[stampro]

Here is the last version of Standard 20 van.

After facing financial problems (due to Standard 2000) the Standard Motors factory was closed. It was started again with the help of State Govt and private participants to manufacture Std 20 van alone.
The van came out with square headlamps and were bought by many.
The spacious van and the engine is still popular in TN particularly in hilly areas.
Unfortunately Standard Motors was not able to come out of the problems and finally closed shutters permenantly.
The factory and machines are with a real estate promoter now and could have been scrapped.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by stampro

Here is the last version of Standard 20 van.
The van came out with square headlamps and were bought by many.
The factory and machines are with a real estate promoter now and could have been scrapped.

Glad you could sitll find Std. 20s running around- is this in Madurai?

I remember seeing a few of these but I then thought that the square headlamps were mechanic-made alterations.

As for the factory, my aunt (who passes by that route often when she goes to some nearby town- forgot which one- by train) said that last she saw, the whole place had been totally demolished and now probably has some IT co. in it's place.

[dhrishikesh]

Hi all Indian Standard car enthusiasts,
Spotted this Single owner 1962 Standard Herald Mk I in the Shivaji Park area of Dadar.
Asked the owner about taking the pics, he gave me a permission for it. Really good car with around 80% original accessories. Inside the bonnet, the car still has the plate on which that COMM. No. is written (Whats this ?, Stanher please explain).
The owner is 73 yrs. old gentleman Mr. Bhau Rane. He simply drove me back in the history book of a car. He purchased the car in Madras (Chennai) for just Rs. 10000/- on date 26th June 1962 & then drove it all the way to Mumbai in next 2 days. he said that the car used to give 21 kmpl those days & now gives around 10 kmpl. The car is still in regular use & he still drives it from Mumbai to Pune. The amazing thing is that the car still starts @ half key rotation.
Originally its a convertible & then in 1979, he put the hard top on it. Many crazy people are ready to give around 3-4L for this car, but he refuses them all saying that this is the first ever car that he has bought from his first salary.
As in Mumbai, stealing a logo of a car has started happening, in the last week; the owner has removed all the logos & also a horn button & wheel caps !!!
After this rains, he is going to start restoration on it along with giving it convertible look in Pune.

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by dhrishikesh

Hi all Indian Standard car enthusiasts,
Spotted this Single owner 1962 Standard Herald Mk I in the Shivaji Park area of Dadar.
Asked the owner about taking the pics, he gave me a permission for it. Really good car with around 80% original accessories. Inside the bonnet, the car still has the plate on which that COMM. No. is written (Whats this ?, Stanher please explain).
The owner is 73 yrs. old gentleman Mr. Bhau Rane. He simply drove me back in the history book of a car. He purchased the car in Madras (Chennai) for just Rs. 10000/- on date 26th June 1962 & then drove it all the way to Mumbai in next 2 days. he said that the car used to give 21 kmpl those days & now gives around 10 kmpl. The car is still in regular use & he still drives it from Mumbai to Pune. The amazing thing is that the car still starts @ half key rotation.
Originally its a convertible & then in 1979, he put the hard top on it. Many crazy people are ready to give around 3-4L for this car, but he refuses them all saying that this is the first ever car that he has bought from his first salary.
As in Mumbai, stealing a logo of a car has started happening, in the last week; the owner has removed all the logos & also a horn button & wheel caps !!!
After this rains, he is going to start restoration on it along with giving it convertible look in Pune.

some body offered 3-4 lakhs for this particular herald
It lacks originality .the whole dash including meters have been changed
the body line/painting is also not top notch.
Even a concourse HERALD MK1 wont fetch more tha 1.2 -1.5 lakhs under any circumstances

[amit V8]

Originally Posted by stampro

Here is the last version of Standard 20 van.

After facing financial problems (due to Standard 2000) the Standard Motors factory was closed. It was started again with the help of State Govt and private participants to manufacture Std 20 van alone.
The van came out with square headlamps and were bought by many.
The spacious van and the engine is still popular in TN particularly in hilly areas.
Unfortunately Standard Motors was not able to come out of the problems and finally closed shutters permenantly.
The factory and machines are with a real estate promoter now and could have been scrapped.

till a couple of years back i used to see this van (a cop van) in blue color, but thought that was moded with the square lights and the grills. it used to ply on the road with a Mahindra FC. i don't see it now, maybe scrapped. anyways the older version was much sweeter looking.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by dhrishikesh

Spotted this Single owner 1962 Standard Herald Mk I in the Shivaji Park area of Dadar.
Really good car with around 80% original accessories. Inside the bonnet, the car still has the plate on which that COMM. No. is written (Whats this ?, Stanher please explain).
The car is still in regular use & he still drives it from Mumbai to Pune.
Originally its a convertible & then in 1979, he put the hard top on it.
After this rains, he is going to start restoration on it along with giving it convertible look in Pune.

