ALMOST 80 Standard cars made their way through Ely on Saturday as part of a double celebration. The Standard Motorclub were marking the 60th anniversary of the Standard s classic car, the Vanguard, and embarking on their 48th international rally. Approxim

ALMOST 80 Standard cars made their way through Ely on Saturday as part of a double celebration.

The Standard Motorclub were marking the 60th anniversary of the Standard's classic car, the Vanguard, and embarking on their 48th international rally.

Approximately 2,500 of their members turned up, with some people hailing from as far as Australia, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Denmark.

Club committee member Ian Leggett said: "It was an absolutely brilliant day. There was so much to organise and everything went as smoothly as we could have possibly hoped. Lots of people turned up to see the cars and find out more about them and we even had a few people from the area, who are not members of our club, turning up with their own Standards."

Cars on display dated back to between 1913 and 1963.

They set off from Denny Abbey, Waterbeach at around 10.45am and came into Ely past Oliver Cromwell's House, before heading past the cathedral and market place and heading to Littleport, Downham Market, Nordelph and Welney.

Standard cars have enjoyed a cult status in recent years, but were for a time considered to be world class motor vehicles.

Mr Legget said: "We are an international club and we only meet together like this once a year so it's a really big event for us. We've never been to this part of the country before and we were really impressed by the enthusiasm shown by people and we felt really welcome.