This STAAAAAG would go along with my JAAAAAAAAG

what the hell went wrong? Two words: British Leyland.

the moment he said they had access to the buick engine, you just know eventually hes going to tell you, 'no, they didn't use it'

One of the best sounding exhaust notes ever

Triumph had so much potential in the 70s - such a waste 😞

Mechanics apart, the Stag was aesthetically beautiful, right up there with the E-type. It still is to me.

In spite of this car, the Triumph Spitfire still has the best sounding name in automotive history.

I absolutely love this car and I've even been lucky enough to have ridden in one since my grandad owns one. The noise of the v8 is absolutely beautiful

its the stig's CAR cousin, the staaaaag

I know a guy with a 1975 Stag & he's never had the slightest problem with the Triumph engine. Never overheats,oil pressure perfect ,etc.etc. So not everyone has a problem with the Stag.

I WOULD STILL BUY ONE......THOSE LOOKS...WOW!

Funny that! My 1977 Stag has sailed through two MOT's and completed 4000 miles in the last two years. Even more scary she has her original Triumph V8 under the bonnet! Not bad for a 40 year old design eh?

I own a 1973 Stag since 1975 (still have it) and that beautiful car gave me all opportunities to make friends with tow-trucks and garages. The engine was replaced by Triumph when less than 15 000 km under warranty. The power steering, overdrive, rear axle, fuel pump all gave way in the worse possible conditions (leaving me stranded at the worst possible places). Maintenance here in France was poor (little training, weak documentation, design changes all over the place) and never corrected design flaws: undersized timing chain, water cooling circuit not tight between the 2 cylinder heads, undersized cooling system (fit only for Scandinavia and north of England). Summary: a beautiful car made with quite poor material (metal used on the engine), based on unfinished design and assembled by often on strike workers.

That was a rare almost logically sensible presentation, Jeremy. Congratulations. What could possibly go wrong? But it did.

I have a stag with the totally original triumph v8. No modifications, no fancy radiators or fans or anything and it runs like a dream. Just service it as per the book, back flush rad and cooling system yearly and itll never give any bother. Mine doesn't anyway. I can go up through the lakes on the hottest of days sat in traffic for 15 mins at a time and the temp needle hardly moves. I do agree the rover is a better engine but theres no way ill swap mine. Keeping it original.

I'm not a huge fan of the stag. However one part is amazing and that is the sound that engine makes. It is absolutely brilliant. Honestly that triumph V8 is one of the very very very best sounding V8s ever made to my ears. Which is enough for me to forgive it many other things.

5:36 the answer is simple. When the Stag was first conceived in 1964 and when the Triumph V8 was launched in 1968 Triumph had not yet merged with Rover.

the song were clarkson drives the stag its name is Bill Withers - Lovely Day

This is a great episode, I never knew how disastrous the British Leyland saga was.

Who need SWAG when you have a STAAAAAG.

My dad restored one when I was a kid in the 80s. It was a really cool car. I do remember it overheating a lot. I wish he still had it.

Well, I maybe am an exemption to the rule? I bought a 20 months old Stag way back in 1978. The price I paid then Fl 20.000,-- ( about € 8.500,--). It came with hardtop, Wolfrace wheels. I had it 4 almost 3 years. The only problem I had, was the power steering servo, it had a broken sealing ring (which was hard to locate). Some years late, I had several BMW 3 series cars, which almost bankrupted me. I'm sorry up to this very day, I sold the Stag, as well as my TR3, my first car.

Clarkson is missing some of the story. The Stag was already under development when the amalgamation with Rover under BL happened. There was talk of switching to the 3500 V8, but it would have further delayed a car that had already experienced significant delay.

nice looking one for that price - I had a similar incident when I bought mine in Cardiff and drove it back to Hertfordshire. Everything went well but then I couldn't start it again. I turned out the distributor cam had not been greased and and the octagonal shape had been ground down to round shape on the journey, so the points weren't opening. Fixed that the following week and I had a touble free car for years to come.

A lot of diy petrol heads did put the rover v8 engine in their staaaaags...