Sorry to disappoint you but this car is far from original/complete! Quite ironic too, being a single-owner car, although it's good that the owner still keeps the car running in these times. I would say it has 50% of the original stuff on. A lot more original, absoultely "unmolested" Heralds have sadly been sold for pittance and scrapped in the last decade!

Apart from the dash that ajay99 points out, a lot of things on this car are not original/modified. Please see pics. of Standard Heralds in "Standard cars in India" thread for better education on these cars.
The most notable (and possibly the saddest!) modification done on the car is with the bonnet/cowl- it's been modified to open from the top like other cars. Many people did a mod like this to prevent the vibrations/rattling of the bonnet/front wings while running. But it's an irrepairable distortion on the car! See this pic. to know how the Herald bonnet originally opens:



Also the owner's claim about the car originally being a convertible turned hardtop sounds dubious- Heralds firstly were never sold officially (OE) as convertibles in INDIA market, but some were made to order.
Besides, why would he want to fit a hardtop on an original convertible (which is impossible as a lot of changes occur in the rear body at the place where the roof sits) in the first place, then change it back to a convertible??
OR what he must've meant to tell you was, the roof is detachable from the body (which is true) so he must have initially driven the car with the roof taken off until he decided to revert to having the roof back on, in 1979.
It looks like the owner kept on modifying the car to suit his regular use and current situations (lack of original spares etc.)
Commission No. is nothing but the Chassis no. of the vehicle. Most other cars have it stamped on the body in the engine bay as well.

[Abbas]

Hey ,

This is what i saw when i was in manali last month. This pic was taken at picadally theatre in manali.

We also has a std harald which we sold off some time in early nineties.

[stampro]

Originally Posted by Abbas

Hey ,

This is what i saw when i was in manali last month. This pic was taken at picadally theatre in manali.

We also has a std harald which we sold off some time in early nineties.

Very interesting Paint combination, but not attractive.

But the car looks stylish still in year 2009. Great

I hope Stanher has the history of the Herald (Triumph) Designer

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by Abbas

This is what i saw when i was in manali last month. This pic was taken at picadally theatre in manali.

We also had a std harald which we sold off some time in early nineties.

Originally Posted by stampro

Very interesting Paint combination, but not attractive.

I hope Stanher has the history of the Herald (Triumph) Designer

Indeed! The paint combo (and the radials!!) just dont do justice to the car!! Especially considering it's an early (maybe even '61) Herald, going by the bonnet vent and the rare handle on the bonnet centre, which was present on the earliest heralds!

Yes I do know about Michelotti, who had designed the Herald! Incidentally, the "m" on the bonnet latches (original) of Heralds actually stand for his surname!

@abbas, did you take pics. of the interior as well?? I hope they retained the original dash etc!

Also reg. your Herald, was it your uncle's car that you'd posted in another thread? That was an early 60s one too.

Anyways, update on this Pennant that I'd posted about earlier:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1373402-post856.html


I again met the guy who has the car, on Sunday- went with some cash too this time and offered him a slightly higher price. He now says he had a talk with his wife et al at home and they advised him not to sell the car for now etc etc...which is of course all BS! He claims that when he is ready to sell it, he would do it up and sell it for 1 lac!

And ironically, contrary to what the guy told me, I later found out that he never bought the car, but was actually gifted it by Mr. Iyengar (the previous owner) for having always been loyal to the latter!

I even tried talking to the ex-owner Mr. Iyengar's son-in-law later that day about indirectly convincing the mech. to dispose of the car...but, to my disappointment he apologised and declined, saying that it had been a matter between his FIL and the guy and that he, being equally well-acquainted with the mech., would be in a vulnerable position by approaching him with such an intention! He suggested I cool it for a while and try approaching the guy again.

I'm trying to work out another strategy to rescue the car now...let's hope it works!

[Stanher]

I'd earlier mentioned this website for scale models where a model of the Gazel was skillfully made:

Gazel

I'd thereafter interacted with the webmaster of said wesbite, who had also sent me a nice period pic. of this estate (station wagon) version of the Gazel, of which very few were built. This was published in what seems to be a French auto mag dated 1979, in an article that had pics. of even the then current 'Indian' cars, viz. Padmini and Amby mk4:



I used to see just one in Hyd. 5-6 years ago, but unfortunately, looking at the rear hatch, had taken it for some local body-mod (it had the normal saloon rear glass and the lower part of the hatch was shaped much like the normal saloon bootlid of the Gazel) so didn't bother to take any pics. then!

