SLEAK curves, gleaming bodywork and a style seemingly-forgotten by today's designers marked the arrival of classic cars on a country-wide relay in Stroud this week.

The classic cars from a bygone era rolled into Stroud on Wednesday to mark the 100th anniversary of a prestigious manufacturer.

Three Standard Motors cars and their owners met up in Waitrose car park to pass on the baton that is touring the country to celebrate the now-defunct company's centenary.

The Coventry-based firm wound up back in the 1960s but there is no shortage of Standard enthusiasts.

"The company no longer exists but the cars certainly do," said Chalford Hill's John Hughes.

John and his wife Thelma brought their 1934 Standard 10, 'Amy', into Stroud to pick up the baton from fellow enthusiasts from Bristol.

On Monday John tackled the next leg of the journey, delivering the baton to Raglan in South Wales.

He told the News & Journal he expected the 110-mile round trip to take him somewhere in the region of six hours.

Bristol's Dave Osborn said that while the cars might not be the fastest on the road they were certainly built to last.

"50mph is about the limit," he said. "Going downhill, pushing it with a favourable tail wind and a bit of luck you might get a bit more out of it.

"These cars came from a gentler age when people weren't in such a rush."

John's Standard is evidence enough that the cars are survivors.

His father, George, bought the 'Amy' new in 1934 and, almost 70 years later, with over 360,000 miles on the clock, she is still going strong.

The John and Thelma plan to pass it on to their son in the near future.

"There can't be many cars that have been in the same family for three generations," said Thelma.

John still has a photograph of himself as a toddler sat in the back of the car with his father in the driver's seat, taken outside his grandmother's home in Chester.

John said his father had been very proud of the car while his mother had helped keep Amy in good order, cleaning and polishing her frequently.

Amy has had her share of adventures over the years.

When the fuel line became blocked John's father found a piece of rubber hose and ran it from the pump under the bonnet straight into the petrol tank, wrapping it around the door handles to make sure it didn't blow away.

He travelled all the way from London to Chester with this make-shift fuel system.

On another occasion she had to crawl along miles of winding roads in North Wales at 20mph in search of a garage after a clumsy mechanic wired up the alternator wrongly, leaving her in the middle of nowhere with no power.

Amy has also starred in two films, Dr Finlay's Casebook and Strathblair.