Morris had the Minor, Austin had the A30, Ford had the Popular, Anglia and Prefect, so Sir John Black, the autocratic boss of the Standard Motor Company needed a mass-produced small car to compete. Immediately after WW2 there had been some revived pre-war Standard 8 and 12/14 models, but they were antiquated sidevalve machines and production of all three ceased to make way for the Vanguard, which became the only passenger car offering under the Standard banner from 1948. (The bulbous Triumph Roadster and the razoredged Triumph 1800/2000/Renown were produced in small numbers from 1946. They were joined by the charming little Triumph Mayflower from 1949-53, but that was no massmarket small car and sold only 35,000 units in total.)
The all-new Standard Eight of 1953 and Ten of 1954 represented a giant leap forwards and a very significant investment, no doubt made possible by the lucrative contract to build the highly successful Ferguson tractor, buthave been held. The Austin beat the new Standard to market by a couple of years and sold about 500,000, so the latecomer didn't do badly to reach a total approaching 370,000. Mind you, that pales in comparison with the Morris Minor's total of more than 1.6 million, albeit that was over a vastly longer production run lasting until 1971, the first million having been built by 1961.
