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Standard - a pillar of the British Empire

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Created on August 30, 1978

Text:

Michael Sedgwick

Photos:

Archiv AMAG

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Archiv AMAG

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Standard Eight (1953) - light and affordable with self-supporting body - family on a picnic

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Standard 6 HP (1903) - 1 cylinder, 3 gears, 6 hp, 6 vehicles built

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Standard (1906) - open tourer

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Standard 10 HP (1907) - on the occasion of participation in a classic car rally in 1977

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Standard (1911) - King George V on a hunting trip in Nepal

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Standard (1934) - in chassis construction

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Standard Twelve (1934) - four-door sedan

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Standard Foreteen (1936) - the ideal family car costing 249 pounds sterling

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Standard Nine (1936) - the first car produced, with Captain J.P. Black (center), E.G. Grinham (left) and E. W. Martin (right)

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Standard Ten (1936) - four-door saloon, from 169 pounds sterling

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Standard Eight Saloon (1946) - recorded in Zurich

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Standard Eight (1946) - as a convertible in front of the AMAG at Utoquai Zurich

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Standard Vanguard (1950) - as a station wagon, called "Estate Car"

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Standard Vanguard (1949)

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Standard Vanguard (1948) - charmingly presented

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Standard Vanguard (1948) - with large trunk lid and separate compartment for the spare wheel

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Standard Vanguard (1948) - refueling break during the AR-5000-km endurance trip

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Standard Vanguard (1949) - at the 1949 Geneva Motor Show

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Standard Vanguard Phase II (1952) - on the Col des Avaris in the Haute Savoie

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Standard Eight Saloon (1958) - presented on a golf course

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Standard Eight Saloon (1957) - the right car for the golfer?

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Standard Ten (1955) - to be brought to Switzerland in larger quantities - Geneva Motor Show 1955

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Assembly of the Standard Vanguard at AMAG in Schinznach

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Standard 11 (1953) - New release - at the Geneva Motor Show in 1953

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1956) - high utility value and good looks need not be mutually exclusive

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Standard DeLuxe Vanguard III (1956) - Also available as a deluxe version. Among other things, the interior was extended for this version.

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Standard Vanguard III (1956) - The Vanguard combined beautiful looks with versatile usability.

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Standard De Luxe Vanguard III (1956) - The beautifully finished body is a testament to true craftsmanship.

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Standard Vanguard III (1956) - with color-contrasting roof

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Standard Vanguard III (1956) - modernized four-door sedan

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Standard Pennant (1957) - at the London Motor Show 1957

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Standard Eight (1954) - taken at the Earls Court Motor Show in London

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1956) - The elegant lines show that a commercial vehicle is perfectly compatible with beauty.

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Standard Vanguard III Estate Car (1957) - In contrast to the other models, the estate version had considerably more space.

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1957) - It's easy to do without the horse - not least because the car has a lot more of it.

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1957) - Even large loads fit easily into the trunk.

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1957) - A load weight of around 250 kilograms makes it the perfect companion for any job.

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1957) - It is versatile - both professionally and as a hobby.

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Standard Vanguard Estate Car (1958) - 1959 model at the airport

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Standard Vanguard (1958) - Estate Car and the horses

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Standard Vanguard (1958) - much admired

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Standard Ensign (1959) - as a practical, four-door sedan

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Standard Ensign (1959) - with new tail lights and larger rear window

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Standard Ensign (1959) - four-door sedan

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Standard Vanguard (1959) - the lady likes to be picked up with it

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Standard Vanguard III (1958) - just right as an estate car for a visit to the horse farm

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Standard Vignale Saloon (1960) - with an Italian touch

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Standard Vignale Vanguard (1960) - one of the few English cars built by Vignale

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Standard Vanguard - Giovanni Michelotti made small changes for a more pleasing design - Geneva Motor Show 1959

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Standard Ensign (1962) - as a "De Luxe" model

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Summary

The Standard brand was once one of the largest British car manufacturers. Time and again, the engineers were able to attract attention with sensational models. However, a misguided model policy and ultimately the takeover by Leyland led to an unpleasant early end. This article tells the story of the now largely forgotten British brand Standard.

This article contains the following chapters

Too little power for the breakthrough
Too much variation
The advertising genius Charles Friswell
Almost swallowed up by success
With an iron fist through the depression years
Focusing on the wrong class?
A standard from Swallow
Facelift of the entire model range
Arriving too late
The too big Brit with an American line

Estimated reading time: 13min

Preview (beginning of the article)

R. W. Maudslay came from an old British engineering family. His great-grandfather had built the first marine engines in England, and some of his cousins manufactured Maudslay passenger cars and later commercial vehicles in Coventry. Before R. W. Maudslay turned his attention to automobile construction, he worked as a structural engineer for Sir John Wolfe Barry, who fully understood Maudslay's decision to take the plunge - he even supported the thirty-one-year-old financially so that he could put his first test car on wheels. That was in 1902. After a year, the car was ready. Maudslay had built it in a small workshop in the middle of Coventry, where the Lea-Francis would later be born. Maudslay's first designer was none other than Alex Craig, who was also to design the first prototype for Lea-Francis in 1904. At that time, however, Lea-Francis was so busy in the bicycle business that Craig's designs were not used - and were sold to Singer. Craig was a pioneer of the horizontal underfloor motor; his first motor for Lea-Francis had connecting rods of almost one meter in length "to save transmission mechanisms to the drive axle", as it was said. In the first standard, however, he positioned the engine vertically. The single cylinder, which sat low in the chassis at the front, had extremely oversquare dimensions (127 x 76.2 mm) and side-mounted valves. In its low design, the fully elliptically sprung Victoria differed from most of the competition's motor cars.

Welcome to Zwischengas!

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