Sir John Black’s ambition for the Standard Motor Company in the 1930s was simply to become the most successful UK manufacturer.
To do this he needed a range of cars to satisfy all buyers.
In 1935 Standard announced the new “Flying“ range of cars with sleek aerodynamic styling quite in advance of the box-like saloons from their competitors (though none of the cars ever went near a wind tunnel).
The first cars were the Flying 12 and 20Hp six-cylinder. The range was soon extended to include 9 and 10Hp cars at prices the mass market could afford. They sold like hotcakes, aided slightly later by the Flying 14 and the diminutive Flying 8 launched in 1938.
Sir John now decided to add a flagship to the range, by announcing a V-Eight engine, essentially based on 2 x 10Hp blocks cast in monobloc at 90 Degrees. The engine was too wide to fit in the straight 6 chassis so Standard built a new car just to accommodate the engine The factory was so busy producing components for the rest of the range that they could not find the capacity to build the V-Eight engine, so a contract was let to Coventry Climax to build 1000 engines.
The outbreak of war killed off the car.
Perhaps Sir John overestimated the demand for the V-Eight, particularly as it attracted a considerable hike in road tax and was competing with Standard’s already establish 20Hp straight six. It did not sell well and was hampered by reports of overheating in the cylinder heads. It is thought that only 350 were produced, including an undetermined number of Drophead Coupés. How Standard got out of their contract with Coventry Climax for the engines they could not use is at best, not understood.
There is only one V-Eight in the UK and that is presently being restored.
The photographs are of this one recently offered for sale in Australia.
We know that five of the V-Eight engines were supplied to Raymond Mays and put into cars bearing his name. Two of them survive, one in the UK and the other in the USA. (Unless, anyone knows to any more?)
I will publish a feature on these cars on the SMC Website later.
Editors note: Standard badged these cars in Roman numerals as V-VIII. This was to avoid any legal issues with Ford who trademarked the V8 title, and subsequently, became the accepted format for describing this type of engine. For ease of non-Standard aficionados thoughtout these articles, we will refer to this model as a V-Eight.
Phil Homer.
SMC Historian.
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Phil Homer
Historian
Standard Motor Club
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