Home Part 2: The Last 100 years 8: Car Manufacturers by Country 8.8 Holland 8.2.2. DAF History of Dutch Motor Car / Automobiles 8.8.2. DAF In 1928 two brothers, Huub and Wim van Doorne started to build trailers. In 1932 the company was named Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen (trailer) Fabriek. In 1949, when the company started making buses and trucks, the name was changed to Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (DAF). In 1955 the brothers decided to produce their first car and the following year a prototype was made, with a small pre-production batch following in 1957. The DAF 600 was shown at the 1958 Dutch car show and over 3,000 were ordered. It had two doors, a 590 cc engine, an automatic transmission designed by DAF (called Variomatic) and a top speed of nearly 90 kph (56 mph). The first cars were delivered in 1959. Between 1959 and 1975, when DAF’s car division was sold to Volvo, the company produced in 1961 the DAF 750, a more powerful variant of the 600, the DAF 33 (1967-74), DAF 44 (1966-74), DAF 55 (1967-72) and finally the DAF 66 from 1971.   [ Back ]