Standard - Standard Avon Special
What are now called the Standard Avon Special or Avon Specials were based on the chassis of the 1159cc Standard 9hp chassis, which were built following the prototype built by the Jensen brothers, done at the request of Standard management. This came about after Standards chief engineer had seen the Austin 7 project that Jensen had produced and asked the brothers Jensen to see what they could do using a Standard 9 chassis. Jensen had a free hand in modifying the chassis to make them into sportier looking cars, with lowered radiator, racked steering and so on. The bodies for the Standard Avon Specials were manufactured by coachbuilding company Avon in Warwick, which had been started in 1922. The cars were produced at the Avon coachwork premises under the watchful eye of new employee Jensen.
Jensen later left Avon to start the Jensen company, building cars around chassis that were supplied by Standard, much in the same way as William Lyons had started off. . . .
Standard 9 Avon Special original tyre size was 27x4.40 which is Blockley tyre size 4.50x19. The Avon Specials were also built on the Big Nine chassis, with these cars having the same 4.50x19 tyre size originally, full details of which you can see below. In addition, Blockley make every 19" tyre size conceivable, should an owner want something slightly larger for an Avon Special, such as 4.75x19 etc . . .
