This car was later refined with slightly more power and a squared of roof and badged the daffodil 31 and was the last of the in house styled cars.
In 1965 DAF employed Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti to restyle the daffodil and to design an all new bigger car. The results where the 32 and 44.
The 32 and 33 models look nearly identical but the 33 is faster and 32 more refined.
The 44 which was an all new bigger car had an enlarged 844cc twin engine and could do nearly 80mph
Daf decided they needed a more luxurious car and took the 1.1 sierra engine from renualt and mated it into a 44 body shell. The front end was redesigned to accomodate it and combined with better trim levels was the 55 which was also available as a coupe
In 1974 DAF bought out the second generation variomatic which encorpareted a conventional differential and used a dedion rear axle. The 55 was restyled and replaced by the 66 and the 44 was replaced by the 46 which although looked the same as the 44 had a single belt transmission.
In 1976 DAF sold the car division to volvo who rebadged the 66 and reintroduced it as the Volvo 66 although dropping the coupe. They also took DAFs new prototype car and brought it into production as the volvo 343.
Phew now I'm tired of typing hope you enjoyed
Paul
So to start I will have to go with history of DAF because I know it well.
DAFs name is actually an acronym and as the company started out making trailers for lorries it stood for
Van Doorne's Aanhangen Fabriek. Hopefully spelt right which means Van Doorne's trailer factory. When DAF started building vehicles to pull their trailers the name was changed to Van Doorne's Automobile Fabriek which means Van Doorne's Automobile factory.
Hub Van Doorne the proprieter of DAF was interested in the belt drive systems used in industrial machines making his lorrys and set about making the worlds first CVT transmission in a car the Variomatic. This was unveiled for the first time at the amsterdam motor show in DAFs first car the 600.
This car was the companys only model for a short time before it was realised the the 599cc flat twin engine was just not enough. So then along came the DAF 750. This car shared the same body but had a small facelift. It had the same engine enlarged to 746cc which stayed in production in 1974.
DAF introduced a car for the american market known as the daffodil. This had a different look but still shared the same running gear and engine
This car was later refined with slightly more power and a squared of roof and badged the daffodil 31 and was the last of the in house styled cars.
In 1965 DAF employed Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti to restyle the daffodil and to design an all new bigger car. The results where the 32 and 44.
The 32 and 33 models look nearly identical but the 33 is faster and 32 more refined.
The 44 which was an all new bigger car had an enlarged 844cc twin engine and could do nearly 80mph
Daf decided they needed a more luxurious car and took the 1.1 sierra engine from renualt and mated it into a 44 body shell. The front end was redesigned to accomodate it and combined with better trim levels was the 55 which was also available as a coupe
In 1974 DAF bought out the second generation variomatic which encorpareted a conventional differential and used a dedion rear axle. The 55 was restyled and replaced by the 66 and the 44 was replaced by the 46 which although looked the same as the 44 had a single belt transmission.
In 1976 DAF sold the car division to volvo who rebadged the 66 and reintroduced it as the Volvo 66 although dropping the coupe. They also took DAFs new prototype car and brought it into production as the volvo 343.
Phew now I'm tired of typing hope you enjoyed
Paul
