To claim in a headline that the V8-engined Triumph Stag simply combined “sports car handling with saloon car comfort” was perhaps being a little modest. After all, this grand touring machine – perfect for that pan-European driving holiday – also offered power, performance and the kind of gloriously burbling soundtrack that only a vee engine can provide.
But then this was 1974, by which time the Stag’s reputation for engine fragility had become part of motoring folklore; so perhaps the brochure copywriters were wise after all to focus on the car’s handling and comfort. And at least they went on to confirm that the Stag was “equally at home on an autostrada or in a crowded London street”.
In fairness, they did also point out that the engine had been “created especially for the Stag” and was blessed when it came to “silence and smoothness on acceleration and fast transcontinental cruising”.
