An inexpensive piece of RAF history!

[rolling20]

http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/en/classic-auctions/latest-classic-car-catalogue/saturday-4th-april-2015/1954-standard-vanguard/

I haven't seen one like this before. Seems reasonably priced, air con as well. Didn't the V Force use a latter version? I seem to remember them in a promo film of the time.

[ian16th]

In its day, these were the Station Masters car.

[rolling20]

Nice to have air con in the 50's! Must have been a sluggish old beast though.

[Tankertrashnav]

I'm guessing the aircon was a special order as the car was destined for hotter climes (Aden or Singapore perhaps)?

One of our number who I haven't seen on here for a while was OC RAF Detachment at Offutt and had a huge Ford station wagon as his staff car (ideal for picking up visiting crews and delivering them to the Ramada Inn!) It didnt have aircon and the RAF wouldnt stump up for a retro fit until he left a meat thermometer in it one day, which recorded 130F. They relented!

Wasn't there something about some retired RAF air marshal being on the board of Standards which is how they got the contract? I dont remember these in service, but the later models in the early 60s which rolling 20 refers to were pretty much hated by MT drivers who breathed a sigh of relief when they were replaced by Mk 2 Zephyrs.

[oxenos]

We had a ex service one in Singapore - cetainly no air con. Built like a tank, had 2 1/2 years use out of it, with minimal maintenance cost, and sold it for what I paid for it.

[Null Orifice]

Sluggish, it may have been.....the handling was suitably quaint,too!
The Staish at a certain piston-engined transport base in Wiltshire managed to roll his on the road back from the village - at night - I suspect the headlamps were also somewhat lacking.

[FantomZorbin]

Rolling20
That gentleman was Marshal of the Royal Air Force the Lord Tedder!

[rolling20]

Fascinating insight into retro RAF transport chaps. I am tempted to bid myself to replace my X5 which caught fire in Germany a few days ago. I don't think Mrs Rolling would like to do the school run in it though!

[Mickj3]

Tankertrash
Wasn't there something about some retired RAF air marshal being on the board of Standards which is how they got the contract?

My Dad told me that tale a long time ago. A bit of a scandal at the time, apparently having bought it it then required something like 40 odd mods embodied before the Service would let it on the road.

[ShotOne]

"Inexpensive piece of RAF history".. unfortunately the seller makes no claim to an RAF history. Nice paint job though.

[Danny42C]

"Fortune has pandered to the man with a Standard" ran the adverts when it first came on the market post-war.

With an oversquare 2088 engine it was ahead of its time. In '52-'53, the Station Commander at Thornaby (W/Cdr Malcolm Sewell) had a beautiful sky-blue one (his own property): he was much envied.

Didn't know the RAF bought any as Staff Cars (we had to be content with a pre-war pattern Austin Sixteen), but they bought a fleet of "Ensign" pick-ups; these (bargain basement "Vanguards" with a smaller engine) were not very popular with the MT mechs.

D.

[Cornish Jack]

That picture had my remaining brain cell whirring that something was wrong! Took a while to register but then it clicked - the boot!! The Vanguard, as I recall it, had a roofline-to-bumper rear end, not a separate boot ... yes?? :8Looks quite odd with that back end:hmm:

[Rossian]

.....on a V-force station not a million miles from Lincoln, my B-i-L drove one as the crew transport out to their Vulcan in a "scramble". He didn't park it very carefully and the crew chief didn't notice and, heavy though they were, it was no match for 4 Olympuseses and it spun off into the darkness at the back of the ORP as they surged out onto the runway. His staish wasn't amused.

The Ancient Mariner

[SOSL]

You're quite right Cornish the boot is definitely not standard!


Rgds SOS


P.S.


Thanks to all the above posters for treating a mildly interesting thread with some interest but no bitching or quarrelling. You've quite restored my faith in PPruners.

[Fareastdriver]

That's a Phase II Vanguard. The Phase I had the round back up until 1953 and then the Phase II with the 3 box shape came in. It was replaced by the Phase III in about 1957. The RAF used all three versions including the estate version for QRA.

An airconditioner suggests an export model as they were quite popular in Australia. It could well have been brought back by a returning serviceman or just a traveller.

There may well be a couple deep down in the Indian Ocean when a number of cars travelling as indulgence freight had to go over the side when one of Her Majesty's carriers had to do a 180 for Brunei and cancel its voyage to Portsmouth.