Thats car in James Bond Diamons Are Forever, use by Peter Frank 😀

I agree with the earlier comments on keeping the cooling system well maintained. The reason the Stag didn't have the Rover V8 was because the car and the engine were being developed long before the formation of BLMC in 1968 by which time too much money had been spent developing the Triumph V8 for it to be scrapped. The late Spen King was told the Rover V8 wouldn't fit and even if it did, BL couldn't manufacture enough engines to put them in Stags. Jezza was being a bit harsh on the Triumph V8. There wasn't really anything fundamentally wrong with it.

My 1985 Range Rover has one and its got a drink problem but I love it. Superb engine!

I have had one for 30 odd years, fantastic car, way ahead of it's time. Some even had four wheel drive and abs before any other cars did!

Probably the best sounding V8 ever to go into production in any car (in my opinion)😁

Surely someone has shoehorned a Rover V8 into the Stag in all this time.

I fixed my Staaaag. I put a small block 302 Ford in it with a 5 speed. 1982. The SBF is narrower than the 350 Chevy and fits much better!

"The spirit in the sky"

Based on the Triumph 2000, or more appropriately the 2500 that began with a petrol injection engine (PI), that was unreliable and replaced with the twin carb (TC). The last 2500 saloon was the S.

Given that Saab later developed a 250-300 hp 4-litre 32v Quad-Cam V8 distantly related to the 145 hp 3-litre Triumph V8, perhaps Triumph should have continued collaborating with Saab on both the Slant-4 and V8 engines.

I love the Rover V8 I wish they still made it

Beautifully designed, reasonably engineered and poorly built. I loved my Staaaaaag.

some say that this car was a work of art and when the company stuck their own engine in it that was a disaster waiting to happen. all we know is that its called the stag

There has been a more recent independent video made about the history of the Stag and it is packed with more more detail, well worth a watch.

"...but it's OK because he's got a STAAAAAG!"

My dad had one, and I lucked into getting it when I was about 19. It drove like a DREAM, but sadly, broke down constantly.

they are a few british owned car makers left. ascari, morgan,,caterham and mcclaren, lister, westfield etc but not mass produced though

Worst time to recommend this, now I can't decide between this and a triumph spitfire

i want one so badly

From what DVD are these episodes from?

did my apprenticeship on the Staaaaag. put the Rover V8 in it and the car badly understeers, eats diffs and doubles its fuel consumption. the Stag engine was good, it was just built and maintained badly. blue-print it, fit a few aftermarket mods and change the oil regularly and its a goodun. the bit I don't understand is why BL didn't offer two engine options, the Stag V8 and the tried and trusted Triumph 2.5 straight 6. the 6 went on to be re-engineered into the SD1 6 which would have given the car a lift in MK2 form. no issues with the parts either, all standard BL bold-in stuff. the even bigger strange decision is why BL stayed with the Buick V8 when they inherited the Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 V8s through Jaguar. these were very efficient engines and could have been used to ignite all kinds of cars across the BL range.

I own a 1974 stag, it is however unlike other stags. its a bit of a Frankenstein's monster. has the engine and transmission out of an old Holden, a 253 v8 (about 4.1L) with a turbo 700 gearbox. they both BARELY fit in it, in fact, there wasn't enough room to wire the reversing lights to go on when you select reverse, instead they are on a switch under the dash. the engine, bigger and more powerful than the original is also much heavier and makes the car front heavy so the rear has a tendency to lift up and overtake the front when braking hard in corners. you will not notice these dangers though, as it is deceptive in how safe it feels, it almost eggs you on to push it just a little harder, lulling you into a false sense of security before it decides it's your time to die. it does not help that the sound the engine makes is intoxicating, many times i have found myself way over the speed limit not realizing how fast i was going because i was too busy listening to the roar of that v8. oh, that 253 v8 that's in it isn't stock standard either. it produces way too much power and way too much torque for such a small and light car, that by the way, has very thin wheels. it frequently chirps its wheels when it changes up into second, (driving it in the rain could kill you if you are not careful) this always results in a startled passenger and/or me giggling like a little child that just heard their parent say a naughty word. this car is like a Venus fly trap to anyone who is unaware of its dangers. it most certainly could be the death of anyone else that drives it. I love my car, and i know that if anyone steals it they will die to it.

