The DAF 600 is a small family car produced by Dutch automaker DAF from 1959 until 1963. It was DAF's first production passenger car. The 600 was first presented at the AmsterdamMotor Show in February 1958[1] and was in production by 1959, although the firm had published the first details of the car at the end of 1957.
In 1959 the first two DAF 600 cars manufactured were awarded to the first Dutch woman to be a mayor, Truus Smulders-Beliën, and the chair of the Dutch automobile club. Smulders-Beliën been chosen because she was well known and she appeared to have ordered one. She was contacted and she agreed after it was realised that it was her staff who had ordered it. She was unaware of the order and the mayor did not have a driving licence.[2]
From 1959 till 1963, a total of 30,591 cars were produced. The engine was an in-house development, a air-cooled, four-stroke, flat-twinpetrol engine displacing 590cc (36.0cuin). Maximum power is 22hp (16.2kW) at 4,000rpm. Larger displacement versions were later developed and this engine remained available in DAFs until the DAF 46 was discontinued in 1976.
Variomatic transmission
The 600 was the first production car, after the 1920s Clyno, to have a continuously variable transmission (CVT) system - the innovative DAF Variomatic.[3] The DAF Variomatic employs engine speed, via centrifugal weights, to shift the transmission and is enhanced by an engine manifold vacuum. It is the only car ever produced which went faster by the simple expedient of gently and gradually releasing the accelerator once top speed had been reached – this increased manifold vacuum which helped the variable pulleys shift to an even higher ratio so even though the engine speed stays the same, the transmission increases the car's speed, in the case of the DAF 600, from 60 miles per hour (97km/h) to nearly 70mph (110km/h) given enough time and level road.
The Variomatic also permitted increased engine braking by operating a switch on the dashboard which reversed the action of the vacuum on the pulley's diaphragm, seeking a lower ratio with increased manifold vacuum.
DAF Trucks is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of Paccar. DAF originally stood for van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabs and axle assemblies are produced at its Westerlo plant in Belgium. Some of the truck models sold with the DAF brand are designed and built by Leyland Trucks at its Leyland plant in the United Kingdom.
An automatic transmission is a multi-speed transmission used in motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. Vehicles with internal combustion engines, unlike electric vehicles, require the engine to operate in a narrow range of rates of rotation, requiring a gearbox, operated manually or automatically, to drive the wheels over a wide range of speeds.
Variomatic is the continuously variable transmission (CVT) of the Dutch car manufacturer DAF, originally developed by Hub van Doorne. It is a stepless, fully-automatic transmission, consisting of a V-shaped drive-belt, and two pulleys, each of two cones, whose effective diameter can be changed so that the "V" belt runs nearer the spindle or nearer the rim, depending on the separation of the cones. These are synchronized so that the belt always remains at the same optimal tension.
Overdrive is the operation of an automobile cruising at sustained speed with reduced engine speed (rpm), leading to better fuel consumption, lower noise, and lower wear. The term is ambiguous. The most fundamental meaning is that of an overall gear ratio between engine and wheels, such that the car is over-geared, and cannot reach its potential top speed, i.e. the car could travel faster if it were in a lower gear, with the engine turning at higher RPM.
A transmission is a mechanical device which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/reduction in a machine.
A continuously variable transmission (CVT) is an automated transmission that can change through a continuous range of gear ratios. This contrasts with other transmissions that provide a limited number of gear ratios in fixed steps. The flexibility of a CVT with suitable control may allow the engine to operate at a constant angular velocity while the vehicle moves at varying speeds.
Engine braking occurs when the retarding forces within an internal combustion engine are used to slow down a motor vehicle, as opposed to using additional external braking mechanisms such as friction brakes or magnetic brakes.
The Volvo 440 and 460 are versions of a small family car produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo between June 1988 and September 1996. The 440 was a five-door hatchback and the 460 a four-door saloon which followed in 1989. They were built at the NedCar factory in Born, the Netherlands and were only offered with front-wheel drive.
The Volvo 300 Series is a rear-wheel-drive small family car sold from 1976 through 1991, both as a hatchback and as a conventional notchback saloon.
Dynaflow was the trademarked name for a type of automatic transmission developed and built by General Motors Buick Motor Division from late 1947 to mid-1963. The Dynaflow, which was introduced for the 1948 model year only as an option on Roadmaster models, received some severe early testing in the M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, which were built in Buick's Flint Assembly plant during World War II. It was also used in the 1951 Le Sabre concept car.
Manifold vacuum, or engine vacuum in a petrol engine is the difference in air pressure between the engine's intake manifold and Earth's atmosphere.
The DAF 66 is a small family car produced by the Dutch company DAF from September 1972 to 1976. It was the successor of the DAF 55 and was itself superseded by the reworked Volvo 66. The DAF 66 was the last four-cylinder car to feature the DAF name.
The Turboglide is a Chevrolet constant torque, continuously variable automatic transmission first offered as an option on Chevrolet V8 passenger cars for 1957. It consisted of a turbine-driven planetary gearbox with a 'switch pitch' dual-pitch torque converter stator. It had a die-cast aluminum transmission case, like Packard's Ultramatic of 1956. Turboglide cost about $50 more than the Powerglide 2-speed automatic. It was available in all V8-powered 1957-1961 Chevrolet models except the Corvette. General Motors produced 646,000 of these transmissions during its production.
The DAF 55 is a small family car produced by the Dutch company DAF from December 1967 to September 1972. At that time it was replaced with the DAF 66.
The DAF 44 is a small family car that was introduced in September 1966 by the Dutch company DAF. It was the first car to be built at the company's new plant at Born in Limburg. Styled by Michelotti, it represented a cautious move upmarket for the company which hitherto had produced, for the passenger car market, only the smaller, slower Daffodil model.
The DAF 33 is a compact saloon car produced by the DAF company of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands between 1967 and 1974. Outwardly and technically it differed little from its predecessor, the DAF Daffodil.
The DAF Daffodil is an economy small family car that was manufactured by Dutch automaker DAF from 1961 until 1967. Together with the DAF 750, launched at the same time, it replaced the DAF 600. DAFs 750 was essentially the same car but with even fewer luxurious fittings and less chrome trim on the outside. Both the Daffodil and the 750 retained the Variomatic automatic transmission system as standard, which distinguished them from most other small and cheap cars on the market.
Hubert Jozef ("Hub") van Doorne was the founder of Van Doorne's Aanhangwagenfabriek and of Van Doorne's Automobielfabriek known as DAF, together with his brother Willem (Wim) van Doorne.
Geertruida Catharina Theresia Maria "Truus" Smulders-Beliën was a Dutch politician and teacher who was the mayor of Oost-, West- en Middelbeers in North Brabant from 1946 to 1966. The first female mayor in the Netherlands, she succeeded her husband Jan Smulders after he was executed by Nazi soldiers.
The Michelotti Shellette or Spiaggetta was a beach car based on various compact car platforms. The automobile was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and debuted officially at the 1968 Geneva Motor Show. It was built in a small production run in the next few years. The model name Shellette refers to Philip Schell, a yacht builder who initiated the project.
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