Triumph Stag
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The Triumph Stag is a
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sports tourer which was sold between 1970 and 1978 by the British
Triumph Motor Company The Triumph Motor Company was a British car and motor manufacturing company in the 19th and 20th centuries. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann of Nuremberg formed S. Bettmann & Co. and started importing bicycles from Eur ...
, styled by Italian designer
Giovanni Michelotti Giovanni Michelotti (6 October 1921 – 23 January 1980) was one of the most prolific designers of sports cars in the 20th century. His notable contributions were for Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati and Triumph Motor Company, Triumph marques. He was ...
.


Design and styling

Envisioned as a luxury
sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...
, the Stag was designed to compete directly with the Mercedes-Benz SL class models. All Stags were four-seater
convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a Car, passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary across eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air drivin ...
coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...
s, but for structural rigidity – and to meet proposed American rollover standards of the time – the Stag required a
B-pillar The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or greenhouse—designated respectively as the A, B, C and (in larger cars such as 4-door stati ...
" roll bar" hoop connected to the windscreen frame by a T-bar. A body-colour removable hard top with defrost wires on the rear window, full headliner and lever operated quarter windows was a popular factory option. The car started as a styling experiment cut and shaped from a 1963–64
pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the co ...
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
saloon, also styled by Giovanni Michelotti. His agreement was, if Harry Webster, Director of Engineering at Triumph, liked the design, Triumph could use the prototype as the basis for a new model. Webster loved the design and took the prototype back to England. The result, a two-door drophead (convertible), had little in common with the styling of its progenitor 2000, but retained the suspension and drive line. Triumph liked the Michelotti design so much that they propagated the styling lines of the Stag into the new T2000/T2500 Mark II saloon and estate model lines of the 1970s. Triumph gave new projects four-letter development code names (e.g. Bomb for the Spitfire) and the Stag was the only Triumph to take its development code name into production.


Engineering

The initial Stag design used the saloon's 2.0-litre six cylinder engine which was intended to be uprated to 2.5-litres for production cars, but Webster intended the Stag, large saloons and estate cars to use a new Triumph-designed
overhead cam An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine in which the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combusti ...
(OHC) 2.5-litre
fuel injected Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of a fuel injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All co ...
(PI) V8. In 1968, under the direction of Engineering Director Harry Webster and his successor as Chief Engineer, Spen King, the new 2.5 PI V8 was enlarged to to increase the power available. To meet emission standards in the US, a key target market, the troublesome mechanical fuel injection was dropped in favour of dual Zenith-Stromberg 175 CDSE carburettors. In common with several other manufacturers, a key aim of Triumph's engineering strategy at the time was to create a family of in-line and V engines of different size around a common crankshaft. The various configurations Triumph envisaged would enable the production of four-, six-, and eight-cylinder power plants of capacity between 1.5 and 4 litres, sharing many parts, and hence offering economies of manufacturing scale and of mechanic training. A number of iterations of Triumph's design went into production, notably a 2.0-litre slant four-cylinder engine used in the later Dolomite and TR7, and a variant manufactured by StanPart that was initially used in the
Saab 99 The Saab 99 is a car produced by Swedish manufacturer Saab from 1968 to 1984; their first foray into a larger class than the Saab 96. While considered a large family car in Scandinavia, it was marketed as a niche compact executive car in most ...
. In 1968 the Saab variant became the first of these engines to be fitted to a production car, followed by the Stag V8 in 1970. Sometimes described as two four-cylinder engines siamesed together, it is more strictly correct to say the four-cylinder versions were the left half of a Stag engine. It has sometimes been alleged Triumph was instructed to use the all-aluminium Rover V8, originally designed by
Buick Buick () is a division (business), division of the Automotive industry in the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobil ...
and under development by Rover at the time, but claimed it would not "fit". Installation testing of both the Triumph V8 and the Rover V8 was carried out in May/June 1967, the conclusion being that the engine was too tall and that front structure changes would be necessary. It was decided not to further hold up Stag development and to proceed with the Triumph V8 unit. Although later enthusiasts have shown that it can be made to fit the space, the decision to go with the Triumph V8 was probably more due to the Buick's lack of British sales experience, the fact that there was not a manual gearbox offered by Rover at the time, and that the different torque characteristics and weight would have entailed substantial re-engineering of the Stag when it was already behind schedule. Such a substitution would also have required a rethinking of the wider engineering strategy, both of which were important "fit" considerations beyond the comparatively trivial matter of the relative dimensions of the two engines. Furthermore, Rover, also owned by Leyland Motor Corporation at the time, could not necessarily have supplied the numbers of V8 engines required to match the anticipated production of the Stag. As in the 2000 model line, unitary construction was employed, as was fully independent suspension:
MacPherson strut The MacPherson strut is a type of automotive suspension system that uses the top of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot. It is widely used in the front suspension of modern vehicles. The name comes from American automotive engineer ...
s in front,
semi-trailing arm A trailing-arm suspension, also referred to as trailing-link, is a form of vehicle suspension. In a motor vehicle it places one or more horizontal arms (or "links") perpendicular to and forward of the axle on the chassis or unibody, which a ...
s at the rear. Braking was by front
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and rear
drum brake A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of Brake shoe, shoes or Brake pad, pads that press outward against a rotating bowl-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press o ...
s, while steering was power-assisted
rack and pinion rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the '' pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert between rotational motion and linear motion: rotating the pinion causes the rack to be d ...
.


