WE’VE been bothered by the identity of a Standard car in recent weeks which caused George Guy of Aycliffe Village to recall his second car, a 1939 Standard 8, which he and his new wife, Phyllis, took on a two week honeymoon tour of the north of England and Wales in 1957.
Appropriately for a honeymoon vehicle, its number plate was HUG 581 (is that a Leeds registration?).
“I painted it eggshell blue – the Cleveland Car Company in Grange Road sprayed it for me,” he says. “It was a beautiful little car. I was very proud of it.”
However, by the next year, he’d moved on and acquired from the Woodlands Road garage in Darlington a 1953 Jowett Javelin – another of Memories favourite old cars.
“It had a full bench seat across the front, column change and a walnut dash,” he says. “I imagine it had been a doctor’s car as it was very smart.”
And very reliable: in 1958, it took Phyllis and George on a 2,000 mile tour of France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland without once giving any trouble.
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