Triumph Stag saloon and estate: missed opportunities?

By Charlie Calderwood

| 15 Oct 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Triumph Stag saloon and estate: when two become one

You can imagine the quizzical looks back and forth as Del Lines’ eyes flitted from the engine bay of the Triumph 2000 from which he had just removed a straight-six motor to that of the newly released Triumph Stag he had in his workshop.

The front chassis legs were the same… and that triggered an idea: Lines was going to make the car Triumph wouldn’t.

Ian ‘Del’ Lines’ brother had bought a garage in Weston-super-Mare earlier in 1970, and the pair specialised in Triumphs.

Atlantic Garage developed a reputation for sorting out the troublesome Lucas injection fitted to the TR6 and 2.5 PI, and, as a keen clubman rally driver, Del learnt how to improve the chassis.

The Triumph V8 is a relatively simple swap, but the Stag radiator and battery box must tag along

The rallying required a tow vehicle, for which Del used a 1966 Triumph 2000 Estate.

It was this well-worn car, suffering from an ailing engine, that Lines was disassembling while the Stag, heavily accident-damaged after just 500 miles from new, and having only been released in June 1970, was sitting alongside it in the workshop.

Because of this poor Stag owner’s misfortune, Lines was one of the first outside British Leyland to realise that the new Triumph V8 would be an easy fit into the 2000/2500.

Ian ‘Del’ Lines added ‘3-Litre V8’ and ‘Stag’ badging to his converted Triumph saloons and estates

Early Stag prototypes had been powered by Triumph’s overhead-valve straight-six, with the car conceived as a drop-top conversion of the saloon.

US ambitions prompted the move to a V8 derived from the firm’s new overhead-cam slant-four, but, even then, Triumph’s pre-BL ambition was to move all models to this engine family, whether in-line ‘four’, V6 or V8.

So interchangeability was high on the agenda.

The Triumph Stag saloon is a sporty drive

A swap of the engine mounts, gearbox and battery box allowed the fitting of the V8, while Lines added badging that labelled the car ‘3-Litre V8’ on the back and ‘Stag’ on the sides.

The 2000 V8 remained his tow car and covered 120,000 miles over the following four years, and it wasn’t long before others began asking Lines to carry out the same conversion for them.

That first car – now sadly lost – was really just a Mk1 2000 Estate with a Stag engine and gearbox transplant.

Lines decided that if he was going to build similar cars for customers, they needed to be more thoroughly improved and built from the new Mk2 shell.

‘Our’ Triumph Stag saloon and estate have lost the Recaro seats originally fitted by Atlantic Garage

Although the updated 2000/2500 had been launched eight months before the Stag in 1969, its styling had been taken directly from the open car while in development.

A ‘Stag Estate’ based on a Mk2 would look the part in a way his Mk1 hadn’t.

Lines started with a 1972 2.5 PI wagon shell, which itself was already one of the fastest estate cars on the market.

The segment barely existed in the early ’70s beyond coachbuilt specials – the Reliant Scimitar was another early foray, albeit down by a pair of doors.

The Triumph Stag estate’s smart dashboard

This time, Lines transferred every part of the Stag he could into the estate bodyshell, including the suspension, rear axle and brakes, along with the V8.

The upgrades weren’t limited to Stag bits, however: three years of fixing and competing the cars had taught him how to improve on the Triumph original.

The rear arches were pulled out to allow fitment of wider, 7.5in wheels, while heavy-duty Armstrong dampers were fitted at the back to deal with the extra weight of a full luggage bay.

The V8 – Lines liked the unit, and blamed its poor reputation on poorly trained Triumph mechanics – was built by Richard Longman and had gas-flowed heads.

This Triumph Stag estate’s 15in rims replaced the original 13in Minilites

A limited-slip diff, Hollandia electric sunroof, Recaro front seats, Minilite alloys, electric windows, Sundym window glass and a Stereo 8 sound system completed the spec list.

Lines had built a demonstrator in which buyers could try everything on offer and take their pick.