[Null Orifice]

The 'boot' shape was introduced on the Phase II Vanguard - the Phase IA had the 'beetle' back end where the roof line swept majestically down to the rear bumper.

Had a lift in one once, driven by a WRAF officer, when hitching a lift home from RAF Halton. Very nice too! (the car was average, but better than walking!).

[ORAC]

But not the same key as opened the Vulcan?.....

[ACW418]

I don't think we used Vanguards for QRA. We had Standard Pennant estates with a blue light on the roof. I well remember them as the co-pilot drove. I got a bit enthusiastic one day and drifted the thing and slid it alongside the Vulcan. Wasn't allowed to drive again for a while!

ACW

[FantomZorbin]

Mickj3
ISTR that one of the mods was to remove the radio! :ugh:

[Union Jack]

Had a lift in one once, driven by a WRAF officer, when hitching a lift home from RAF Halton. Very nice too! (the car was average, but better than walking!). - Null Orifice

Surely that should have been a Standard Vanguard pickup....:ok:

Standard Vanguard Pick Up 1952 Ex RAF (http://www.roncobb.com/VanguardPickUP.html)

Here's another photo of the "original" in the military vehicle section at a steam rally, which perhaps suggests that it is indeed kosher light blue

https://www.flickr.com/photos/33256097@N03/5187883348/in/photostream/

and I note that the car is also currently insured.

Jack

[FantomZorbin]

I once had a trip over the Pennines in a Vanguard ... I was a callow youth and the driver was a be-medalled and grizzled Flt Lt. I asked him what was in the case he was carrying ...

"My boy, never get in a f:mad:g staff car without your f:mad:g tool kit, you'll f:mad:g need it mark my words!". He was right!

The advice served me well over many many years!

[Danny42C]

Union Jack,

One of that ilk was running round the taxiway bend just behind the Tower at Strubby in the late '50s; there was a loud crunch and the whole n/s front suspension parted from the vehicle, leaving it stranded, on its nose and listing to port with the wheel flat under it.

By ill luck a Canberra was coming round behind from the other side, the pilot unsighted by the Tower. Someone dashed out in front of it with crossed arms: it was stopped in the nick if time and had to wait until enough manpower had rushed out from the offices to manhandle the obstruction off onto the grass.

Danny.

[Fareastdriver]

There's no point in having power if you can't abuse it.

[victor tango]

Rolling20
Thanks for posting this, only looked at it with vague interest and when I saw it it took me back some 60 years !!!

Dad used to go to RAF Uxbridge to pick up this vehicle and drive it to MOD in Whitehall .
I remember the roundels on the wing, dead cool !!
The one he had before that looked more like a posh Jeep but bigger like a mini tank.
His own car at the time was a Ford Popular 3 gear, kept immaculately and I still remember the reg 4664 H.

Memories.................

[Fishtailed]

There was loads of them at RAF Weeton, ( No 8 SoTT) as it was a driving school aswell, wandering all over the Fylde. I remember being loaded in to one there as a 10 year old for an 'experience' on the skid pan at a Battle of Britain day around 1960.:\

[NutLoose]

Maybe not a service one


"In the style of RAF staff cars"




"Wasn't it an Austin A30 or 40 key that opened the Vulcan?

[esa-aardvark]

FP564, or was that Valiant ?

[BEagle]

During Easter break from the Towers in 1969, 3 of us went on a detachment to Kinloss to visit the MPA world of the Shacklebomber.

A seemingly endless train journey and the overnight sleeper to Glasgow before the stopping train to wherever it was inspired me to find another method of getting back to Somerset. Which was solved by a friend of my late father who borrowed a Sea Vampire from Yeovilton and flew up to RNAS Lossiemouth.

I was promised MT would take me from Kinloss to Lossie - I had to wait at the guardroom and someone would pick me up. I did as instructed and a few minutes later this ancient Standard Vanguard screeched to a halt - I think it was an estate version, probably the last one in the RAF! Driven by a lunatic Flt Lt who hurled the old bus around the B roads at indecent speeds....

The 90 min trip in the Sea Vampire was rather more civilised and a lot less scary!

[ricardian]

I took the RAF driving course at St Athan 1969. We started with a Morris Minor estate but being 6ft 4ins tall with size 13 shoes I had some difficulties. However, the RAF instructor was not deterred and next day our Morris Minor estate was replaced by an elderly Standard Vanguard estate; very spacious and lots of room for my feet on the pedals. And yes, I did pass the test!