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A History
of Standard Motor Products, Madras
A Mark 1
Standard Herald - the car was built in India from imported parts
The following
comprehensive history of the Standard Motor Products of India,
Madras, has been sent to me by Karl Bhote. I have also put a
selection of photos in this, but there are lots more photographs of the cars
on the links from this page. You can click on the thumbprints to see larger versions.
"This is what I can piece together about Standard Motors in India.
I'm sure everyone is well versed with what kind of car the Triumph Herald is, so I
will focus on the bits specific to the Indian market. The factory
started out under the name Union Motor Co. in Madras (now Chennai)
in 1949 from what I can guess. Somewhere along the way it
was renamed "Standard Motor Products of India", or
STAMPRO. They first started out assembling Vanguards, and I think
Ferguson tractors, before moving on to the 8s, 10s and Pennants in
succession. Curiously, the Pennant was badged a 10 as well.
Pennant production ceased in mid 61, but the Companion continued
till late 62.
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Indian
Phase 1 Vanguard, recently for sale.
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Indian
built Vanguard II
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An
Indian Pennant, called a Standard 10
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Another
Standard built Mk 1 Herald
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In early 62 they launched the
"Triumph" Herald (948cc, similar engine as 10),
though badged as the Standard Herald. The bonnet badge had the "Standard"
script over the ensign badge base. The very earliest cars (62 only) still
consisted of a lot of hand-me-downs from the home market cars, and hence
some cars came with the white faced Jaeger speedo, some had a black face.
They had at least 4-5 different kinds of steering wheel and horn button
colour combinations, coming with off-white, grey and black steering wheels
with assorted horn buttons.
Here are more Standard
Herald Mk 1's
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This has been confirmed by the erstwhile Standard
Motors dealer here in Pune, which can make identifying a genuine 62 model car quite a task!. These cars had a dark grey dash with light grey switches,
like the Herald S type, I'm told.
In 1963, the cars had a little more local content. The 2 tone combinations
or paint were not offered anymore, and the front sidelights were now of the
single bulb design, (62 had larger dual bulb units). The dash now was
covered with a wood veener sheet, and local Yenkay meters were incorporated
(separate speedo, fuel guauge, and amp). The switches were now black.
These cars were unchanged till 66, when the mark II was launched.
| The major
change was using the Vitesse bonnet, but with only one pair of headlights,
one pair of sidelights, and indicators incorporated in the front end (from
the Fiat 1100, which was the largest selling car in India at the time, and
along with the Hindustan Ambassador/Morris Oxford was the only competition),
as opposed to the 2 sets of lights on the Vitesse. The cars upto the
earliest mark IIs had the unique roof badges with "herald" on them, but were
soon dropped. A later model had a recessless bootlid. Then for a short while
there was a mark II with a restyled roof (which was designed with the 4 door
model in mind), and a bootlid without a recess.
There are more Standard
Herald Mk2's here
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Mk 2
Herald |
This model also gained trim
around the taillights. This was also the first model where the silver faced
meters were switched to black faced. Made just for a few months, it was soon
replaced by the 4 door Mark III, owing to Indians having rather large
families!
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Mark 3
Herald four-door |
This design was an original one, just never put into production till the
mark III came along. While it featured the now familiar Mark II bonnet the
sidelights and separate indicators were replaced with the single assemblies
lifted from the later mark Is. The Bonnet badge too was restyled. All
previous heralds fetured 8 & 10 style hubcaps, the mark III had the herald
"dimpled" ones. The steering wheel was redesigned, and now looked exactly
like the ones from the standard 8!
Click here to see an article on more Mk 3's
and the factory brochure here
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| In late 69-70, the factory had
indigineously developed a station wagon version, called the Herald
Mark III Companion. Extremely rare, it featured a fibreglass tailgate and roof. These
cars had bonnets with twin headlights just like the Vitesse. These cars are
practically non existant today.
There are more pictures
of the Herald
Companion here
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Four
Door Herald Companion Mk3 |
Finally in 71, the Gazel was indigenously developed. While based on the mk
III, it featured the live rear axle and suspension from the Toledo. This was
because the heralds rear suspension was just not suitable for Indian roads,
and were notorious for axles cracking. The car was Indias first indigenous
design, designed by Nazir Husein.
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4 door
Standard Gazel from the early 70's |
The front Bonnet has a startling
resemblance to the Herald 13/60. This car got a front bench seat, and the
long cranked gear lever of the 10. Again this car came in 2 versions, what I
call (never officially designated) the mark I and mark II. The changes in
the mark II were a conventionally opening bonnet, and a couple of other
minor changes here and there like using Fiat 1100 door handles and different
coloured dash switches and horn buttons. This model came in 76, and
production finally ceased in around 78.
There is a large
selection of Gazels here
The Standard Gazel
Brochure is here
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Focus now shifted to the light
commercial vehicles, building the Atlas under the name Standard 20. There
was a later version as well. There is a feature on the Standard
20 here, and I have included the brochure here
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Then in 1981, STAMPRO bought the tooling for the Rover SD1, and began
production, but with a 1991cc vanguard engine! The car was a miserable
failure, with a lot of people putting down deposits, and getting no refunds
after producttion ceased! There were plenty of problems with the employees,
who were on strike for years! In fact, just last month there was a tender floated in the newspaper
anounncing that the banks are auctioning off
whatever remains of the factory, the final nail in the coffin.
You can read more about
the Standard 2000 here
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The
Standard 2000, fitted with a Vanguard engine |
Interestingly enough, the Herald was quite popular in rallies till the early
70s, when the Fiat 1100 took over. Pretty much every rally driver in India
cut their teeth on a Herald. Since it was such a stylish car, and the since
the roof was bolted on, these cars were very popular in Bollywood films of
yore, mainly as topless cars. Today they have become rather hard to find,
especially since there really isn't much demand, due to lack of spares, and
the later cars being notoriously prone to breakdowns due to use of cheap
local parts.
All in all, an eventfull 30 odd years, for what was really a fine little
car, sold under wrong circumstances. There are still enough cars around to
be had, most of them going dirt cheap, but over the last few years due to
lack of demand, they end up getting scrapped. Getting one in good order can
prove quite a task."
Words: Karl Bhote
Pictures: Karl
Bhote and Shyam Krishnămachary
If you have any
information to add about Indian-built Standards, please tell
us about it by logging on to the Standard Motor Club's Web forum,
and using the newly-created threads opened for Indian Standards.
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