But it was still his own car, too, painted BMC/BL Tartan Red and bearing his personal registration number, DEL 33.

Today, it is one of the four known survivors of Atlantic Garage’s Stag Estate/Saloon conversions.

Triumph Stag saloons and estates were developed at Atlantic Garage in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

By November 1973, Lines was being featured in Motor magazine, offering Stag Estates built up using box-fresh shells for around £3000 depending on options – a reasonable figure when the standard 2.5 PI cost £2505.

Triumph was increasingly irritated, however, especially because Lines insisted on calling the cars Stags and badging them as such.

Denied a loan to expand Atlantic Garage for the project by both a bank and his father, Lines was left producing “one a month rather than one a week”, as he told Classic & Sports Car in 1998.

Then, in 1976, BL refused to supply him any more bodyshells.

All of the cars built from new shells were renamed ‘Stag Estate’ or ‘Stag Saloon’ in their logbooks

He’d built 25 cars, which included three saloons – one of them being a yellow 1975 example, built for Lines’ rally navigator, Mike Hooper, and today the only surviving four-door.

After that, Atlantic Garage could only offer the package as a transplant on existing cars, converting another 26 before attention moved to the new Triumph TR7.

Once again, Lines got under BL’s skin by creating Dolomite Sprint- and V8-powered TRs, before giving up working on cars professionally to manage a van-hire business in 1985.

Atlantic Garage closed eight years later, and Lines died in September 2023.

The Triumph Stag V8 provides easy rather than overtly muscular performance

The legend of the Atlantic Garage Stag Estates grew over time, though, and they now represent the pinnacle of the Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 line to many model aficionados.

The Tartan Red Stag Estate didn’t remain in Lines’ hands for long.

A year after he finished building it, this demonstrator had been sold – on a new registration number – to a Scottish buyer who swapped its manual gearbox for an automatic.

It blew a head gasket in 1979, and the car was put away in a garage in Perth where it remained, and deteriorated, until 2000, when the owner died.

This Triumph Stag estate uses a pre-facelift 2.5 PI grille

Its next keeper tracked down Lines, by then living in Spain, and hired him to restore the car, but was later forced to carry out an overnight rescue with a trailer to save it from creditors pursuing Lines.

Perhaps there was a bit more Delboy to Del than just his name…

Finally, in 2009, Alan Chatterton bought the Triumph and committed to a full restoration.

It was missing its engine, gearbox, wheels and exhaust – all lost during the repossession – but over five years it was returned to Lines’ initial specification.

Ian ‘Del’ Lines poses with one of his estates

Alan eventually discovered its original and distinctive registration for sale, and was able to reunite it with the car.

The Mimosa Yellow saloon built for Mike Hooper has led a very different life, having had just two owners who between them managed more than 200,000 miles of use.

Hooper owned JNY 590N for 11 years, using the car as a simple grocery-getter in its later years with him.

It was then picked up by current owner Andy Roberts.

A 1973 Motor magazine feature kick-started demand for Atlantic Garage’s modified Triumph Stag wagons

Used every day before and since a restoration in 1991, the saloon has completed eight Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Runs and wears plenty of evidence of its extensive use on its eye-catching bodywork.

As a result of these contrasting stories, the two Triumphs drive surprisingly differently.

Even on start-up there’s a distinct character to their exhaust notes: both burbling V8s, but louder and deeper in the case of the saloon; the estate’s sound is quieter and a bit more metallic.

It’s even more noticeable at speed.

Both these modified Triumph classic cars are Reliability Run veterans

They use almost identical exhaust set-ups: a Stag system lengthened by six inches, with the floorpan appropriately modified for dual pipes.

Andy confesses that the much older system on his saloon has probably lost most of its internal baffles over time.

Similarly, the rebuilt gearbox of the estate is much tighter than the pleasantly worn-in shift of the saloon, while the latter runs longer gearing, too.

Andy’s high-mileage four-door has lost its original 3.7:1 Stag differential and now uses a longer 3.45:1 saloon back axle.

