Monday, June 24, 2024
Eindhoven
DAF Trucks N.V.

Fabulous DAF Torpedo makes VIPRE combination complete

The DAF Museum's latest treasure, aptly named 'Sleeping Beauty,' has been awakened from its slumber after four years of meticulous restoration work, breathing new life into a once-forgotten gem. This unique DAF Torpedo truck is now on show at the museum, where it has completed the VIPRE combination of vehicles used by large businesses in the 1960s to transport employees to and from work.

01-Fabulous-DAF-Torpedo-completes-VIPRE-combination — The beautifully restored DAF Torpedo was unveiled in the presence of a large number of volunteers from the DAF Museum. The restoration was also carried out entirely by volunteers.

23 June 2020 – the day the Torpedo arrived at the DAF Museum workshop. The truck was in poor condition, to put it mildly, and it presented the volunteers at the museum in Eindhoven with a major challenge in terms of restoration. They spent no less than four years working on restoring the truck, a task that involved taking it apart right down to the last nuts and bolts. Today it looks like it has just been rolled off the line at the DAF factory.

“It was with great pride that we presented the Sleeping Beauty on June 23,” says Geert van Rooij, the museum’s conservator. “It's fantastic that we have volunteers here with the expertise required to carry out such an extensive restoration. And also fantastic that we have finally been able to complete our VIPRE combination.”

In Dutch, VIPRE stands for ‘Industrial Personnel Transport Eindhoven Region’, a joint initiative undertaken in the 1960s by a number of companies, including Bata, DAF and Philips, to organise the collective transport of employees to and from work. Special trailers were designed – and built by the body-building firm W. Kusters in Venlo – that could be pulled by Torpedo trucks, such as the new showpiece we have added to the collection.