DO YOU REMEMBER THE STANDARD VANGUARD LUXURY SIX?
By Ellie Priestley |
12th June, 2020
In the 1970s I would occasionally encounter a well-polished blue & cream Vanguard Luxury Six. It struck my younger self as a rather distinguished vehicle – the sort of car that might be favoured by Jack Hawkins or Bernard Lee. In the early 1960s, anyone who wore tweed jackets and grumbled about the crossword in The Times would probably have ordered a new Standard.
The origins of Luxury Six date back to the 1955 London Motor Show, when Standard launched the monocoque-bodied Phase III. There was also a ‘handsome, streamlined fascia’ and ‘every up-to-date refinement’ but what it did lack was a six-cylinder engine. There was a faint sense that the Vanguard’s 2,088cc plant lacked refinement compared with the Austin A90 Westminster, the Ford Zephyr-Zodiac and the E-Series Vauxhall Cresta.
Two years later Canley began work on the Phase III’s replacement. Project “Zebu” was to sport very distinctive coachwork with a Mercury-style reverse angle rear-screen and a separate chassis. There was also to be a new power plant, consigning the “Big Four” 2,088cc unit to the past. In the meantime, S-T unveiled the “Vanguard Vignale” at the 1958 Show. The body had been attractively updated with larger screens fore and aft, new tail lamps and a new grille courtesy of Giovanni Michelotti. There was also the very welcome option of four-speed transmission controlled by a floor lever.
The Vignale allowed S-T to better compete with the Zodiac Mk. II and the Cresta PA. To ensure further publicity, the company provided a PR vehicle for the brilliant crime-thriller The League of Gentlemen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3TQC3YCBC4. By late 1960 the Vanguard Luxury 6 boasted a new 1,991cc unit with twin Solex carburettors; it was the company’s first new six-cylinder unit since 1939. ‘Smooth power and flexibility’, plus ‘the handling of a light car’, could be yours for just £1,021 2s 6d - or £1,134 9s 2d for the Estate - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXBprZzeAWk
Meanwhile, Zebu was in a state of flux; at one point its looks now resembled an enlarged four-door Herald. In any case, the company was now in desperate straits, and Leyland acquired S-T on the 17th May 1961. Its chairman Sir Henry Spurrier bluntly stated, ‘In taking this concern under our wing we have almost certainly saved it from bankruptcy”.
Zebu was succeeded by “Barb”, a Michelotti-styled saloon that would eventually become the Triumph 2000. By that time, the Luxury Six was, as Graham Robson notes in his fascinating The Book of the Standard Motor Company, ‘dying on its feet’. Leyland even requested a prototype of a Herald engine 1.2-litre Vanguard, although the intended market for such a vehicle must have been extremely limited.
When the 2000 made its bow at Earls Court in 1963 there was a certain inevitability that it bore Triumph badges as the Herald revitalized the marque’s association with saloons four years earlier. The final Standard car to leave Canley in May of that year was an Ensign De Luxe, the Vanguard’s cheaper stablemate.
By that time, the Luxury Six appeared to belong to an already vanishing world. If the Triumph 2000 belonged to a new world of Terylene suits and office blocks, the Vanguard was one of the last National Servicemen and stream locomotives. But for many, inclusion myself, that is an essential part of its charm.
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