‘The Triumph Stag saloon is a genuine rival to the faster BMW 5 Series models coming out of Munich throughout the 1970s’

Neither car is groundbreakingly faster than the 2.5 PI: a horsepower advantage of about 15bhp saves a Stag Estate about a second on a standard car’s 0-60mph time.

But the V8 is much happier to spin, smoother and more sonorous, and there is extra power to be found in the upper reaches of its rev range than is available from the old overhead-valve ‘six’.

Yet it’s the handling that impresses most.

A 2.5 PI is a good starting point, but Lines’ suspension upgrades give an extra assuredness and bring out the best from the Triumph’s stellar steering.

Triumph Stag steering wheel in the modified estate

The small wheel with its well-judged power assistance provides fantastic feedback for a car of this size.

Body roll is a bit more noticeable in the estate, as you might expect, but both cars attack a corner with an enthusiasm few contemporaries could match.

The lower, lighter saloon in particular hangs on in bends with real verve and tenacity.

That’s not to say that the V8 is wasted here. The Stag unit’s flexibility combines with the grippy handling to provide an easy fluidity that the 2.5 PI can’t quite match.

The V8 engines in Del Lines’ Triumph Stag saloons and estates were built by Richard Longman

Lines reckoned that Triumph could have sold 10,000 of the cars if it had become a proper model, and on this evidence it’s hard to disagree.

Not until the Mercedes-Benz 280TE arrived in 1977 did any wagon come close to doing what the Stag Estate could do, and the S123 quickly became one of the German marque’s most famous models.

The real unsung hero of this story, however, might just be the Stag Saloon.

Having built just three of them in his truncated production run of 25 cars (the estate/saloon breakdown of the later conversions is unknown), and never having one himself, you get the feeling Lines’ heart was more in the wagon models.

Perhaps Triumph missed a trick by not building Stag saloons and estates itself?

Certainly in the decades since they were constructed, it is the Stag Estates that have become the real legends among Triumph enthusiasts.

Yet with its lighter weight, lower profile and quieter interior, the Stag Saloon is an incredibly compelling machine.

Less novel undoubtedly, because BL already had a V8 saloon in its stable in the form of the Rover P6 – and there would have been overlap with Jaguar, too.

But this is a truly sporting saloon, lighter and more agile than any Rover or Jaguar, and a genuine rival to the faster BMW 5 Series models coming out of Munich throughout the 1970s.

The Triumph Stag saloons and estates now represent the pinnacle of the Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 line to some model aficionados

It’s a real shame Triumph never built either model, but it’s brilliant that at least a couple of the originals survive.

Two further estates are known to exist: one in The Netherlands, the other having previously been in Andy’s stable for a decade – at which point he owned 50% of the remaining Atlantic Garage cars.

Naturally, The Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register pursues any potential lead to another survivor with vigour, and encourages anyone with an old Triumph saloon hanging around to check the chassis number for the distinctive ‘AG’ (Atlantic Garage) prefix.

Spot it, and you’ll have a real collector’s piece on your hands.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Mike Menhenitt, The Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register; Hatherley Manor Hotel & Spa

Factfile

Triumph Stag saloon/estate

Sold/number built 1970-’76/25 (plus 26 later conversions on existing cars)
Construction steel monocoque
Engine iron-block, alloy-heads, sohc-per-bank 2997cc 90° V8, twin Zenith-Stromberg carbs
Max power 145bhp @ 5500rpm (standard)
Max torque 170lb ft @ 3500rpm
Transmission four-speed manual with overdrive, RWD
Suspension independent, at front by MacPherson struts, anti-roll bar rear semi-trailing arms; coil springs, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes discs front, drums rear, with servo
Length 14ft 7in (4445mm)
Width 5ft 5in (1651mm)
Height 4ft 8in (1422mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 10in (2692mm)
Weight 2757lb (1250kg)
Mpg 19
0-60mph 8.9 secs
Top speed 121mph
Price new £3000 (1973)
Price now £25-50,000*