Catching mopeds with suspender-drive

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For ages, DAF passenger cars were hardly taken seriously in the country where they were created: the Netherlands. The DAF 600, 750 and Daffodil often provoked laughter after they’d become known as Truttenschudders (old tart shakers). This nickname was born from the mostly elderly drivers that were attracted to them due to their gearboxes, or rather the lack of them. These cars were equipped with a system named Variomatic, which drove the rear wheels through a rather clever and stepless belt construction which theoretically allowed the cars to drive as fast backwards as they went forwards. The idea may have been brilliant but the press often wrote scathingly about it and the system soon earned its own nickname, too: Jarretelaandrijving (suspender-drive). 

Remarkably, perhaps, Dutch police used them throughout the country. This picture is dated 1965 and was taken during a police check for mopeds. These checks were organized to see if the 50cc engines had received a tune-up, giving them a top speed over the legal 40 km/h limit for mopeds at the time. With its cut-off steering bars and fairing, the two-wheeler certainly looks fast, but not quick enough for the police's DAF 750 with its top speed of 105 km/h (65mph) to catch it. Poor chap, who’s clearly being fined here!

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture archive)

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