Standard Motor Company
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1933.standard.10.arp.jpg
The Standard Motor Company was founded in Coventry, England in 1903 by Reginald Walter Maudslay.
During World War I, the company produced aircraft including the Sopwith Pup and Bristol F.2-B.
By 1924 the company had a share of the market comparable to Austin, but by the late 1920s profits had fallen dramatically due to heavy reinvestment, a failed export contract and poor sales of the larger cars. In the 1930s, fortunes improved with new models, the Standard Nine and Standard Ten which addressed the low to mid range market.
During World War II, the company produced Mosquito aircraft.
In 1945 Standard acquired the Triumph Motor Company. A one-model policy was adopted in 1948 with the Vanguard. The company was eventually merged with Leyland Trucks and the last Standard was produced in the UK 1963. Triumphs continued when Leyland became British Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968.
However, the Standard name lasted into the 1980s in India, where they manufactured the Triumph Herald as the Standard Herald, but with additional four-door and five-door estate models.
In 1970, Standard in India split with British Leyland, and introduced a four-door version of the Herald called the Standard Gazel in 1971, using the same 948 cm³ engine. The Gazel was built in small numbers — it has been suggested that it did so to keep its manufacturer's licence — until 1977. Productions of Standards ceased until the Standard 2000 was launched in 1985, based on the Rover SD1. The car was modified — it rode higher and had an old 1991 cm³ Standard Vanguard unit — and was not successful. It ceased production in 1987 and was the last car to bear the Standard name.
External links
- Standard Cars of the mid-1930s (http://www.head2head.free-online.co.uk/Standard/stanmain.htm)
- Standard Motor Club (http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1087/smcintro.html)
- http://www.britishmm.co.uk/history.asp?id=842
- History of the Vanguard (http://come.to/s_vanguard)
- Unofficial Austin Rover Resource: Standards of India (http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?standardindexf.htm)
- Hari's Motor World—Indian cars (http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1442/)