Another mid-life crisis vehicle
Posted by: Bruce Woodhouse on 30 September 2013
Serious nostalgia. My first car bought with my first paycheck was a very tatty example. I drove it for years whilst it decayed gently, I proposed to my wife sitting on the bonnet on a windswept moor...
Anyway this is rather a tider example. Built 1971, full rebuild 1990 nut by nut and 20,000miles since. Utterly gorgeous to my eyes, and what an exhaust note. Collecting it next week.
We are going to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary sitting on the bonnet next year!
It looks absolutely fantastic. One of similar quality drove past me the other day - wonderful sound (although a bit pungent!)
Bruce very nice, a beautiful car with unfulfilled potential, much like most of the British motor industry in those days
Has it still got the original SAAB based V8 engine?
We still see quite a few Stags around these parts, as there is a Stag fettler out near Dorking.
It is completely original spec apart from a couple of minor mods-electronic ignition and a stainless exhaust with a mildly uprated manifold. The Triumph V8 is gloriously intact!
The cooling system has been slightly uprated to prevent the well known issues with overheating.
It has also been finished far better than when it left the factory. Every panel paitned inside and out, full underbody protection (and painted underbody) and every conceivable space filled with waxoyl.
the inside is a little bit tatty-comensurate with age.
Bruce
Yes all very good points and well worth doing to keep the motor in one piece and running well.
ENJOY.
I've done fair bit of research before buying. The 'Triump Snag' moniker was fairly deserved but the problems are well known and now very much dealt with.
Key to the reliability is some simple mods, good regular maintenance and good regular usage.
The Stag really was the archetypal 70's UK motoring industry disaster. Good idea poorly designed in some key areas, under-developed at launch and poorly manufactured. Late cars had poor quality steel and rusted fast, engines sufferred from cooling problems and casting faults.
It is probably more popular now than when it was new-and a fair few of the 20,000 or so sold in the UK are still running.
Bruce
The cooling system has been slightly uprated to prevent the well known issues with overheating.
That'll go a long way towards taking the crisis out of the mid life.
It is completely original spec apart from a couple of minor mods-electronic ignition and a stainless exhaust with a mildly uprated manifold. The Triumph V8 is gloriously intact!
The cooling system has been slightly uprated to prevent the well known issues with overheating.
It has also been finished far better than when it left the factory. Every panel paitned inside and out, full underbody protection (and painted underbody) and every conceivable space filled with waxoyl.
the inside is a little bit tatty-comensurate with age.
Bruce
Lovely car Bruce. They certainly need the bodywork protection as they were rather prone to rust. It looks like that one will last you many years to come. Enjoy.
Car blokes Ed China and Mike Wheeler on their Wheeler Dealers programme did a make over on a Stag,.
Not always 100% sure how a good a job they do but lots of information, just what us petrol heads need.
If your interested utube versions:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...00898856&index=1
PS how do you put URLs under words in posts?
Well done, Bruce. Lovely looking Stag. I've always liked the burble-note exhaust and, like most Triumphs of that era, the wood trim on the dash is a treat. Classic car insurance on limited mileage and membership of the owners club to secure reasonably priced spares and she should be cheap to run too. Hope you enjoy her.
MDS
That is one fabulous car - as others have said, it encapsulates the UK car industry post-war which now seems to live on uniquely in F1. You are a lucky man.
Something for the petrol-heads on telly this evening.
http://www.radiotimes.com/epis...to-build-a-super-car
Plus the film 'Senna' which I shall be watching.
John.
Collected the car and burbled splendidly up the M6 and across to home this weekend, passing everything except petrol stations. I had forgotten just how lovely it is to bumble along in an old car, smiling at the world. As my wife pointed out driving in it is the full sensory experience; a suite of mechanical and road noises, the smells of hot oil and old car.
Performed gloriously apart from a minor diff leak ('they all do that sir'). Lovely V8 full of torque and what an exhaust note!
Happy days of tinkering in the garage await.
Bruce
Lovely stuff, Bruce. One of the many benefits of a car like yours is how it makes you relax and enjoy the drive. Others around you can belt about, cutting one another up as usual but somehow when in a classic it seems easy to just watch and smile.
Keep us posted on her (the Stag, I mean, not Mrs W!).
MDS