Hi Phil,

 

Ive been talking to Mr C S Ananth (who is restoring a Vanguard Estate). He is based in Madras, so I was asking him about the strange "Stanmobile" photograph I bought. He instantly recognised the car, this is what he had to say.

 

 

"I know about this car. Prior to Mr.Sanjay Gandhi launched his "Maruti", the three car manufacturers were asked to submit prototypes of a small peoples car. Standard Motors made this two door car, with the spare wheel mounted on the rear outside. It was like a hatch back but the rear was sealed. The rear seat was the folding type to slip in light luggage behind the seat.
Obviously the Govt did not accept any prototype except that made by Mr.Sanjay Gandhi.!
This car was lying at the factory and was sold as scrap recently  when the property was knocked down by the new owners.

(Sanjay Gandhi was son of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the 3 manufactures at the time were Fiat (Premier Auto Ltd - PAL), Hindustan, and Standard Motors)

Standard Motors when it closed down had about 6  Standard 2000's ready for delivery, a few in various stages of manufacture & hundreds of  parts like body panels, engine & transmission components etc. All the parts & panels were bought over by Rimmer Bros UK. Besides these there was a Triumph 2000,  Triumph Dolomite, Standard 20's & a bell standard that belonged to the founder

I realized that this car indeed could have been built some time around 1960. If I remember, the reg. no. was MSX or MSW 6084. I am right with the numericals but I'm not sure if it was MSX or MSW . But certainly one of the two. The color was light beige. That would place the car in late fifties/early sixties. They used the old Standard 10 dies for the front. To cut costs, there was no plated parts like hub caps & grill.

Only one prototype was built which was submitted much later to the Govt. for a small car. About the same time PAL got in a FIAT 600 or 850 and Citroen tried to come in with Escorts with their small car, may be it was 2CV; all trying for the small car license.

The Triumphs were all either sixties or seventies.They were scrapped too by the new owners. This bell standard was a 1948 two door,one owner car, owner was The Union Co. Motors-promoters of SMPI."

It is indeed distressing to hear that this prototype was still around till as recently as a couple of years ago. God knows what other priceless stuff would have been destroyed by the new owners of the land where the factory once stood.

Cheers

Karl