1968 DAF Siluro - AllCarIndex

The DAF Museum has been more than happy with an exceptional acquisition. The Siluro show model, built on the platform of a DAF 55, was given a place of honour in the Museum. 'Siluro' is Italian for 'torpedo'.

The Italian expert designer Giovanni Michelotti took the initiative to design and build this slim coupé that was a trendsetting example of elegant car design 37 years ago. The silver-coloured coupé was the first truly wedge-shaped car: very low at the front and rising towards the end. The sophisticated silver-grey two-seater coupé shares the same 1.108 cc four-cylinder engine and unique stageless automatic Variomatic transmission with all standard DAF 55s. The car was last shown to the public at the 1968 Geneva the car show.

The 'Siluro' was Michelotti's baby and he kept it until his rather sudden death, when the car ended up in his son's garden. What was left of the badly negelected car was sold to a German dealer some years ago, who offered the car to the DAF Museum. With the help of the Museum's sponsors the car was bought and and it was decided to restore it to its original state.

It took some years of painstaking restoration work to bring the DAF 55 'Siluro' back to the same state it was in 37 years ago when it was shown in Geneva. Its bodywork is sound again, the custom-made bucket seats have been repaired, the hand-made chrome body ornaments have been put back and the unique two-spoke Nardi sports steering-wheel has received a new rim.

This unique car alone would be worth a trip to the DAF Museum!

source: www.dafmuseum.nl