Standards?
In the US, these were sold as Triumphs. In England, where they were made, they were Standards. But there was nothing standard about them.
I don't mean that they were ahead of their time. (Though they did get nearly 50 MPG, in 1959.) I don't mean they broke the mold. I mean that you'd be hard pressed to find two that are exactly the same.
Brian Birch has a 10 with a Webasto (folding cloth set into the roof) top and two doors in the back. Both are factory, the Webasto is rare, and we don't know of any other 10s with double doors. (I know the picture shows neither, I'll get better pictures later.) Note the rounded front fenders, the "cloud lift" grille, and the side chrome that doesn't go down to the wheel well.
Picture copyright Brian Birch.
In fact, most 10 Wagons (Estate Wagons, if you don't mind) have front ends like this one. Mine has fenders with hooded headlights. We found an old advertisement of a wagon with hoods, but it doesn't have the side chrome. Also note that the grille is different than Brian's 10: it's got the three bars, rather than the punched mesh, and the upper lip curves down to hold the turn indicators. This one's similar to mine, except for the lack of side chrome.
Picture copyright Autolit.com.
Speaking of which, there was apparently a chrome strip on the sills of some 10s. Ours had the mounting holes, but if it was fitted with the chrome originally, it was long gone by the time we got it.
My theory is that the guys at the factory built a few cars "by the book," but at the end of the day, they had parts left over. Maybe the last set of rounded fenders wouldn't quite fit (manufacturing wasn't tremendously precise in 1959; the roof seams were smoothed with lead), but there was an extra set of hooded fenders just sitting around. So long as it was symmetrical, they'd throw some paint on it and send it along. (Dad suspects that a few of the discrepancies were dealer options; the AM radio ours came with almost certainly was.) Maybe some of them were dented in shipping. So long as the new fenders were the same color, who would complain?
Another force against Standards being standard is the multitude of people who customize them. These cars are jokingly called the Sub-Standards. Some guys strip down the front chrome and add teeth made from bumperettes or tow hooks. One guy frenched his tail lights. Engine swaps are common; many people use Spitfire running gear. 'Rustrocket' from BritishCarForum tried to shoehorn a Corvette engine under his hood. (His build thread is here. The video, obviously, is his. His forum sig suggests that he's contemplating changing it to a mid-engine setup.
That's the fun thing about cheap little cars: they let us do things we'd never do to a Jaguar or a Healey. You'll never see a 10 at Pebble Beach, but there aren't a lot of people modding Bentleys. (Nevermind the rat rod Rolls I took a picture of in Vancouver BC a year or so ago.)
 |
I guess what I'm saying is, some cars are well suited to oddball mods, and that includes 10s. We've already begun to erode our Standard's standards. We swapped out the Solex carb for HS2s, we've found a roof rack for it, and it's definitely getting a stereo. Since I don't smoke, I'm considering hiding an iPod dock in the ash tray. Sean's donated a set of foglamps that weren't good enough for a Healey, but look great mounted behind the bumper. It'll also get a wider exhaust system than it was originally fitted with, though this is mostly a convenience thing (I'm not sure where we'd get exhaust pipe that small). My dad keeps joking about dropping a Mazda rotary and a 5-speed in it if the stock plant won't do 60. At least, I think he's joking.
|