Production

The car was launched nearly two years late in June 1970, to a warm welcome at the international auto shows. In the UK the Stag was an immediate success for Triumph with a 12-month waiting list rapidly being established and cars changing hands at well above list price, but when it was released into the US, its main target market, it rapidly acquired a reputation for mechanical unreliability, usually in the form of overheating. These problems arose from a variety of causes. First, the collaboration with Saab on the related slant 4 engine gave rise to design features being carried over to the V8, some of them questionable from an engineering perspective. For example, because the Saab 99 placed the engine back to front in the engine bay, the traditional mounting of the water pump on the front face was not possible. The answer for the Saab engine was to place the water pump within the top of the engine block, which is a higher position than is usual. Due to the use of a common machining line for both the slant 4 and the V8, this positioning was copied to the V8. If the engine became hot in traffic, and coolant escaped from the cooling system via the expansion bottle, the volume of fluid left when the engine cooled down again fell. If this was not noticed and it continued to occur, the coolant level would eventually fall below that of the pump, which would be unable to circulate the coolant. Overheating would result, often accompanied by pump failure. Water pump failures also sometimes occurred due to poorly-hardened drive gears, which wore out prematurely and stopped the water pump. Once this key component of the cooling system had failed, overheating ensued. A second cause of engine trouble was the lack of attention to corrosion inhibitor in the coolant. The block was made from iron and the heads from aluminium, a combination that required the use of corrosion-inhibiting antifreeze all year round. This point was not widely appreciated by owners or by the dealer network supporting them. Consequently, engines were affected by electrolytic corrosion, and white alloy oxide sludge collected in radiator cores, reducing radiator efficiency and again causing overheating. The result was head gasket failure due to cylinder head heat distortion, a very expensive repair. Owners would usually get their repaired cars back with the radiator still clogged, leading to repeat failures. A third cause of trouble was the engine's use of long, simplex roller link chains, which would first stretch and then often fail inside fewer than , resulting in expensive damage. Even before failing, a stretched timing chain would skip links and cause valves to lift and fall in the wrong sequence, so that valves hit pistons and damaged both. This fault may have been worsened by poor quality chains. Another problem with the cylinder heads was said to be the arrangement of cylinder head fixing studs, half of which were vertical and the other half of which were at an angle. Anecdotally, this arrangement was used to reduce production costs, as the cylinder head mounting studs and bolt were all accessible with the rocker covers fitted. This allowed the factory to assemble the cylinder head completely before fitting to the engine. This arrangement worked well enough on the 4-cylinder engines, but in the V8 the angled and vertical studs, when heated and cooled, expanded and contracted in different directions sufficiently to give rise to sideways forces that caused warping of the engine block. The problem was made worse by the engine's propensity to overheat. Finally, although pre-production engines were built meticulously, those fitted to production cars were not subject to the same careful quality control. Engines are still being discovered with casting sand and core wire inside, blocking the coolant passages and causing overheating. This combination of manufacturing and maintenance flaws led to some engine failures in the UK but in the US the situation was exacerbated by the need to fit low compression pistons to comply with California's low octane petrol requirements, and the associated advance in ignition timing to meet that country's continually changing emission regulations. The result was that the engine developed greater heat and, when automatic transmission and air conditioning were fitted, the engine cooling ability was overly compromised. Although US cars were fitted with engine cowls to try to compensate, all too often the result of a freeway tailback was an overheating engine. ''
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'' magazine rated the Triumph Stag as one of the 50 worst cars ever made. British Leyland never materially re-engineered the Triumph 3.0 litre OHC V8 to address these issues, other than introducing a domed piston to aid combustion and a high-pressure cooling system that boiled over at a higher temperature. Another problem was that the Stag was always a relatively rare car. British Leyland had around 2,500 UK dealers when the Stag was on sale and a total of around 19,000 were sold in the UK over seven years. Thus the average dealer sold only seven or eight Stags during the car's production run, or roughly one car per year. This meant that few dealers saw defective Stags often enough to recognise and diagnose the cause of the various problems. A number of owners replaced the troublesome engine with units from other cars, such as the Rover V8, or the Triumph 2.5-litre engine around which the Stag was originally designed. The number of such conversions undertaken is not known, but as at September 2024, fewer than 6% of surviving Stags known to DVLA have a 3.5-litre engine or larger, according to www.howmanyleft.com., while 92% have a 3-litre engine. It is not clear how many of these are original 3-litre Stag engines and how many are Ford Essex units. It is thought by the relevant owners club that the Ford engine powers fewer Stags than does the Rover V8. The last production Stag (BOL88V) is kept at the
Heritage Motor Centre The British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England holds the world's largest collection of historic British cars, with over 300 cars on display from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Heritage Trust. History The c ...
, Warwickshire.


