On my second Grand Tour in 2018, I discovered another unusual automotive site, the Museum of the Dutch truck and bus manufacturer DAF that is located in the city of Eindhoven.
The city is known for its regional budget airport, and I travelled to Eindhoven rather frequently in the past years. Yet I never realised that I was missing a genuinely remarkable historical site.
I am not entirely new to automotive museums and history. Yet in 2018, I completely missed the 90th anniversary of the DAF brand that was established in 1928. I attended most of the major classic car shows without ever bumping into any anniversary events or stages. Nevertheless, the Museum keeps quite a few dedicated stages for the creators of the brand and their anniversary.
The DAF Museum is a great educational trip but also a journey through time, starting with the historical heritage of Van Doorne’s Trailer Factory.
They cover of course the establishment of the company by the brothers Hub and Wim van Doorne up to the most modern trucks that roll off the DAF production line in the Eindhoven factories.
There is educational equipment raging from driver’s cabin and simulated traffic to an old-fashioned grease monkey workshop and a “trucknasium”.
There is a large section dedicated to drivetrains of various origin, with interactive screens and educational materials.
The tour starts with the first workshop of the van Doorne brothers, that was rather a large smithy. The workshop has been completely restored and shows the tools that were used at the time.
The cars exposed were decorated to conform to that Epoque (even with grease and dust).
The Museum showcases about 40 trucks from the extensive collection on display, from one of the first trucks from 1949 to modern vehicles.
Of course, special attention is paid to trucks from the past. There is an entire line-up of classic lorries with various purposes like concrete mixers to tow-trucks.
The most impressive beasts are the racing trucks, including the awesome Dakar racing trucks that became famous for outpacing the actual race cars. There is a crazy footage where a “service” truck races by Ari Vatanen at well over 200.
Of course, the main hall has enough space to keep a few buses and special purpose vehicles, such as army trucks and fire engines.
Some of them offer open entrance to the passenger section or the driver’s cabin.
The gallery upstairs features the light vehicles in every sense of the word. DAF used to make quite quirky cars, especially by today’s standards. They seem light and pretty unusual next to the familiar sights of VW Volkswagens and Fiats.
If they would not be strange enough, their Variomatic CVT transmission could allow them to drive as fast in reverse as in forward gears, making them the ideal cars, well… for those who wish to drag race in reverse…
Their obsession with CVT did not end with road car production, they put CVT on everything that moved and most importantly raced. There are several cut-away models on the gallery to show the possibilities of application.
Talking about quirky design, they employed Giovanni Michelotti, one of the most noted star designers of its era. He was responsible for the most exquisite high-end Ferrari cars at Vignale, and many exciting designs throughout his colourful career.
Apparently, he traded sunny Italy with its flourishing luxury car industry with the rainy continental part of the Netherlands and designed quirky concept cars and special-purpose vehicles for DAF.
One of the Museum’s cherished pieces is the Siluro (Italian for torpedo) concept, built on the platform of a DAF 55. Designed by Michelotti, this slim silver-coloured coupé was one of the first genuinely wedge-shaped cars. It shares the 1.108 cc four-cylinder engine and Variomatic transmission with the standard DAF 55.
Another weirdly attractive Michelotti design is the royal beach car, based on a DAF 32 to serve as a beach run-about at the Italian summer residence of the Dutch Royal Family.
Another quirky piece is the mobile raincoat, a three-wheeler that Hub van Doorne built at home. The car had to be small (also thin) enough to be parked in the family’s hallway, problem solved…
There is are quite a few roaring race cars, from rally to open-wheel, from various categories like Australian Rallye, Canam, and F1.
The crown jewel is arguably the Williams FW15C race car, the most sophisticated Formula 1 car ever. Yes, ever, as most of its innovations (including the CVT transmission) was banned from F1.
This car was the Group B of Formula 1, the absolute peak in technological finesse, from which the next step would have been a remote-controlled drone competition. Back then, all the switches we can find today on the steering wheel of Hamilton were operated by engineers vie telemetry, and much-much more, from active suspension to spoilers.
This was the quick and superficial summary of the DAF Museum, in its form before the comprehensive renovation and reopening this month. A more detailed review will follow after a visit to the renovated museum compound.