Now the sad thing is that LTI (London Taxis International) is now owned by the Chinese (Geely).

I have a stag with original engine and radiator it never overheats b cause cooling sytem is clean no blokages

The mechanical issues on that Triumph were STAGgering, weren't they? 🤭. _(5/15/2022)_

Nooooo, not me Triumph Stag, I've just had it resprayed!

Some time people like to try to make thing's better, most of the time they fail. important thing is to keep trying in till its good and don't sell ONE in-till its perfect.

I had a 1972 mk 1 stag with a Ford v6 engine fitted back in the day 1986 loved that car Wish I still had it 😪

It sounds awesome.

Had a serious look at buying a Stag back in the early eighties in Sydney but could only find autos - I wanted a manual & they all looked a bit tired. A mate pointed me in the direction of a rare XR Ford Falcon GT which was for sale & ended up buying it. From what I have hear about the stag I think I dodged a bullet but they are a great looking car.

That excited ladies laugh though

just did my 73 with a crate zz4 tremec 5 sp upgraded brakes suspension ford 9 rear etc. makes the car a very cheap cobra with room for 4

My father had a Stag at 17 years old in the mid-70s (can you imagine the insurance costs for that today!). He still says its one of the best cars he has ever owned/driven and that it was girl magnet... Even if he did have to replace the radiator due to the engine overheating on him several times (there were no uprated radiators back then like they have now). One day I'd like to buy him one exactly the same as his was as a surprise if I can ever afford it.

My friend has one of those, engine is really nice in it. Suspension is broken but its a good British car

Way back then my Stag blew a spark plug clean out of its hole. It was threaded (not the plug) and wouldn't screw back in so I superglued it back in, it worked.

And then the rust ! Almost on par with an Alfa or Lancia of the period

Stag = beautiful, classic design

I had 2 stag's in the eighties..a white one and a red one.. lovely cars.. I was that good at taking the engine out..it only took me about one hour..the car was way ahead of it's time but the engine as we all know was a let down..under powered..but it sounded lovely ..thinking of getting another one!!

Now the quirks to the engine are understood, they can be made reliable. It was also concluded that they were in fact properly engineered, just badly put together. Maybe they should have used the 3.5l Rover engine but a well set up Stag engine is pretty sweet. I actually find that it’s smoother and possibly sounds nicer too.

Fab looking car with the top down...Love Jeremeys last word, Why? LoL

The sound....omg!

I own a stag, and against all advice insisted on buying with the stag engine, the problems with the initial unit was overheating, remember we were in the 70s, and people generally topped the rads up with tap water. today with larger rads and coolants, the stag engine is a reliable unit. BUT clarkson is right the Rover V8 should have been used, not only for reliability but tuning.

When this episode was shown on uktv people, they cut out the bit 'would you like to come back to my place tonight my dear in my staaaaaaaaag, do some rutting'.

Pure gold

I remember the porous block. Dumped in a can of some 'stuff' and it worked! And great as a teenager then.....could get one of these for a couple of hundred and just fix it.

0:46 All we know is it's called The Stig

A lovely caaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr. (mocking Withers' song) Seriously, a very lovely car.

In my opinion, England made the most exiting cars from the 50's to the mid-70's. If only the quality could have been equal to the japanese models things could have been a lot different. And I would still love to own a Jag!

Ooh I like them old cars. A Cad’s car indeed. The Staaaag. Like the Jaaag. Wow! Stylish as heck.

Go with a blended hypothesis of labor and weak government. Loved the car from the opening of Diamonds are Forever. Then I met an Italian named Alfa.

Wonderful!

Back in 1972 i bought as SPITFIRE but i really wanted a STAG now i still want one. Im a sucker for LOVE

Despite being a yank in a Merc-loving family, I would have picked the 5-speed gorgeous Stag over the R107 350SL - until the engine woes became public.

