The Standard Eight was launched in 1953, an all-new design with an 803cc engine and a top speed of 63mph. The Ten, launched in 1954, was essentially the same car but with the engine bored out to 948cc giving a top speed of 68mph. The Ten also brought some improvements; early Eights had trafficators, sliding windows, and no opening boot lid (access being via a folding rear seat), but the Ten gained flashing indicators (white at the front, red at the back), winding windows and an external boot lid, and the Eight then adopted these features too.
There were a number of other variations, notably the Companion (an estate version of the Ten), and van and pick-up variations. Somewhere along the way the rear windscreen was enlarged for better visibility, and the car was later re-styled (incorporating better lights, particularly at the rear), becoming the Standard Pennant, but the whole range was later dropped and replaced by the Triumph Herald. In some ways this was a backward step, as the Eights and Tens had been built with monocoque construction wheras the Herald reverted to a separate chassis. The 948cc engine was used in early Heralds; later models and Triumph Spitfires used a bored-out and tuned-up version.