Standard Vanguard Phase 1

[Mike K]

Hi Cletrac

What a oddity ,well, to me it is , a LHD Vanguard . We had them as family cars in the 1960's , a phase 1 beetleback on to a 1958 estate car . My father worked at Standard Triumph Australia for 20 years ,they morphed into AMI and thus began the Toyota invasion. There was a supply of parts on hand for the Vanguards .. direct from the store ! I've still got the envelope with the invitation to the Xmas party for employees kids . They got into all sorts of weird collaborations , such as assembling Mercedes Benz cars and Ferguson tractors . The last batch of Vanguards they assembled in Melbourne ,were the 6 cyl. utes , around 1964 . In the early 70's, the Jap invasion was well and truely the future and they junked a huge amount of parts for old obsolete Standard cars .. all to the tip .

Until 2 weeks ago, there was a phase 2 sedan , about 2 km down the road from me, it sat there for 20 years .The property is being auctioned this weekend , they had a cleanup and the car has dissapeared .

I've got a fancy decal somewhere , depicting the Standard Triumph logo.

Mike