Even most Triumph lovers admit that the 3-liter V-8 engine fitted to the 25,939 Triumph Stags produced between 1970 and 1977 wasn’t developed as well as it could have been. Although a properly sorted, original-engined Stag is a wonderful car, many Stags have been retrofitted with alternative power plants. This 1973 version certainly has been with the addition of a GM V-6 and a four-speed transmission. It’s listed for sale here on craigslist and is located in Olathe, Kansas. Thanks to reader Gunter K. for sending in this rare find!
The car is finished in its original Sienna brown, which seems to be a very polarizing color. I’ve owned two Sienna Brown Triumphs (one was a Stag), and for me, that’s two too many, but you may feel differently. That hardtop is removable; once it’s off, there is a T-bar that remains to provide structural rigidity (by 1970s standards, anyway). The top folds nicely away under a hard, padded cover that really looks great. Giovanni Michelotti styled the Stag as per the rest of the Triumph lineup at the time. Trivia time; those 14″ five-spoke factory aluminum wheels are almost the same as those fitted to the 1979 & 1980 MGB Limited Editions; the cars have the same bolt circles.
The seller has been kind enough to show that something has fallen on one of those smart-looking fenders. A good paintless dent removal place might be able to get that dent completely out; you can access the rear of the fender by removing interior parts.
The interior of the Stag is still in pretty nice shape, and I’ll tell you that those seats are some of the most comfortable automotive seats I’ve ever sat in, complete with adjustable lumbar support! The wooden dash, power windows, and general high specification raise a nice Stag to a sophistication level unattained by most Triumph and MG owners. Remember, the target of this car when new was the Mercedes SL series! However, this car needs some help getting there as the seller tells us that the brakes are nonexistent, the clutch hydraulics are weak and the passenger door doesn’t open from the outside. All fixable problems, but problems nonetheless.
Well, the GM V-6 engine’s in there, for sure, although I think I’d work some on the air cleaner installation before I’d call it ready to go. You also have the minor/not minor absence of the original air conditioning, which in the southeast where I live is a necessity (97 Fahrenheit today). I’d also want to check under that battery; Stags particularly suffer from rust in that location as well as in the lower rear fenders just in front of the rear wheel wells. Perhaps you can negotiate a slightly lower price and take this project home?
That looks like a GM 2.8 V6. I would remove it and replace with either another Triumph V8 engine properly sorted, a Daimler 2.5V8, or the Rover V8. $6800 is reasonable if the body is clean.
Always liked the Stag, a Spitfire on steroids,,kind of. Why anyone would put a boat anchor slug like the 2.8 in this, is the real mystery. I’d have to say, I never had a V6 I liked, 2.8 being the worst. 4.3, different story, and a plethora of engines that would do better, some peoples are the craziest peoples,,apparently.
TOTALLY agree, Howard A; as V-6 engines are inherently unbalanced I would not own a vehicle with one. That said they are okay in potato cross-over vehicles which are mostly designed for people who hate to drive anyway. The ONLY V-6 that was done “right” was the VW VR-6, otherwise known as the in-line V-6. That engine had a single cylinder head and had the correct angles so that it was balanced and ran very smoothly.
Good project Stag.Must chevy mtrs be put in everything???
I hate brown cars
I hate beige /tan interiors
I love convertibles
I love stags
But not this one
The Rover- nee Buick 215 would be my pick. The engine the Stag should have had from day one.
Once again, Triumph- The Face of Failure.
Have owned a couple..The last one, a few years ago, had a chevy 350 and turbo 350 tranny..looked and ran good..The price, to me, is very high for this car..
Someone call Dent Wizard!
My son had a 73 Stag with a ford v6. We dropped in Ford 289 with a 4 speed (3 speed with od). Cruised at 70mph at 2k rpm. Very nice cruiser and fast too.
Mechanically, there really isn’t much wrong with the Stag except the engine and it’s flawed in seven fundamental ways. It really can’t be fixed though with much effort, it can be improved but even then, it’s never going to be as good as the alternatives except for the exhaust note; only the Daimler V8s can match that. Many small block US V8s can be used but there’s most support for the Rover 3.5 and later variations. Most tempting to try would be the Daimler 4.6 if one could be found although I’ve never seen anyone try to mate those to a manual box and that would matter to some. Ideally I guess one would build it with the engine of choice and then recondition the original engine to the point where it can if, need be, be swapped back because it’s the ones with well-sorted original engines which command a premium.
That approach would almost certainly not break even but might still attract some because the Stag is one of those cars which seems to affect even rational souls. They’re not fast or especially brilliant at anything (except the exhaust note) but people do fall in love with them.
https://nihilistnotes.blogspot.com/search?q=Unique
I worked in Barbados managing a $10 million villa in the Sandy Lane area. The owner had 2 cars, a Morgan +4 and a Stag in this same brown color. When I first read the Barn Find headline, I thought it might be the same car, as we had also changed out the roached original V8. One of the problems endemic to the Caribbean is hard water, and along with high temperatures and the total lack of anti-freeze, those 3 situations causes major problems with alloy engines like the Stag V8. Those cars were designed to be used with anti-freeze as it also provides better coolant temperature transfer.
When back in the USA, I sourced a replacement Triumph engine and sent it back down to Barbados, where a shop did the engine swap. However what I bought wasn’t a Stag engine, it was a TR-6 engine.
As someone who has restored plenty of TR-3 to TR-6 cars, and having done research on those cars, I discovered that the Stag was originally intended to have the TR-6 engine, and was designed with enough room for the straight 6 engine. So as far as I know, that brown Stag [the only one on the island] is still running around with a TR-6 engine [the gearbox is the same].
A Buick GNX turbo V6 would power this nicely. Paint it black as it would go well with the interior and drive it.
I’d love to see the documentation that the Stag was designed for the TR6 engine.
It wasn’t. However, the Stag WAS derived from the 2000/2500 series which did have the inline 6 (essentially GT6 or TR6 form) and therefore the six can be installed in the Stag very easily (factory parts). The Stag started as a study by Giovanni Michelotti based on a 2000 sedan.
Jamie and Phil,
While doing research in the archives of the BMIHT museum back in the late 1980s, I found 1 or more 8×10 B&W photos of a prototype Stag with the 6 cylinder engine. I guess when I ordered copies of photos, I should have asked for those too! It’s that photo set that I based my statement on.
I shipped a wooden pallet with a complete TR-6 front chassis [from the front seat area forward] with engine & gearbox, along with the radiator and all attaching points, but no suspension or body parts. I no longer remember exactly what parts were required, but the shop we used in Barbados said they had everything they needed in the shipment, to make the swap.
Is it my imagination, or are some of the pics posted showing an aqua Stag ?
Bill, the photos you saw were probably of the car made by Giovanni Michelotti based on a 2000 sedan.
Phil, I looked at some photos of the original Michelotti design, and I suspect you are right. It’s simply been to long for my aging brain to remember any serious details, so I will defer to your experience.
That said, the owner of the Barbados Stag told me the car was finally reliable [as far as the drive train], and he insisted it was more powerful than when he bought it new, but I think his memory was slanted towards all the times the V8 gave him problems.
I sent off an email to a friend on the island and asked him to check into where the car is today, and if it’s possible to get photos of the engine. Will post them here if he comes thru. He’s a car guy and knows all the unusual and older vehicles on the island.