The demise of the British motor industry was a saga of brilliant ideas, botched manufacturing and often dreadful management.
We always seemed to come up with wonderful concepts which were then restricted in scope by cost cutting and more often than not ruined by poor manufacturing standards.
This was especially so in the 1970s when dear old BMC had given way to new management which for a time kept on individual brands such as Triumph.
This was a marque steeped in brilliance and class. The Renown and Mayflower of the 1950s were luxury cars scaled down and even later models like the 2000 were still flying the flag with pride.
Triumph also had a sporting heritage with its TR Series, beefed up to a major degree by the most famous Triumph of those final years, the aptly named Stag, a brute of a Grand Tourer with fantastic performance and very good looks.
It was one of the first modern niche cars, something which just filled a gap. It was never designed to meet a carefully researched market need. It just happened. However, some auto-historians claim it took over from the old Austin Healey 3000, but the Stag was a totally different animal.
Stylist Giovanni Michelotti, carried out an exercise on a Triumph 2000 chassis and the company was so impressed the foundations were laid.
The parent company BMC, who produced MG, Austin, Morris, Riley, Wolesley and Austin-Healey, and British Motor Holdings, who produced Rover, Daimler and Jaguar amalgamated to form the British Leyland Motor Company. But the Stag was still on track.
The first pre-production Stag was not finished until the autumn of 1969 and not until June, 1970, was the car eventually released to the public.
It was powered by a three-litre V8 engine, with true 2+2 seating, electric windows and more. It was a luxury Grand Tourer and 25,877 were produced.
But the British Leyland factor had done its damage and the Stag gained a reputation for being unreliable. It was a classic last gasp Brit car. Stunningly designed but marred by tacky switches and trim and held back by manufacturing that was way below its image.
It lasted for only seven years. The three-litre V8 became notorious for overheating, warping cylinder heads and stretching timing chains.
The trick with the Stag was to convert it to take a Rover 3,500 V8 unit, an engine it is said the Stag should have had from the start. But despite all of this the Stag has become very much sought after today as a desirable classic.
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