[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by john.barley

Hello. I am a new member and have just found your earlier postings and the picture of the blue Standard Vanguard.
I lived in India some 40 years ago and was in Madras for a year in 1968 / 9.
My company gave me the use of a 1960 Standard Vanguard, blue, same shape as the one in the picture.
The registration number was MSQ 1639.
I wonder if this is the actual car.
John Barley

Hi John, welcome aboard.

Nice to hear about your Vanguard, there are very few survivors in India.
You could post up the details on this thread. Who knows, she may turn up some day.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...-classics.html

Any pictures of the car to share?

[john.barley]

Hello Stanher and thanks for your comments.

Re the registration number of my Vanguard in 1968, I am as certain as the passage of 41 years will permit me to be that the number was MSQ 1639. That leaves a bit of a mystery as to why a later car had an apparently earlier number.
As I recall, the Vanguard had been sent down to Madras from Calcutta (forgive the old versions of the names, but that is what they were called then) in early 1968 and would have been given a Madras number then. However, that only deepens the mystery over the discrepancy between this car and the one to which you refer.
Maybe we shall never know why..
Anyway, if anyone out there has any information on MSQ 1639, I should be delighted to hear.

After Madras, I moved to Calcutta, in early 1969, where I had a new Herald.
The company bought two, WBJ 1017 and WBJ 1018. I think that mine was 1018.
It was a 4-door, green.
Has anyone seen this? Probably long gone, who you never know.
Regards,

John Barley
UK

[r_nairtvm]

Stanher,

I have just uploaded a picture of the Final Assembly Line (of Standard 10) of the the Standard Motors, Madras as a copy of an old advertisement for Universal Corborudum Ltd.

May be of interest to you.

If you need the copy separately please PM me and I can send it to you for your collection.

Best Regards & Drive Safe

Ram

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

Stanher,

I have just uploaded a picture of the Final Assembly Line (of Standard 10) of the the Standard Motors, Madras as a copy of an old advertisement for Universal Corborudum Ltd.

May be of interest to you.

If you need the copy separately please PM me and I can send it to you for your collection.

Thanks, but uh, could you let me know where you have uploaded it? I can't find it in your post or in this thread?

[SuperSelect]

Originally Posted by Stanher

Thanks, but uh, could you let me know where you have uploaded it? I can't find it in your post or in this thread?

Check it out in the "Classic advertisement/ brochure thread".

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

Stanher,

I have just uploaded a picture of the Final Assembly Line (of Standard 10) of the the Standard Motors, Madras as a copy of an old advertisement for Universal Corborudum Ltd.

May be of interest to you.

If you need the copy separately please PM me and I can send it to you for your collection.

Best Regards & Drive Safe

Ram

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

Check it out in the "Classic advertisement/ brochure thread".

Oh yes I just did!! Needless to say I was OVERJOYED!!!

The Pennants all seem the same colour scheme, which two-tone it was I wonder? If white and blue, mine might've been one of them in that pic. for all you know!!

And yes ram, I would love to have one sent to me, if a different (bigger) resolution than this one posted? If not, it will do.

[suren181]

Sorry to be going OT, this Standard is not in India, but in the UK, but it is a must see video for classic car lovers. Hope you like it. What say Stanher?

YouTube - Kids Drive Cars

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by suren181

Sorry to be going OT, this Standard is not in India, but in the UK, but it is a must see video for classic car lovers. Hope you like it. What say Stanher?

Indeed an intriguing video! Seems like a 'period' video. But how I wish we had such cars in our driving schools today- I'd have probably become a permanent instructor there!

[Stanher]

An early ('72-73) Gazel that was spotted by funkykar and arun1100 in B'lore and forwarded to me today.

IIRC, a couple of pics. of this same car were posted by someone else in this thread even earlier. The car looked relatively better then though.









The rear panel with the tail-lights and the numberplate seems to have been redone, has a slight difference in design from how it would've originally looked.

[wasif]

Came across these snaps today and was wondering if anyone here knows about these cars. There is something familiar about them.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by wasif

Came across these snaps today and was wondering if anyone here knows about these cars. There is something familiar about them.