I haven't seen the car since either!

I also was in touch with a Gazel owner from Madras, who'd claimed his neighbour had one that was unfortunately sold for scrap!
Karl too had once sent me a pic. of just the rear hatch from one such car that was also sadly scrapped! It (hatch) appeared to be made of fibreglass.

Anyone else who's seen this version of the Gazel?

[the mole]

Originally Posted by dhrishikesh

Hi all Indian Standard car enthusiasts,
Spotted this Single owner 1962 Standard Herald Mk I in the Shivaji Park area of Dadar.

Dont want to belittle anybody but something off with the whole story about this car. If this car is a 62- one owner car I am not sure it would have a MRD no, also I lived on Rd no 3 in Shivaji Park for 12yrs my uncle still lives there, I have never seen this car till a couple of yrs ago. Standard Heralds never came as convertibles and this is a very good way of judging the level of truth the owner claims about the history of this car.

If someone offered 3-4 lakhs for this car, then he should have sold it and bought a mint car for half the value. All and all a very good example of unrealistic prices that owners have about the value of their cars and the general hype thats being created with all this.

This said there were some serious collectors on Rd no 3 at that time " The Pathares" they had some beauties including Impalas, Biscaynes and a bug eyed triumph amongst others. They moved out of the city some decades ago. I am curious which collection their cars may have travelled to.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by the mole

This said there were some serious collectors on Rd no 3 at that time " The Pathares" they had some beauties including Impalas, Biscaynes and a bug eyed triumph amongst others.

Amol, could you try and elaborate more on this bug-eyed triumph? I'm curious to know what atriumph with that kind of shape looked like. Do you mean the headlights were slanted, as on later Heralds? Did it have 2+2 headlights too?
If so, it must have been a Triumph Vitesse?

http://www.swingcats.co.uk/vitessepa...965-hood-u.jpg

A crash in a Triumph Vitesse 1600cc

[Sidman]

A Standard 8/10 (??) is lined up at the Shivajinagar guijiri for scrapping: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...ml#post1423608

[the mole]

Originally Posted by Stanher

Amol, could you try and elaborate more on this bug-eyed triumph? I'm curious to know what atriumph with that kind of shape looked like. Do you mean the headlights were slanted, as on later Heralds? Did it have 2+2 headlights too?
If so, it must have been a Triumph Vitesse?

http://www.swingcats.co.uk/vitessepa...965-hood-u.jpg

A crash in a Triumph Vitesse 1600cc

Ahh no thats a twin carb vitesse, there is one lying in Mumbai at dadar, Single owner. i have been pestering the owner for yrs to sell it to me, now the body and chassis has completely rotted away, can be salvaged with a donor herald chassis. But with every year the car becomes incresingly difficult to restore.

The one i am refering to you is a Triumph sprite very very rare in India just like the Vitesse. The one i refer to was white in colour and used tpo stand on the road for the longest, they would also rent it out for film shoots. The patahare's rented out all their cars for shoots. They would even plead with my dad to rent out our Dodge Kingsway and Merc Finnie. But my dad was always against such stuff.

This was in the late seventies, However the bug eyed sprite was very much there till the mid 80's -late 80's then she dissapeared with the family.

[harit]

Originally Posted by the mole

Ahh no thats a twin carb vitesse, there is one lying in Mumbai at dadar, Single owner. i have been pestering the owner for yrs to sell it to me, now the body and chassis has completely rotted away, can be salvaged with a donor herald chassis. But with every year the car becomes incresingly difficult to restore.

The one i am refering to you is a Triumph sprite very very rare in India just like the Vitesse. The one i refer to was white in colour and used tpo stand on the road for the longest, they would also rent it out for film shoots. The patahare's rented out all their cars for shoots. They would even plead with my dad to rent out our Dodge Kingsway and Merc Finnie. But my dad was always against such stuff.

This was in the late seventies, However the bug eyed sprite was very much there till the mid 80's -late 80's then she dissapeared with the family.

The Triumph was a TR3, earlier silver, then white or the other way round. This car was sold to the dealer in Kurla, National Weighbridge. I had seen it there, maybe 15-20 years ago. Now no clue where she has gone.
There were 2 TR 3's also in Chennai, one went to Delhi via Bangalore, changed colour from red to black. The other is still in Chennai.

Cheers harit