Standard Flying 20 V8

[robdixon]

I was just watching the 2016 version of Whisky Galore when I spotted that the car driven by Eddie Izzard (as Captain Waggett) looked like a Standard Flying 20. Am I correct? This reminded me that my father, Frank Butler Dixon, drove a Standard Flying 20 V8 during the war. Born in August 1939, I was fairly young, but I am sure that he drove the V8 version. This was the first car model of which I became aware. I don't know when he first acquired it (it may have been a company car but, if so, it was for his use only.) He was a director of Briggs Motor Bodies who made the bodies, so presumably that is why he had one. He might not have "owned" it from new but he certainly becamse its user it during the war. He had a reserved occupation and did high mileage throughout the war, being involved in aircraft manufacture. He often drove from Essex to Rolls Royce in Doncaster on roads without any signs and with hooded headlights (6 Volt?). I remember that he said that the V8 engine was made by Coventry Climax. Is that correct? Engines didn't last long at that time and I remember him telling me that, because it was wartime, it was very difficult to get replacement engines. I don't know how he overcame this problem, although he knew a very wide number of influential people in the motor and aircraft industries. It was changed (in 1946?) for a Ford Pilot, the body of which was also built by Briggs Motor Bodies. This was switched for a second Pilot fairly quickly, perhaps the larger engined version. I think that the registration number of one of these was NNO 249. When Briggs was acquired by Fords (in 1953?), my father was the only director of Briggs moved to Fords. He didn't take to the Managing Director of Ford UK, Sir Patrick Hennessy, and didn't stay very long, leaving in 1954?

A few years later, perhaps in 1958, he became a director of Standard Triumph.
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[webmaster]

Hi,
Very interesting post

I was watching an episode of "Father Brown" on I-player just a week or so ago (how sad is that?) and that featured a black Standard Flying 20. What a surprise! I could freeze frame it and see the "20" in the starting handle hole and the registration was clear. It belongs to a lapsed member in Norfolk, if anyone knows who it is perhaps he could be persuaded to contribute here. My point is that there is obviously a Flying 20 (6 cylinder not V8) active un the UK film industry.

I believe that the V8 engines were manufactured, as you say, by Coventry Climax to Standard designs and drawings, because the factory had run out of capacity to do it themselves. Its good to hear more evidence, since I have recently had some anecdotal news that they were factory built. The V8 engine quickly got a reputation for destroying itself due to hotspots in the cylinder heads, which might account for your belief that engines did not last long at that time.

If you don't mind Bob, I will contact you directly so we can discuss further

Phil Homer
Historian
Standard Motor Club

[ogy380]

Whisky Galore Standard is a Flying Light Twelve.