Daf Epic Part 2 - what happened and with long awaited pics!

[scooters]

Well, further to yesterday’s “Daf Epic†thread – here is what happened –

 

Not a lot!

 

Route: St Albans M1-M6-M6 toll-A74-M74-A702 Edinburgh

 

Departure time: 1250hrs

Arrival Time: 2010hrs

 

Distance travelled: 389 miles

 

Stops: Keele Services, M6

Abingdon Services, M74

 

Petrol Used: 45 ltrs petrol used returning 39.3 MPG (Shell Optimax)

Oil used: 0.5lts of 20/40 mineral

 

Remarkable little car indeed.

 

Following on from my review of driving it last month I can add the following:

 

Driving position is comfortable but a tad old fashioned, the seats are good and provide support to even the largest gent; no BMC neck cramp here; after all it was made for the Dutch – a race of giants. The pedals are slightly offset to the left so you have to crook your right leg a wee bit, this is because the wheel arch does intrude into the foot well and reminds you of what a small car this is despite the big car feeling you get in the cabin. The height of the roof and the amount of glass exacerbates this.

 

Progress is respectable for a 1973 car. The more I drive it the more I do not understand the criticisms this car had from British motorists at the time. It returns faster 0-60mph times than many of its larger engined comtempories and is certainly quicker off the mark and round town than many modern cars.

 

Driving technique requires getting your head around the principle of variomatic, which I won’t get into here, but is essentially around momentum – spinning the engine to bring the power when needed but easing off the throttle to maintain ‘cruising speed’.

 

On the motorway the car cruises most happily at around 65-68mph. Over 75 the ride gets a bit iffy and wayward as the nose wanders a bit. All in all it is a competent motorway cruiser and much better than my old Morris as it is easily faster than the HGVs. Overtaking at speed and pulling into the outside lane is a question of timing and momentum. The trade off for the efficiency of the engine is lack of power when serious hills are encountered. Both Shap and Beattock summits are the highest motorway points in the UK with long hills to climb. In a Tdi or in the BMW you don’t notice them – the 535i will storm up them without checking it’s stride. 850cc of flat 2 air-cooled up front does feel them though! Holland is, after all, mostly flat! Mind you – road speed on these hills never dropped below 55mph so not too bad. A 1.4 Focus I hired recently wasn’t much better up Beattock.

 

Several nasty rain storms were taken in stride. No aquaplaning, slipping etc.

 

By 1900hrs I had reached the A702. 38 miles of A road through the hilly borders country to Edinburgh. I was a bit concerned about the car on the A road as there are some big hills but once again she surprised me and kept a decent road speed just under 60mph on all but the steepest bits where she never dropped below 45mph. The only difference the A road made is because you use your brakes more the efficiency of the brakes deteriorates, after all this car has all round drums. This is worth remembering when coming into a 30mph as if you rely on them to slow you you will probably end up in the boot of the car in front.l

 

Reaching Edinburgh the car once again demonstrated its nippiness in town. Off the mark at roundabouts and traffic lights the variomatic system is snappy and I caned a saxo for the first 50 yards. Diving into gaps is all very well but you have to recall that after the first 50 yards the acceleration is 1970 850cc figs!

 

Anyway, a stress free, fun, relaxing journey in a delightful wee car that is probably more at home on the motorway than it is on a B road as it is all about momentum!

 

Here are the long awaited pics!

 

 

850cc of flat 2 boxer aircooler power!

a closer look of the actual engine - tiny thing - note the air cooling cowling and the exhaust complexity

The spare tyre is actually listed as as a saftey feature in the manual - the position is to cushion the driver from collision - a sort of pre inflated air bag. On LHD versions it is obviously mounted on the other side.

[seth]

Excellent! I don't know what you were worried about

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Sterling work there skootaz, the car looks a cracker. Few things are as satisfying as a long and successful road trip in an old snotter, and 400 miles in one go in one of those is a good effort. What did you wear for the trip? I hope you had your tie on and jacket hanging up in the back.

[scooters]

Sterling work there skootaz, the car looks a cracker. Few things are as satisfying as a long and successful road trip in an old snotter, and 400 miles in one go in one of those is a good effort. What did you wear for the trip? I hope you had your tie on and jacket hanging up in the back.

