It is a pity that his subjects have to stay at home, behind the TV. Because it will be a spectacle next Tuesday in Eindhoven. King Willem-Alexander starts celebrating his birthday behind the wheel of a unique, more than 55-year-old DAF Kini with an open roof. His daughter, Princess Amalia, is sitting next to him.
The king will immediately recognize the car from his youth, says Geert Vermeer of the DAF Museum Broadcasting Brabant. The royal family has used the Dafje for years on holiday, in their country retreat in Italy. “It is a reunion for the king, because he was in this as a little boy with his parents. I think he would really enjoy getting to know this again.”
The history of the DAF Kini is just as unique as the car. “This car was given as a gift by DAF to the royal family at the birth of the king in 1967. It’s also called Willem-Alexander,” said Vermeer. “It is a royal vehicle with the number plate AA98 and it is the only one out there.”
It is not a raking iron. The motor has only thirty hp. It has 5000 kilometers on the odometer and has not been driven in the last decades. Yet the DAF Museum got it up and running again in no time. “It was not so bad for us,” says Vermeer. “A new battery in it and it ran. It’s actually still new, although it’s almost sixty years old.”
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