Of course they would be familiar- especially the pennant, which is our own karlosdeville's pride and joy!
The gazel was owned by a friend of mine (who also had 2 heralds) in Bangalore, who later moved to the US couple of years ago and left all his cars lying around as he didn't have time to sell them. I couldn't get in touch with him again and had another friend check out the place for me recently and he said he didn't find any of these cars lying there...'wonder what happened of them!
The green ph2 Vanguard was photo'd by Karl, was lying at a local garage in Pune for ages. Then karl told me he later saw the car with white plates and in running condition somewhere else.
The black ph 1 vanguard was close to where we were living in Vizag a few years ago. The owner was said to have migrated to the US and had left it in the 'care' of a friend to sell it for him, but the latter
simply left it sitting outside his building and was quoting unreasonable prices for it, which is why it never got sold.
It was much worse than what it looks in the pic.- the roof and bodyshell had holes all over, the area being very close to the beach. It was deteriorating gradually. After I moved back to hyd., I later got to know from another source that the car had eventually been sold; my guess is for scrap!

[manishalive]

Here is one more Gazal from a small town collector

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by manishalive

Here is one more Gazal from a small town collector

Interesting. Does this small town collector also have a 47 Caddy? I see the tail light peeking out in one photo.

My dad had purchased a brand new grey Standard Herald [2-door-coupe] in 1965 costing Rs 16 k from Union Motors, Mount Road, Madras. I learnt driving in that car. It had a convertible variant with canvas top also. It had a lever for reserve fuel fitted on the fuel tank accessible from the boot. If the lever was turned to the reserve postion, the vehicle would run using the reserve fuel. Again, when the fuel tank was filled in, the lever position was supposed to be restored to normal position. First time, an Indian car had floor gear as compared to steering gear sported by Fiat and Ambassador.

However, the 2-door coupe version, though a superb car, was not a hit. So, Standard Motors discontinued it and introduced 4-door saloon named 'Gazel'. Even Gazel could not compete with Fiat and Ambassador. The last product from the stables of Standard Motors was Standard 2000, which was also a flop. Standard Motors was plagued with labour problem and ultimately closed their Vandalur plant. Amen.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by manishalive

Here is one more Gazal from a small town collector

Hmm.......interesting how many Gazels are turning up down south lately!

Is this in Bellary (MYY regn. would indicate that, as per KPS whose '32 plymouth is also an MYY regn.)

This car isn't as complete as the green one photo'd by Arun/Karthik but it has both the chrome bumpers intact, and also (rarely seen) the original air-filter! I remember our Gazel too had exactly the same type of air-filter until around 1987 when the then mechanic found it faulty and replaced it with a Fiat one, which worked since (afterall, the Gazels shared the fiat carb!)
And note the front grille- the earliest gazels had this kind of grille, as opposed to the aluminium "perforated" design on subsequent models. This, IMHO looks more attractive.

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

My dad had purchased a brand new grey Standard Herald [2-door-coupe] in 1965 costing Rs 16 k from Union Motors, Mount Road, Madras. It had a convertible variant with canvas top also.
However, the 2-door coupe version, though a superb car, was not a hit. So, Standard Motors discontinued it and introduced 4-door saloon named 'Gazel'. Even Gazel could not compete with Fiat and Ambassador.

Hi ravi, welcome aboard.
Nice to hear about a Herald in your family. Do you have any old pics. of the car to share? Also do you recall the regn.? 'would be useful in finding out it's present whereabouts, if any.
Note, however, that it was NOT a Coupe, but just a 2-door saloon. A Coupe, by definition, is more of a sports kind of car with a "fastback" style roof, giving limited room in the rear for passengers (they are known more commonly as 2+2 seater rather than 4-seater)
There was a Coupe version of the Herald too, but was not available in India. Note the difference in the shape of the roof:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2531797...7622849468879/

http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto...-main_Full.jpg

http://herald-tips-tricks.wdfiles.co...loon_coupe.png

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5170480...98273/sizes/o/

As for the convertible version, while I've heard that it certainly was available as OE in India too, I'm dubious about it because so far I have never come across a single original example, all converted from saloons only; you can tell by just looking at the chassis no. A few just done professionally and close to original (you may remember one such car- the maroon '61-62 Herald, MSW 6959, in the 60s Tamil hit movie "KAthalikka nEramillai") but never OE-produced ones.

Also the Gazel was not the actual 4-door Herald version but a different model altogether, only based loosely on the latter. The 4-door version was called Standard Herald Mark3, made from 1968-71, as a saloon and also an estate version "Companion", which was short-lived. Do go through this webpage that has detailed info. on all the Indian Herald variants. BTW, your father's Herald must've looked like the Grey mk1 in the top pic.

History of Standards in India

Again, while I've heard a lot even from an ex-dealer about the 2-door Herald being a failure , I've noticed more of these around, especially the early (mk1) ones, than the 4-doors or the Gazels.