The Triumph Stag was a wonderful exercise in creative thinking. It was also something of an act of stubbornness, given that British Leyland already had a perfectly good V8 sitting on the shelf, and yet for the Stag it was considered sensible to develop an entirely different one. But of course, this was a special car through and through; conceived to rival the svelte and impressive coupes and roadsters from Mercedes-Benz, the SL was squarely in the crosshairs for Triumph’s pretty new open-top offering. Styled by Giovanni Michelotti, the four-seater had a rollover hoop across the B-pillar, joining the windscreen surround to create a T-top; the robust suspension from the Triumph 2000 lurked within, and under the bonnet was a pleasingly rumbly 3.0-litre Triumph V8.
Distinguishable by its chromed sill covers among various other detail changes, the car we have here is a Mk II version – production ended in 1977, so this ’76 example is a late car within a diminutive run: over the Stag’s eight-year production span, just 25,939 were made. With around 6,000 currently on the road in the UK today, you’re not likely to be pulling up alongside another one at the traffic lights…
This Stag has evidently lived an interesting life over the past forty-five years, its condition and solidity testament to having been cherished and looked after. The most recent owner is a keen car collector, who has kept the Stag maintained in no-expense-spared fashion, with many thousands of pounds having been spent recently to keep it tip-top. So why sell after such investment? Quite simply, as is the nature of the collecting enthusiast, the next thing came along… he’s buying more cars and there’s only so much parking space, so sadly it’s time for the Stag to go.
There isn’t an enormous amount of paperwork with this car, but what is here is very reassuring. Naturally the V5 is present, showing the car to have been first registered on August 1st 1976. The Haynes manuals here if you need to crack the spanners out. And there’s a huge receipt from 2019, from Robsport International Limited: we can see that the owner spent a robust £4,637 on thoroughly refreshing the Stag. The work included new brake lines, wheel cylinders, polybushes, tyres, ball joints, strut top mounts and bearings, wheel bearings, recon steering rack, track rod ends, brake discs and pads, bulbs, fuses, and much more besides.
The car’s original design intention is clear here: Triumph aimed to take on Mercedes-Benz with this model, and anyone who’s driven an R107 SL will find themselves in reasonably familiar surroundings in this cabin, the materials and the layout having a contemporary Teutonic vibe. It’s all in rather lovely condition too: the seats are all in superb order, with no rips, tears or marks to the fabric, and the fronts correctly tilting forward to allow access to the tidy rear bench. The carpets are decent and the door cards are in good condition. The dash is neat with all gauges present and functional and no cracks in the top; the wood trim is also in good order throughout. The STAG-branded steering wheel is excellent, and the stalks work as they should.
The car is fitted with a classic Philips radio-cassette, and the centre console also has a large proximity sensor module for the aftermarket alarm system that’s been fitted.
Inside the boot it’s all dry and tidy. The correct spare wheel is in place, with no condensation or water ingress beneath, and the fuel tank has been replaced.
The bodywork is in very good condition, with its vivid jaffa-hued paint really popping in the sunlight. We know that some paintwork was carried out during the last round of work in 2019, and the car does have a uniform finish throughout with no fading. The panel fit is good, with no wonky lines and everything closing with a pleasing thunk. The front valance has evidently received a little attention on either side in the past, there’s a little paint scuffed off along the driver-side door-shut where it meets the bottom of the door, and there are very small signs of corrosion present on the driver-side front wheel arch and beneath the headlights, but overall it’s a remarkably tidy example.
All of the correct trim and badging is present, and the light lenses and window glass are all in good order. The roof is extremely tidy inside and out, and fastens securely with no obvious draughts. The folding mechanism could do with a little attention (perhaps just a greasing) as we attempted to lower the roof but couldn’t quite get it to fold into the tonneau – it probably would have gone in but we didn’t want to force it; most likely it’s just a little seized up from lack of use. The fabric is all great though, and the frame is solid.
The car is fitted with the optional 14” 5-spoke alloy wheels, which are all in fairly tidy condition. They were fitted with new Maxxis tyres in 2019, and evidently haven’t seen a lot of miles since as they have plenty of tread.
The V8 in the Stag is a characterful unit, at once smooth and tractable and also amusingly rumbly under acceleration. Interestingly, the Stag was originally designed to run a straight-six, but due to the design's evolution, a need for more power became apparent.
The decision was made to instead use a newly-designed, fuel-injected 2.5-litre (PI) V8. However, in 1968 and under the direction of Spen King, the engine was taken out to 2,997cc and in the process, the fuel-injection was stripped out and replaced with a pair of Stromberg carbs, which was done for emissions reasons for the US market. Triumph did originally have plans to run this engine in its range of saloons, but ultimately, the Stag was the only car to receive it. However, many cars would use 50% of the engine, as Triumph's slant-four was in essence the left bank of the V8.
The engine in this car feels like a solid and willing accomplice – it fires on the first turn of the key with just a small blip of the throttle to help it clear its throat, and happily idles from cold with just a smidgeon of choke. It pulls strongly through the gears, and there doesn’t appear to be any troubling news from the temperature gauge. This car is equipped with a 4-speed manual, which is definitely a plus as most Stags were automatic; it’s a robust transmission which also features a Laycock overdrive unit.
The chassis is well engineered, with fully independent suspension (MacPherson struts up front, semi-trailing arms out back), power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering and disc brakes at the front. We can see from the paperwork that a lot of money has been spent on refreshing the chassis, and this pays dividends to the way the car drives. It’s sure-footed, and feels reassuringly solid with no knocks or rattles. It rides well, steers well, stops well – the Stag’s clearly been looked after, it’s a lovely thing to drive.
The Stag is an interesting slice of British automotive history. Always a relatively niche proposition, today it’s all the more rare as it’s so often been overlooked by the average fairweather enthusiasts who gravitate toward MGBs as a default choice. But the Stag has so much to offer; that Michelotti styling has aged so well, it’s a truly handsome piece of design, and the interior is a thoroughly pleasant place to be. The oddball 3.0-litre V8 is a joyful unit that somehow fuses smooth torqueiness with muscle-car mischief, and it works with a chassis that’s both cosseting and playful. Forget your obvious choices – if you’re after a proper British classic that’s got genuine rarity and cachet, you want to get yourself a Stag.
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1976 Triumph Stag
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