Mark I and Mark II variants

Perhaps because the American market never took to the Stag, only 25,877 cars were produced between 1970 and 1977. Of this number, 6,780 were export models, of which 2,871 went to the United States. As the Stag was originally destined for large sales in the United States, Triumph utilised the 'model year' method of altering specification details, with each new model year bringing cosmetic changes. For the 1973 model year a number of engineering changes were also made and, although Triumph only ever referred to Stag as one model, since production ceased, enthusiasts have introduced the terms 'Mk 1' and 'Mk 2' to refer to cars produced before and after the 1973 model year change. Model year batches or 'sanctions' are generally identified through differing production numbering sequences, thus, as the first 1973 model year car was chassis numbered 20001, those cars with chassis numbers before 20001 are often referred to as Mk 1 cars and those cars with chassis numbers after 20001 are often referred to as Mk 2 cars. When introduced in 1973, the most notable differentiating feature between Mark 1 and Mark 2 Stags was the addition of twin coachlines to the body. At this time the sills and tail panel colour was also altered from body colour to low-gloss black but as the tail panel was altered back again for the 1976 model year, it is not an ideal indicator of the difference between Mk 1 / Mk 2 cars. Inside, Mk 2 cars had a slightly different warning light cluster and the instrument dial needles point up rather than down. They also had a single courtesy light in the T-bar rather than lights at the top of each B-post, the steering wheel was smaller, the seats were upholstered in a different way such that it was possible to fit a simple head restraint (which was initially an optional extra but became a standard fitment later on) and the map-reading light was deleted from the door of the glove box and replaced with an internal light. Very early production cars had a three-quarter window in the soft top, which was deleted during the 1972 model year as it tended to become trapped and then split when stowed. A higher-pressure cooling system was introduced during the 1972 model year. For the 1976 model year the cars returned to having body-colour sills and tail panel, but a stainless steel sill cover, as fitted to all US Stags, was fitted over the sills for all 1976 and 1977 cars. Late Stags fitted with the slightly longer BW65 automatic transmission had a correspondingly shorter propshaft to compensate. Cars for export markets such as the United States comprised unique combinations of features specifically required for compliance with various states' requirements, or simply for marketing purposes. Cars factory-designated as "Federal specification" included features such as side impact bars in the doors, Federal Department of Transportation compliant lighting, and anti-smog emissions equipment which was not generally found on vehicles for other markets. Approximately half of the cars built were fitted with a
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Type 35 3-speed
automatic transmission An automatic transmission (AT) or automatic gearbox is a multi-speed transmission (mechanics), transmission used in motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. The 1904 ...
, which on the last 3,800 vehicles produced gave way to a Type 65. The other choice was a derivative of the earlier
Triumph TR2 The Triumph TR2 is a sports car produced by the Standard Motor Company in the United Kingdom from 1953 to 1955. It was most commonly available in open two-seater form. History Standard's Triumph Roadster was out-dated and under-powered on ar ...
manual gearbox which had been modified and improved over the years for use in the TR4/A/IRS/TR5/250/6. The first gear ratio was raised and needle roller bearings were used in place of the bronze bushings on the layshaft. Early 4-speed manual transmission models could be ordered with an A-type
