AutoCult DAF Pony (1968) (Netherlands)

About the Original:

Secondary use

The advantage of developing vehicles for the army was a reliable and safe purchase volume of these vehicles. This was also the incentive for the Dutch truck company DAF to participate in a tender of the US Ministry of Defense in the early 1960s. During the Cold War period the US Army wanted to have a vehicle that could be brought into service without electricity.

The engineers of DAF developed a universally usable vehicle that featured a simple loading platform on which only a spartan seat and steering wheel was mounted. During its service in the US Army the vehicle would have been most probably retrofittable with diverse additions and vehicle structures. But this did not happen since the US Army did not approve the vehicle for military use and therefore no order was placed. DAF decided to further develop their concept to a small transporter. There were fundamental changes of the wheels, the engine, the vehicle structure and also the dispense with electricity was no longer a necessary feature. In the end only the basic framework on which the civil offshoot based remained the same. The idea of offering a small, individual truck for retail shops, handicraft and construction business or for the inner city transport was fundamentally not new and already led other vehicles to success. Designated as the “Pony” the small truck went on sale in 1968. It was available as a platform truck or as a tractor-trailer combination. Both versions were fitted with an air-cooled two-cylinder boxer engine with 844cc and a power of 40 hp. The trucks accelerated to a top speed of 70 km/h. The engine came from the passenger car DAF 44 and due to engine modifications it was possible to increase the output from 34 to 40 hp. The Pony featured also the continuously variable gearbox of DAF named “Variomatic”. The management of DAF was quite optimistic about their small truck concept and probably expected resounding success.

The disappointment of the management must have been great as they ascertain that their concept met only with little success. As at the end of 1969 the sales figures counted only 700 copies (since the start of production in 1968) it was decided to cease the production without a successor.