YES - suit jacket hanging in the back and shirt and tie on!

[Alexg]

What an excellent little car!

[ashmicro]

Great write up there Scooters. What a terrific little car.

[boobydoo]

Did you take a suitable packed lunch to enable you to stop on a hard shoulder with a little folding table and deck chair?

 

Scotch egg, limp ham sandwich, plain Spar crisps, tartan flask with milky coffee?

[scooters]

Did you take a suitable packed lunch to enable you to stop on a hard shoulder with a little folding table and deck chair?

 

Scotch egg, limp ham sandwich, plain Spar crisps, tartan flask with milky coffee?

I just missed out on a tatran alladin thermos on ebay last week! - gutted

[Spottedlaurel]

Excellent news! If my maths is right you averaged 53mph, which isn't bad including stops. Google's direction finder thing suggests 6h39, you weren't much more than that.

 

However, you have now made me feel guilty about favouring the Camry for my Norfolk>Malvern>Billing>Norfolk trip tomorrow, when I could take the Laurel instead. Trouble is I have a lot of mag's to collect and a rather tight schedule, so I'm going to let the Camry do what it should excel at.

[michiel]

Nice story & pics! Makes me proud to be a Dutch giant (err... 176 cm ).

 

Seeing one always makes me want one for a day or two, and then I get scared of the idea of the Variomatic driving experience. I'd probably go for a 32/33 though, just for slow fun drives.

[scooters]

Excellent news! If my maths is right you averaged 53mph, which isn't bad including stops. Google's direction finder thing suggests 6h39, you weren't much more than that.

 

However, you have now made me feel guilty about favouring the Camry for my Norfolk>Malvern>Billing>Norfolk trip tomorrow, when I could take the Laurel instead. Trouble is I have a lot of mag's to collect and a rather tight schedule, so I'm going to let the Camry do what it should excel at.

interestingly enough - it takes me between 5hrs45mins and 8 hours in the BMW

 

with the stops removed the daf time was spot on -

 

the Daf was made in 1973 and the BMD 1990 - progress for you !!!

[Jon]

Great trip! Glad it all went well. I really should go out in the Imp more often.

 

Are these photos a few weeks old? Hope so, else you may have been caught by ANPR somewhere along the way with the out of date tax disc!

[scooters]

Great trip! Glad it all went well. I really should go out in the Imp more often.

 

Are these photos a few weeks old? Hope so, else you may have been caught by ANPR somewhere along the way with the out of date tax disc!

nope - taken this morning. the car has been off the road since theend of last moneht and I taxed in on line before driving yesterday - this means as far as the dvla is concerned it is taxed so they and their agents won't do anything. The police however aer more intersted in displaying a tax disc and could hit me with a 60 quid ticket so fingers crossed it arrives tomorrow

[Tartan58]

Good work sir! Can't beat a good old road trip.

 

My mum drove one of these from Dundee to Krackow and back back in the day would have been the late 60s so not sure what model it was, not really up on my DAFs so it's clearly the long distance cruiser of choise!

[scooters]

Good work sir! Can't beat a good old road trip.

 

My mum drove one of these from Dundee to Krackow and back back in the day would have been the late 60s so not sure what model it was, not really up on my DAFs so it's clearly the long distance cruiser of choise!

could have been any of the following:

 

Dafoldil air cooled

33 (1968-1975) aircooled

44 (1965/8 - 1975) aircooled

55 (1968 to 1975) 1.4 renner engine

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What do you make of the fuel economy? 39mpg doesnt sound all that great to me for a light car with 850cc's on a long steady run. Being a proper tightwad, i'd be endlessly adjusting the carb in pursuit of 60mpg or something. But, some lad in my office was reckoning that these DAFs are a bit thirstier than the norm, maybe theres some big losses in the transmission or summat. Maybe fit a manual gearbox from a volvo 340 and try doing the run again?