Laycock Laycock is an English surname, likely originating from the placename Lacock, in Wiltshire (which is pronounced ''Laycock'') or Laycock in West Yorkshire. According to the 1990 United States Census, Laycock is the 22,119th most common surname. Not ...
overdrive unit, later ones frequently came with a J-type Laycock unit. The overdrive option was often chosen as the engine RPM drops significantly with this option in 3rd and 4th (top) gears, and it was included as a standard fitment for all manual cars from 1973. Other than the choice of transmissions, there were very few factory-installed options. On early cars, buyers could choose to have the car fitted with just the soft-top, just the hard-top (with the hood stowage compartment empty), or with both. Later cars were supplied as either a 'soft top model' or with both roofs as a 'hard and soft top model'. Three wheel styles were offered. The standard fitment for non US-bound cars from 1970 to 1975 was steel wheels with Rostyle "tin-plate" trims. The wheels are secured with the usual four bolts, but the Rostyle trims have five false bolts. Standard fitment for the US for 1971 and 1972 model years was a 72-spoke wire spoke wheel which was specially designed for Stag. These were possibly available as factory fitments for other markets. For the 1973 model year in the US, five-spoke alloy wheels became the standard fitment and these were also available for other markets. For the 1976 model year, cars for all markets had the alloy wheels fitted as standard. Electric windows, power steering and power-assisted brakes were standard with Delaney Gallay air conditioning being a factory fitted option. A range of aftermarket products including a luggage rack, uprated Koni
shock absorber A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulics, hydraulic device designed to absorb and Damping ratio, damp shock (mechanics), shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typic ...
s, floor mats, and Lucas Square Eight fog lamps were available as dealer-installed optional accessories. Part numbers were allocated for leather upholstery but its actual existence is doubtful as it was not included in either the sales brochures or the price lists and no surviving car is known to have original factory leather. Rather unusually for a 4-seat touring car, the parts catalogue included a sump protector plate that was never produced.


Replacement

The Stag was never directly replaced. British Leyland planned an equivalent model to follow the Stag in the form of a derivative of the
Triumph TR7 The Triumph TR7 is a sports car that was manufactured in the United Kingdom from September 1974 to October 1981 by British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which changed its name to British Leyland (BL) in 1975. The car was launched in the Uni ...
sports car which was codenamed the
Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...
. The Lynx used the TR7 platform with an extra 12 inches in the wheelbase to accommodate a rear seat and had fastback
coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...
bodywork. Power came from a 3.5-litre Rover V8 and the gearbox and rear axle were lifted from the
Rover SD1 The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' division), and finally the Austin Rover division of British Leyland from 1 ...
. The Lynx was very close to production being scheduled for launch in 1978. However the sudden closure of the Triumph factory in
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,
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, where the car was to be built and new policies implemented by BL's new chief executive,
Michael Edwardes Sir Michael Owen Edwardes (11 October 1930 – 15 September 2019) was a British people, British-South African business executive who held chairmanships at several companies - most notably motor manufacturer British Leyland in the late 1970s an ...
, led to the Lynx's cancellation.