Yeah, but Triumph was split up in the 1936, the car division was bought by Standard in 1939 after it went bankrupt. Basically since those days Truimph Motorcycles has had nothing to do with Standard Triumph, Leyland or BL - the makers of the cars we see here

they done the same thing on Top Gear with the Jaguar, "i have a Jaaaaaag"

now that's a wonderful car !!!!!

@Seattlecarnut It was a design bought from Buick if I can remember rightly The only things that really go wrong with them are overheating, oil leaks and the occasional electrical problem. Later generations bored and stroked it out to 4 litres. It was the ideal powerplant for a small roadster or sports car. They've also come a long way in engineering all round.

Luved my white Stag....for years...

Today I brought one home. I will see if it was a mistake to buy one. But I drove 45 minutes between 100 and 120 km/h without any problems. And in my opinion the look is breathtaking and the sound of the engine, too. By the way, my stag is a yellow one, like this is shown...

Same. I'm still looking for a first car. Probably a 1.2 litre Clio or something along those lines.

There was actually nothing wrong with the engine design or cooling…. It was the manufacturing. They left casting sand inside them cos it wasn’t cleaned out properly and casting was poor. And it was always a single head that warped. Once the cooling system was cleaned out and a small mod made to take interior heater feed off both heads instead of one they were very reliable. So it was purely a manufacturing quality control and not a rubbish design. The stag engine was a nice high reving engine too compared to the rover, yes it weighed more which was a downside. Believe they were more economical too. Shame the factories couldn’t produce quality required.. and tbh would have been cool if they produced a 4l sprint headed version 😂

@paintingglass A little unfair. part of the excitement of 70s Italian sports cars was the "lottery" of whether or not you'd reach your destination under your own power. Most English cars of the day, while they might overheat or have things rattle, usually still got you there

The best car BL ever made was the fantastic Princess 2200 HLS!

It's films like these that encapsule why we love Mr. Clarkson.

It is my understanding that the roof was actually like that because of weaknesses in the body and the costs to redesign it would be too high and put back production by a significant amount and BL wanted it on sale asap. One of the main problems with using the Rover V8 was a lack of availability. They couldn't produce enough engines for all the cars that were to have them, Rover P6s, Land Rovers, Range Rovers ect. So Triumph decided to build their own after deciding that the 2.5 straight six from the Triumph 2500 wouldn't be powerful enough to compete with what they viewed as its main rivals. chiefly among which was the Mercedes SL.

Why is this the second time I've heard about this car this week but previously was completely ignorant of its existence And Staaaaaaggg

A resolution perfect for your... Watch.

What is the name of the song @ 2:30 ? Thank you in advance.

what is the song's name at 2:00 ? thanks

As soon I saw the car I laughed. I thought, yelp that will do it.

IN the mid-60s and on into the 70s the rivalry between Triumph and Rover was intense with their competing "2000" models and it continued even after both companies were part of British Leyland! Personally, I found the senior management at BL to be very weak both in management and engineering! They should have had all their brands in and dictated that full rationalization had to be the only way they would survive! In all aspects of manufacturing, A sharing of engines/gearboxes, platforms, and drive trains, etc. Only the body styles and interior finishings would be brand specific! (that is why VAG is now one of the biggest and most successful vehicle makers!).

2:44 is what you're here for

This is so low resolution I feel like I'm watching something included with the free floppy disk given out amiga power in 1992!

Actually the T bar roof was there to brace the chassis as the saloon based platform weakened when the roof was removed. Jeremy was quite harsh on the engine, despite its reliability issues from cost cutting and rushed development it had it's virtues: overhead cams, alloy heads (which were fragile) but by far the best feature was it's exhaust noise

@derrotkreig Leyland Motor Company merged with BMH in 1968 to create BL. Development of the Stag by Triumph started before the merger in 1965. By 1968 Triumph was already well underway developing their V8. To throw that all away would be frowned upon by the bean counters. Similar issue in regards to the RV8. Before Webster was moved to Austin Morris, the TV8 was fine. Harry had authority on parts used. Spen King didn't so the bean counters had their way = cheap gaskets = you know the rest