DAF MEMORIES

I read with interest your article about CVT transmission systems (CM, Sept 2018), as in 1966 (just!) when I was sixteen my father bought me a scooter fitted with a similar drive as the Daf Variomatic. I don’t recall the make, but do remember it had a pull cable start. I used it to go from Doncaster to Jersey via the Weymouth ferry to get a summer job. It was not an uneventful trip!

The machine failed to start after a short stop half way during the journey, but of course it would not push start. Anyway, I got to Weymouth eventually and the following day it was loaded on the ferry (by using a crane and rope) and I drove from St Helier quay to where I was staying for the first night.

The following day I went back into town to look for a job. Not to be! The machine broke down and would not start. I wheeled the heavy machine all around St Helier but no garage would touch it. And to top it all, I couldn’t get a job. Outcome? I arranged to ship it back home and caught a plane to Gatwick and then the train home.

Three weeks later the machine was returned to my house and my father took it straight back to the seller and got his money back and I bought a Lambretta. However, although the two stroke engine was problematic, I don’t remember problems with the CVT transmission. Stewart Shackleton