Unmade variants

Triumph planned a
coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...
version of the Stag to complement the open-top tourer, in the same manner as the smaller GT6 coupé was based on the
Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the ...
. In 1968, Michelotti converted his original 1966 styling concept Stag into his idea of a coupe version and, following further deliberations at Triumph, he was sent a prototype body shell for an 'improved' version to be manufactured. This second car took very clear styling cues from the GT6, including the shape of the rear windows and roofline and the provision of air vent 'gills' in the
C-pillar The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or greenhouse—designated respectively as the A, B, C and (in larger cars such as 4-door station w ...
. In 1970/71, Triumph built a one-off 'production' Stag coupé, called the
Fastback A fastback is an automotive styling feature, defined by the rear of the car having a single slope from the roof to the tail. The kammback is not a fastback design with a roofline that tapers downward toward the car's rear before being cut of ...
, to Michelotti's design with minor detail differences to match the production Stag more closely. Although the design was considered successful and "more useful than an ordinary Stag", British Leyland did not continue with the project, reportedly because they feared the Stag fastback would take sales from other actual and planned vehicles in the BL range. The Triumph-built prototype survives. A number of Stags were built with
four-wheel drive A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case pr ...
using the Ferguson Formula developed by
Ferguson Research Harry Ferguson Research Limited was a British company founded by Harry Ferguson who was mostly known as "the father of the modern farm tractor". He was also a pioneer aviator, becoming one of the first to build and fly his own aeroplane in Irel ...
and pioneered on the
Jensen FF The Jensen FF is a four-wheel drive grand tourer produced by British car manufacturer Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1971. It was the first non all-terrain production car equipped with four-wheel drive and an anti-lock braking system. The power ...
. One Stag was reportedly fitted with the FF system by Triumph itself during development, but was either scrapped or converted back to standard specification. Two more 4WD Stags were built in 1972 by FF Developments, a company separate from Ferguson that had licensed the technology for converting existing road cars. The cars (one with manual transmission, one with automatic) were commissioned by GKN for development and testing work. Both had automatic
locking differential A locking differential is a mechanical component, commonly used in vehicles, designed to overcome the chief limitation of a standard open Differential (mechanical device), differential by essentially "locking" both wheels on an axle together as ...
s actuated by a
viscous coupling A viscous coupling is a mechanical device which transfers torque and rotation by the medium of a viscous fluid. Design Rotary viscous couplings with interleaved, perforated plates and filled with viscous fluids are used in automotive syste ...
and the same Dunlop
Maxaret Dunlop's Maxaret was the first anti-lock braking system (ABS) to be widely used. Introduced in the early 1950s, Maxaret was rapidly taken up in the aviation world, after testing found a 30% reduction in stopping distances, and the elimination o ...
mechanical
anti-lock braking system An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a Automotive safety, safety anti-Skid (automobile), skid Brake, braking system used on aircraft and on land motor vehicle, vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. ABS operates by preventing t ...
as used in the Jensen. The cars differed visually from standard by having a broad bulge in the centre of the bonnet; the engine had to be mounted slightly higher in the engine bay to accommodate the drive to the front wheels. Both these cars survive. A lightweight Stag was tested which was essentially a standard Stag with most of the sound-deadening material removed. This did not proceed. A 32-valve Stag V8 engine was considered, but no documentary or other trace of any actual engine having been built has come to light. Any such engine could not have used two Dolomite Sprint 16-valve heads because it would have required mirror-image heads on opposite sides. Otherwise, the second camshaft, above the opposite bank of cylinders, would have emerged at the wrong end of the engine. FF Developments also converted a number of Triumph 2000s (saloons and estates) to 4WD, including at least one 'Triumph 3000 estate' which received a Stag engine and gearbox as well as the Ferguson 4WD drivetrain.


