Relaxing at the wheel and watching TV almost 55 years ago
When the DAF 600 Variomatic came onto the market, its makers advertised it with comfort arguments, which mainly stemmed from the elimination of the clutch pedal. Thanks to the continuously variable transmission coupled with a centrifugal clutch (like the Citroën 2 CV), a DAF was very easy to drive.
A second development - the video recorder- was also intended to relax the consumer. In 1958, the magazine 'hobby' not only reported on the automotive wunderkind DAF 600 from Holland, but also on the first television recorders. These looked like reel-to-reel tape recorders that were already familiar at the time, and the construction of a cassette was still a long way off.
The title "Television can last indefinitely" is amusing, because as we now know, magnetic recordings are by no means indefinitely durable and the technologies for video recording have been subject to constant change ever since, so that earlier generations of recording devices were usually soon considered unplayable.
The DAF fared much better. The Variomatic lives on to this day in the form of Multitronic transmissions and other designs, and the small vehicles from the Netherlands have almost cult status today.
Two brochures of the DAF 600from 1960 in the Zwischengas archiveinvite you to travel back in time. A historical driving report, which goes into all the technical innovations in detail, can also be read.
