A popular family car in the early 1950s.
Standard was in its time one of the truly famous English car brands. The first cars were produced in 1904 in Coventry. At the start, several models with different engine sizes were produced. In 1911, a completely new model appeared. This was a smaller car with high quality. It was a direct competitor to Morris and Singer. and it came in several variants and was in production until 1915. Until the end of World War 1, war material was produced and therefore no new passenger cars appeared until 1919. Sales were good in the period after World War 1, but the market became much tougher in the end of the 1920s. The factory ran into financial difficulties and new management and refinancing were put in place. Standard produced a number of models until 1940. Several of these were sports cars and more sporty family cars. When car production started after the war in 1945, only 3 models were produced. These were models based on models constructed before the war. Only in 1947 was the first new model presented. The car was named Standard Vanguard, which became the factory's most important model after the war and until 1963 when all production ceased.
The Vanguard Family
The Vanguard was a spacious and well-equipped family car and fared well in the competition with the other English family cars. It first came as a pure passenger car, but a station wagon came on the market quite quickly. A van and a pick-up completed the model range. The van in particular became well known around the country because Norsk Bygdekino used this model to transport equipment between the various film screenings around the country. The standard Vanguard received a proper upgrade in 1953 with changes to the bodywork. The round rear part was utilized with a properly extended rear part which gave a more modern look. Standard changed the design a little all the time. In 1958, an updated model was designed by Michelotti and was named Vignale.
Data Standard Vanguard 1948:
Length: 417cm
Width: 175
Height: 162
Top speed: 129 km/h
Engine: 2088 ccm, 65 hp
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Anders de Lange
Anders de Lange writes about car history. He has written about cars and car history for over 30 years, published his own books and written for the Norwegian car press.