Tickford Stag

[sierraman]

Whatever happened to the Triumph Tickford Stag? For the unaware it was a 1975 Stag customised by Tickford during 1982, painted jet black, even the chrome. Supposedly the owner insisted on anonymity presumably to avoid angry retribution from the Stag owners club! 

Wonder what became of it? 

[HMC]

I believe the owner was assassinated in 1983, but I dont know the fate of the car.

 

[omegod]

5 minutes ago, HMC said:

I believe the owner was assassinated in 1983, but I dont know the fate of the car.

 

Christ,  that Stag owners club don't fuck about do they !!

[vulgalour]

The Aronline article published 6 days ago suggests he wasn't and the car still exists: https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/triumph/stag/tickfords-triumph-1982-stag-upgrade/

The comments, however, are full of Opinions.

[HMC]

Yes dont take me too seriously

[sierraman]

Yeah I read that, some of them were foaming at the mouth over someone modifying a Stag. 

[vulgalour]

10 minutes ago, HMC said:

Yes dont take me too seriously

See... it was plausible enough to believe it was real.  One for the Facts thread.

[Crackers]

Hang on a minute, that looks bloody awesome.

[Bren]

12 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Hang on a minute, that looks bloody awesome.

It does.

 

[Clunk]

16 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Hang on a minute, that looks bloody awesome.

Get a less jutting splitter and remove that bonnet scoop and that is perfection (For me).

[stuboy]

looks fabulous

[adw1977]

If the Stag had still been in production in 1982, it would probably have looked something like that.

[somewhatfoolish]

If they'd fitted the Buick it probably could have been, that boat anchor sank it before it was launched.

[Rocket88]

6 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

If they'd fitted the Buick it probably could have been, that boat anchor sank it before it was launched.

Absolutely…. Nailing two Dolomite engines together, with a timing chain only marginally shorter than Hadrian’s wall ( change every 25k miles) marginal cooling, and sand cast blocks that they didn’t bother flushing out properly was never going to be exactly reliable…..

[adw1977]

Supposedly the Buick/Rover V8 wouldn't fit, but as the attempt to make it fit was made by Triumph engineers there is a suspicion that they didn't try very hard!

[Soundwave]

4 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

Supposedly the Buick/Rover V8 wouldn't fit, but as the attempt to make it fit was made by Triumph engineers there is a suspicion that they didn't try very hard!

Especially given that countless blokes in garden sheds apparently figured it out, as loads were subsequently home converted!

[adw1977]

I suppose there's a difference between making it fit on an individual car that you're prepared to spend a lot of time on and making it fit in a way that can be done on a production line.  

Even so, the suspicion is that Triumph v Rover rivalry is what really sunk the idea. 

[adw1977]

The idea of the Stag being in production in 1982 isn't entirely fantasy.  The following is from Chris Cowin's book British Leyland Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968 -1978 :

"The decision to drop the Stag then began to look a little premature, especially after the 1978 cancellation of the Lynx and its V8 variant, once intended as a substitute.  Investigations were made into re-starting Stag assembly, but key tooling had already been destroyed."

[sierraman]

7 hours ago, adw1977 said:

The idea of the Stag being in production in 1982 isn't entirely fantasy.  The following is from Chris Cowin's book British Leyland Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968 -1978 :

"The decision to drop the Stag then began to look a little premature, especially after the 1978 cancellation of the Lynx and its V8 variant, once intended as a substitute.  Investigations were made into re-starting Stag assembly, but key tooling had already been destroyed."

I don’t think it could have worked in anything other than as limited run specialist car like the Middlebridge Scimitar. The world had moved on and tourers like the Stag had fell out of fashion, unless some serious work had gone into the engine it would have looked embarrassing up against the early 80’s onslaught of cars such as the Golf GTI and the 205. 

[eddyramrod]

It didn't need to be up against those.  What it needed to compete with, and with the Buick engine would have been excellent against, were things like the Mercedes SL and Nissan 280ZX.  And even the Scimitar!

[sierraman]

It was so bizarre why they didn’t fit the Buick 3.5 in the first place. This was symptomatic of the problem, pointless internal competition. 

[eddyramrod]

Couldn't agree more!

[HMC]

Plus it recieved no real development aside from minor cosmetics. I wonder if it could have enjoyed a long production run , and been successful in the us like the r107 sl (1971-89) I’m picturing the Buick v8 from new, fuel injection and 3.9 / 4.2 as time went on,  and high assembly standards, we can but dream.

[HMC]

Or, which probably wouldn’t fit, 2.5 / 4.6 Daimler v8 a with fuel injection. Russ carpenter (drag racer I think) could  have been the development “consultant” on that. Trouble is they seemed to have trouble when BL had a dabble with fuel injection and basically seemed throw in the towel.

 

Edit- there he is. Sorry for daydreaming/ thread drift!

[adw1977]

41 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

It didn't need to be up against those.  What it needed to compete with, and with the Buick engine would have been excellent against, were things like the Mercedes SL and Nissan 280ZX.  And even the Scimitar!

And Opel Monza

[artdjones]

As it was modified over 40 years ago, thus completely in period, why would the modifications upset anyone? OMES*, I suppose.

*One make enthusiast syndrome.

[adw1977]

9 minutes ago, artdjones said:

As it was modified over 40 years ago, thus completely in period, why would the modifications upset anyone? OMES*, I suppose.

*One make enthusiast syndrome.

I think the Stag already had quite a loyal following in 1982.  The survival rate is nearly 50%, which must be unsurpassed by any mass (ish) production car.

The Stag Owners Club was founded in 1979.

[83C]

36 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

It didn't need to be up against those.  What it needed to compete with, and with the Buick engine would have been excellent against, were things like the Mercedes SL and Nissan 280ZX.  And even the Scimitar!

The Scimitar is the only realistic rival there. 

The SL and the ZX were light years ahead in build quality and refinement, BL couldn't hope to match them. Triumph weren't the only bit of BL to say 'sorry boss, it doesn't fit' regarding the Buick/Rover V8, Jaguar were also declining the opportunity to use it despite pressure from on high to do so. The difference is, the Jaguar engines were good, robust units that stood the test of time - the 3.0 in the Stag, less so. 

[Spottedlaurel]

Modifed Stag with what seems to be a Rover engine, seen at a local show in 2019:

Capri 3-litre style bonnet bulge? I recall Fibresports offering stuff like that.

I quite liked the early '80s look of it.

The following year it looked like this.

[adw1977]

I quite like the rear lights in the middle pic.

4 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

The following year it looked like this.

Oh dear.