Classic status

The Triumph Stag has sizeable club and owner support and a number of specialist suppliers. According to the main UK enthusiast club approximately 8,500 Stags are believed to survive in the United Kingdom. According to DVLA data in Q4 2022, 8,409 UK cars survive, either taxed or under SORN.. This represents a survival rate of 46.51% of the 17,819 originally registered for UK road
howmanyleft.co.uk- triumph stag
''www.howmanyleft.co.uk'' accessed 9 November 2020


Notable appearances

*In 1971's '' Straw Dogs'', an early pre-production Stag is
Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for Dustin Hoffman filmography, his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable charac ...
's main transport. *In the James Bond film '' Diamonds Are Forever, ''Bond commandeers a Saffron Yellow 1970 Stag from a diamond smuggler. * The 1978–1979 UK TV series ''Hazell'' featured a 1975 Mk2 Stag, originally green, but later repainted red. *A 1973 Stag is driven by several characters in the 1985 movie ''
My Beautiful Laundrette ''My Beautiful Laundrette'' is a 1985 British romantic comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The film was one of the first films released by Working Title Films. The film is set in London during the ...
''. *In the 1981–1991 BBC/Australian TV series '' Bergerac'', a yellow Stag is used by Bergerac's ex-wife Deborah. *In the 1998 film, '' Dad Savage'', a Carmine Red 1977 Stag is used as an intended getaway vehicle. *In the 2000–2001 BBC TV series, ''
Second Sight Extrasensory perception (ESP), also known as a sixth sense, or cryptaesthesia, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was ado ...
'', DCI Ross Tanner (
Clive Owen Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series '' Chancer'' from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film '' Close ...
) drives a Sapphire Blue Stag. *In the BBC series ''
New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural comedy drama, created by Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell, produced primarily by Wall to Wall (until its final year, when it was handled by Headstrong Pictures), and broadcast on BBC On ...
'', retired Detective Sergeant Gerry Standing drives a British racing green 1974 Stag that occasionally gives him trouble. *In the 2018 BBC TV series '' A Very English Scandal'', Jeremy Thorpe (
Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...
) drives a white Triumph Stag. *In 2021, the Stag plays the main role in Amazon Original ''Modern Love'' throughout the first episode of series 2: "On a serpentine road, with the top down". *In the final ''
The Grand Tour ''The Grand Tour'' is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, and Andy Wilman, for Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 November 2016. The programme was devised in the wake of the depar ...
'' special "One For The Road", released on 13 September 2024,
James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' fr ...
drove a Stag across Zimbabwe and parts of Botswana. Of the cars featured in the special, the Stag was the only car not to suffer any mechanical issues.The Grand Tour reveals first look at final ever special - and confirms release date
''
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'' 22 August 2024


References


Further reading

* Poole, C. (2004). Genteel Tourer: The Story of the 1970–77 Triumph Stag. ''Collectible Automobile, October 2004'', pp. 52–61. * Taylor, James (1999). Original Triumph Stag: The Restorers Guide. pp. 5–15. * Taylor, James (1992). Triumph Stag 1970–1977: Choice – Purchase – Performance – #4; Essential Advice & Data for Buyers & Enthusiasts. pp. 6–12. * Triumph Service Division, Coventry England. (1969). Triumph British Leyland Preliminary Service Information – STAG, Part Number 545160 * Standard-Triumph Sales Limited (1969). British Leyland Triumph, Triumph Stag Graphic Catalogue, Graphic Publication no. 519579


External links


Triumph
{{Triumph_Motor_Company_timeline
Stag A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) a ...
British Leyland vehicles Cars introduced in 1970 Convertibles 1970s cars Cars discontinued in 1977