You may have noticed that the Manchester Group’s letterhead contains the words "Helping to Preserve Britain’s Heritage" and that is just what they aim to do. A recent telephone call to Bryan Jones, the Group’s Organiser alerted its members that yet another Standard car was in danger of ending its days in the scrap yard and this resulted in a quick visit by Bryan and two other members of the Group to assess the possibilities for restoration.

Travelling to a small town in Lancashire what they found was a Standard Super Ten, 1956, that had been dry stored in a stone garage for over twenty years. The lady owner, now deceased had left the car to her son who had now sold the house together with garage underneath and who was very anxious to have the car removed.

After an initial inspection it was decided that the car was restorable although it was obvious that it required a lot of work doing on it to get it roadworthy again. It had not been moved or used for over twenty years and was covered in dust. It would not fire up but surprisingly, the engine would turn on the crank. The brakes of course were seized but on the whole the body work was reasonable considering it had been neglected for such a long time. Fortunately, the old registration document was found and there was an old plastic Standard Motor Club sticker on the windscreen.

The immediate problem was to get the car safely out of the garage the bottom section of which was on a slope. There was also a very steep downward slope from the garage to the narrow roadway below and the angle between the drive and roadway was too acute to manoeuvre Bryan’s trailer into place. After much thought it was decided to use an Acroprop and strong ropes to lower the car down gently onto the roadway where it could be winched onto the trailer. The "rescue" team consisted of Philip Barratt, John Clarke and Dave Jones together with Bryan Jones, his towing vehicle and his trailer. The car owner also gave additional muscle to the team.

The tyres were first inflated and were in surprisingly good condition despite the fact the car had not been jacked up. The brakes were eventually freed and the little Standard was then slowly lowered down the steep slope to the roadway using the Acroprop, strong ropes, wheel chocks and some strong

muscle ! !. The car was then loaded onto the trailer and conveyed to its destination for restoration. The journey of some twenty miles was uneventful although it did incur some interested glances from some members of the public, Could it be that some were saying "I remember those nice little cars – I took my test in one of those" ?. Let us hope that this was the case ! !.

Progress on the restoration will be reported to the Club as it proceeds and let us hope that we will see yet another lovely little Standard car travelling the roads of Cheshire in the not too distant future.

Bryan Jones, Organiser, Manchester & North West Group, Standard Motor Club

Photographs by Bryan Jones