The Volvo 66 was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 automobile. It sprang directly from the DAF 66

DAF 66

The DAF 66 is a small family car produced by the Dutch company DAF from September 1972 to 1976. It was the successor of the DAF 55 and was itself superseded by the reworked Volvo 66...

, which was originally styled by Michelotti. The compact car was introduced in August 1975, almost exactly a year after Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars

Volvo Car Corporation, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927, in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. When Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish...

 bought DAF

DAF Trucks

DAF Trucks NV is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of PACCAR. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabs and axle assemblies are produced at its Westerlo plant in Belgium...

, and before production of the Volvo 300 series

Volvo 300 series

The Volvo 300 series is a rear wheel drive automobile sold as both a hatchback and a conventional saloon from 1976-1991. It was launched in the Netherlands shortly after Volvo acquired a major stake in the passenger car division of DAF in 1973...

 began.

The Volvo 66 was known for its continuously variable transmission

Continuously variable transmission

A continuously variable transmission is a transmission that can change steplessly through an infinite number of effective gear ratios between maximum and minimum values. This contrasts with other mechanical transmissions that offer a fixed number of gear ratios...

, the Variomatic

Variomatic

Variomatic is the stepless, fully automatic transmission of the Dutch car manufacturer DAF, originally developed by Hub van Doorne: this consists of a "V" shaped drive belt and two pulleys, each of two cones, whose effective diameter can be changed so that the "V" belt runs nearer the spindle or...

. The Volvo version of the car was slightly restyled and given larger bumpers compared with those of the original DAF model. Although this was in keeping with Volvo's emphasis on safety, it also increased its cost of production.

The Volvo 66 was available as a 2-door saloon and 3-door estate, whilst the 2-door DAF 66 Coupe was dropped, and therefore was never sold as a Volvo.

The other major features in which the Volvo 66 differed from the DAF 66 are:

• New seats featuring headrests
• A safety steering wheel
• Doors with steel side impact bars
• A declutching servo which enabled the driver to change gear with the choke engaged (In the older DAF models this wasn't possible, because the increased idle caused the centrifugal clutch to engage).
• A 'park' mode in the CVT, which locked the driveline.

Number Produced

Volvo produced roughly 106,000 units of both the saloon and estate 66, and no more than 14,000 were sold in the United Kingdom. As of 2011, only eight are known to survive in the United Kingdom.

Engines

• B110E Renault C-series OHV 1108  cc straight-4
  Straight-4
  The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
  
   47 PS
• B130 Renault C-series OHV 1289  cc straight-4
  Straight-4
  The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
  
  57 PS

Sources and further reading