Standard Companion Estate 1957

This Standard Companion Estate from 1957 is based on the Standard 10 and was introduced in 1954, the companion might be lesser spotted than say the 8 or the 10 at a classic car show and even this rally today, but they did actually outlive both the 8 and the 10; with the 8 and 10 ending production in 1959 and the Companion marching solidly on until 1961 when it was replaced by the Herald Estate.

First of all, lets talk capacity because if you were going to step up from the faithful Standard 10, what could you expect to gain?

The load capacity of the car is described in hundredweights, but I wanted to give it you at home in simpler terms to perhaps show off the capability of the vehicle a little better. The car was said with four passengers to have luggage carrying capacity of 112lbs or 50 kilos and with the back seats folded to maximise load capacity, it was said to take 560lbs which is around 254kg.

In 1956, Farmers Weekly tested the vehicle to see if it was suitable for life on a farm and found even with the back seats up you could load in 6 30dozen egg boxes or 5 empty milk churns and by lowering the seats, they got in an impressive 11 milk churns. This might seem utterly redundant today, but for many rural family of the 50s, this would’ve made the vehicle an attractive prospect.

I imagine that was probably pretty slow at full load, but a lot of vehicles of this era were this wasn’t unusual. There were no additional engine options for somebody who perhaps needed to operate at full load and go a little faster and your only engine option was the overhead valve 948cc engine which is also used in the Standard 10.

The 948 engine is paired with a 4 forward speed box, again, exactly as you were getting in the 10 and again, with no synchro on first. This is pretty usual for the era, so we’ve got no complaints. There was the option to add overdrive at an additional cost, but this hasn’t been fitted to this.

There was also another option for transmission and one which I’ve never seen in person the Standrive two pedal control I believe with the limited information online I’ve managed to glean, this is some sort of early automatic transmission option.

However, always a massive beware on stuff like this in today’s world, because when they’re rare they’re a pest to find parts for when they go wrong!

You know what else is optional? The heater although I am not surprised because this was pretty usual for a vehicle of this age, especially one which might be used commercially. All the frugality kept costs low and made it easier for people to buy a new vehicle.

However, despite life in the slow lane, it does well on fuel and you can expect 57mpg at best on long runs at a consistent speed, but even around town and varying speeds you can expect low 40s in your miles per gallon.

The aforementioned Farmers Weekly review also looked at MPG when fully laden and found it to be slightly under 40mpg which is still not to be sniffed at.

The suspension to accompany all of this is coil springs at the front giving independent front suspicion and semieliptic springs at rear.

The brakes are hydraulic and two leading shoe at front and leading and trailing shoe for rear…so pretty much as you’d expect! Farmers Weekly described them as excellent and gave them an efficiency rating of over 80% when stopping at 30mph.

Today, the Companion is a rare thing indeed. It was well thought of at time of launch and for reviews still accessible, it is spoken of in high regards and it’s well received in today’s classic car world where it always seems to be greeted with a smile. Sadly, because of the workhorse capacity of the vehicle, many have been used and put through their paces and no longer exist today.