“Count them on the road,” was Standard’s advertising slogan in the early 1920s, a time when the Coventry-based firm was Britain’s third largest motor manufacturer.

This success had been founded on its range of ‘SLO’ models, designed by Chief Engineer and Company Chairman John Budge, that had first appeared in 1920.

The company’s first stab at the increasingly important 9hp light car sector of the market arrived in 1928.

Powered by a 1,287cc four-cylinder engine, this model was known as the ‘Nine’ up to 1931, when the introduction of a smaller alternative saw it renamed ‘Big Nine’.

The new smaller Nine was powered by a 1,005cc sidevalve four and for its first year of production featured a three-speed gearbox and 6-volt electrics.

1933 models came with four speeds and 12 volts, and then for 1934 the Standard Nine was completely redesigned around a new chassis frame, 1,052cc engine and synchromesh gearbox.

By this time Captain John Black had become Standard’s Managing Director, and ...