[scooters]

What do you make of the fuel economy? 39mpg doesnt sound all that great to me for a light car with 850cc's on a long steady run. Being a proper tightwad, i'd be endlessly adjusting the carb in pursuit of 60mpg or something. But, some lad in my office was reckoning that these DAFs are a bit thirstier than the norm, maybe theres some big losses in the transmission or summat. Maybe fit a manual gearbox from a volvo 340 and try doing the run again?

lol

 

39 mpg on an aircooled 44 is pretty good fuel economy remember it's a 2cyl boxer- there was a big debate about this on the Daf site and 30-35 seems the norm on a run

 

I think the variomatic system, because it is always liked to the engine means that you get a lot of engine braking effect - as you slow down the engine revs increase like a change down - this always drinks fuel. Variomatic actually increases the effectiveness of a small engine. I suspect that the reason the fuel economy is lower than on say a 2CV or an ami is because the Daf is quite a weighty car.

 

new you would probably have got arond 40mpg on a run -

 

have a look at the MPG figs quoted in a classic car mag - may you would think are 80 to the gallon come in a lot lower.

 

as to fitting a manual gearbox - well the problem withthat is the daf doesn't have a gearbox at all - the whole drivetrain would need to be replaced and custom built - there is no diff, no clutch, no gearbox - the engine engages the driveshaft via a centralfugal clutch that grips in at about 700 revs - this drives the shaft which in turn drives the front part of the variomatic system - this is linked to the rear part of the variomatic system and rear axel by the drive belts. direction is selected by a dog clutch where the driveshaft joins the front section. You would need to fit the gearbox behind the tiny engine and cut a hole in the front bulkhead - then remove the whole drive train build a new driveshaft and somehow create a diff.

[Spottedlaurel]

This was presumably why Volvo fitted a rear-mounted gearbox when they converted the 300-series to manual?

[scooters]

yup- early 340s were only sold as Variomatic it was the Daf 7 series design. the 340 was apparantly avaliable as variomatic throughout it's whole production run

[cobblers]

I might be wrong, but don't the belts on these have ducts from the front of the car to keep them cool? and they melt or set on fire if these ducts get blocked

 

If so, I imagine that's where a few MPG are going!

[scooters]

yup they do have ducts -

 

many of these older cars have pisspoor streamlining which is why yer mpgs aren't as great- the daf is a box with holes in it on wheels - hardly a eurobubble!

[VWPowered]

epic trip in the daf, congrats on makin' it

[Rusty Pelican]

Cant beat that , nearly got one once as the missus has a bad leg so clutching is a problem , small , nippy , automatic ( sort off ) , yep love it

[greengartside]

Wonderful trip and write-up Scooters! Sounds like it was a fairly relaxed affair driving that far

 

The little DAF started off in the Peterborough area when it was new so it's now a long way from home.

[myglaren]

A little addendum:

 

 

 

Home made from a DAF55

[Andrew353w]

Must offer my sincere congratulations on this journey, statistics and story-all very interesting! Once again, I find myself crying into my morning Nescafe as I recall the years of fun I had driving my Daf 33.....

 

The car looks in excellent nick! What's that extra key adjacent to the steering lock for? The jack needs to be secured properly in its holder under the bonnet, by the way. You're right about the whole "Daf driving experience" thing. I used to treat the accelerator rather as a regulator on a steam engine; once you reached the speed you wanted the best thing was to ease off the throttle, which made the engine revs drop and the increased engine vacuum thereby produced put the car in a higher ratio. Obviously the change up and down is working OK, or you wouldn't have returned such good fuel economy and such good speeds over the run.

 

All in all an excellent car, well maintained and well worth keeping! WELL DONE!!

 

[scooters]

thanks for the jack tip - hadn't noticed.

 

yes - 2 keys - the wheel lock being one and the ignition being an aftermarket Jeep ignition.

 

wondered why until this weekend when the throttle stuck open on me in Edinburgh -

 

essentially the choke demi lune has a bolt securing the choke cable that catches the bolt holding the throtttle cable to the throttle demi lune when the choke is in a certain position - very discncerting in a variomatic car as the only way to stop the car is to hit the drums until they smoke and switch the engine off - I wonder if the additioal ignition has been put in by somone who has experienced this in the past enabling the engine to be switched off and the car coasted?

 

I'll fix it this weekend by changing the bolts