Most of the time our Prime Finds tend to come from countries with substantial motor industry sectors – the UK, Germany, Italy and France in Europe, the US and Japan; these are, after all, the world’s major car producing countries, so there’s obviously more to choose from. Occasionally, we’ll find something from Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, Australia, or Latin America, but these are harder to find.
However, there is another European country that has a motor industry, albeit better known for its trucks than its cars, and that’s The Netherlands, and the manufacturer of course is DAF (short for Van Doorne’s Aanhangwagen Fabriek (Van Doorne’s Trailer Factory). The company was based in Eindhoven, although it didn’t build all it’s vehicles there.
Founded in 1928 by Hubert van Doorne (the D in DAF), the company’s initial focus was as the name suggests, trailers, but during the immediate post-war years, it expanded its manufacturing to include trucks and buses, accompanied by another name change, this time to Van Doorne’s Automobiel Fabriek. During the 1950’s, van Doorne developed the idea of a stepless, belt-driven continuously variable transmission (CVT), branded Variomatic and in 1958 presented the company’s first road car featuring this unique transmission at the Dutch Motor Show. I’m not going to attempt to explain how Variomatic works, I’ll leave that to the more technically-minded among you to look it up! However, one interesting – if slightly bizarre – feature of Variomatic was that it enabled a car to be driven backwards as fast as forwards, a feature you would have thought would make it pretty useful for getaway drivers in movies, although “fast” here is a relative term.
It was received enthusiastically, with 4,000 orders taken and the following year, the DAF 600 went on sale, the first of a series that was to include the DAF 750 ( al larger-engined 600), 33, 44, 46, 55 (designed by Michelotti, no less), and 66. Between the 750 and the 33 came the Daffodil, itself sub-divided into types 30.31 and 32 before the company settled on 33 when it released the bigger 44.
In between all this, Volvo took a one-third share in DAF in 1972 before increasing this to 75% in 1975. This resulted in some re-branding, with the DAF 66 becoming the Volvo 66 (giving it bigger bumpers and a safety steering wheel, but of course) and later, the 66’s intended successor, the 77, became the Volvo 300 series, and the DAF name no longer appeared on motor cars.
It’s worth pointing out though that Variomatic did not die with DAF cars, with Audi introducing a metal-belt driven version called Multitronic as recently as the year 2000, and versions of CVT are still available on models from Audi, Mini, Honda and Subaru.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say that these small Dutch cars never really set the world alight outside their home market, despite – or perhaps because of – their unique transmission. Nevertheless, the company produced over half a million cars before Volvo took control, and they attract a bit of a cult following.
Although not known as performance cars (except when going backwards) they were entered in a number of rallies, most famously the London to Sydney Marathon in 1968, when a DAF 55 finished 17th, and the company used this relative success to name its highest performance models Marathon.
The DAF 66 – also penned by Michelotti – was introduced in 1972 and was available as a 2-door saloon, 3-door estate and a 2-door, 2+2 coupé. Power was supplied by Renault – a feature which means engine spares are still fairly available – in the form of a 1108cc four-cylinder pushing out 53bhp in the base models, rising to 60bhp in the Marathon versions. Top speed for the 1008cc car was 135km/h, rising to 145km/h when powered by the larger engine. Standstill to 100km/h in the 1300 took a reasonable 15 to 16 seconds – after all, these were small, light cars.
Extra torque, but slightly less power, was introduced in 1973 by installing a 1289cc engine – still from Renault – in the Marathon-badged models, and it’s one of these that is our Prime Find this week, and a coupé at that.
Contemporary alternatives to the DAF 66 Coupé were several, such as the coupé versions of the FIAT 850, Peugeot 204, Opel Kadett C and Sunbeam Stiletto to name but four
We have featured a DAF as one of our Prime Finds once before, when our International Editor wrote about a DAF 46, one of the company’s best sellers, but this was back in 2018, so another is overdue.
146,297 DAF 66s were built, but I haven’t been able to establish how many of these were Marathon Coupés. Oddly, none are currently registered on UK roads according to howmanyleft.com, but this is – evidently – not definitive. Moving on to our non-existent Prime Find…I was going to introduce this car with an apology – after last week’s Triumph Toledo Prime Find and the Vauxhall Astra Great Drive, this is another yellow car, but since it’s just about my favourite colour on a car, I won’t.
First registered in 1973, It originally went up for auction with Mathewson’s in the north of England with an estimate of just £4,000 to £5,000 yet didn’t sell, despite looking to be in pretty good condition, based on the photos – some of which we have borrowed from the auctioneer’s website – and indeed the video from the same source. Certainly the exterior looks very clean, and while the upholstery looks a little rumpled, there don’t seem to be any tears or unsightly stains. I did wonder if the number plate might have put the more superstitious potential buyers off, but then it could be equally attractive to a buyer with more unconventional interests…
The odometer reads just over 47,000 miles, but there’s no mention of whether this is warranted or not, nor whether the car has been repainted or not. Not very helpful, really. In fact, other than the photos and video there is disappointingly very little information on the website, apart from there being a few old MOT certificates and a Haynes manual for the DIY mechanic
As a result of it not being sold, this cheerful Dutch coupé is still available from the auctioneers for a few more days until April 8th, the date of their next sale, and you can see the full details, such as they are, here. If you fancy something a little different and – to use one of our favourite words here at ViaRETRO – quirky, we recommend arranging a prior inspection if possible.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk