Dave
If I might interject on your recent thread about the Standard Motor Company
interface with Jaguar - then SS Cars? While I wouldn't challenge you on the
source document you recommended for reading, perhaps I could attempt to
straighten out what might possibly become mis-information over a period of
time.
1. Sir John Black never owned the Standard Motor Company. The original
owner and founder before Black's time was a man called Reginald Maudslay.
It was through him that the company became known as STANDARD because he
wanted to make cars to the highest possible standard. Unfortunately, the
word Standard has different connotations in different parts of the world -
and that is why true Standard Cars when sold in North America (the Eight,
Ten and Pennant) were more usually known as Triumphs, when in fact they
were Standards through and through. Black, a former Army Captain and a
qualified lawyer was brought in by the Main Board before the war to do what
he could to steer the company out of bankruptcy. He succeeded and my own
father was a very close friend and colleague.
Throughout Black's time at Standard, I think I am correct in saying it was
a public company, financially precarious perhaps but nonetheless public.
2. Certainly, there was rivalry between Black and Lyons at Jaguar.
Remember, Lyons when he moved SS to Coventry was selling highly attractive
(for the day) motorcycle side-cars and this business rapidly extended to
building delightful body variations on other manufacturers chassis and
engine/driveline assemblies. It was obviously an attractive proposition for
Lyons to do this because he avoided development costs of his own. Standard
(under Black's direction) not only made their own cars but also sold these
complete running chassis to SS/Jaguar and another local bodybuilder called
Avon. Indeed, the ubiquitous Jaguar six cylinder XK twin cam engine on
which Bill Heynes and his team worked such wondrous miracles, actually
started life as a Standard inline six cylinder side valve of 2.5 litres. It
was Heynes' skills that took that same engine into entirely new stages of
development and performance. As the world knows, Jaguar went its own way
and ............ (now its a Ford)
3. Finally, I must challenge your comment (if I have understood it) that
Triumph came to Standard as a possible challenge to Jaguar. It may well
have done as part of the Black/Lyons rivalry but the real issue is that
Triumph as an entity went bust and Black got to it before Lyons. Indeed
there is a climate of opinion in Coventry to this day that had Jaguar
bought Triumph, the Triumph name might have adversely affected Jaguar's
image and possibly might have led to a two tier Jaguar range - i.e. the
expensive-er and the cheap-er. As things turned out, on the longer term, I
feel that Triumph did better in Black's hands than it might have done in
Lyons's - but what once was, has now gone - for ever and no-one will ever
know.
John Macartney
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