{"id":671035,"date":"2026-10-31T17:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T17:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671035\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T17:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T17:08:24","slug":"james-mays-unloved-triumph-stag-carried-the-usual-top-gear-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671035\/","title":{"rendered":"James May\u2019s Unloved Triumph Stag Carried the Usual Top Gear Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tStay up to speed with stories written by drivers, for drivers.<\/p>\n

Get automotive news, DIY tips, market trends, in-depth car profiles, and more right in your email inbox.<\/p>\n

Vibrant, quirky, and British are all apt descriptors of James May, co-host of Top Gear and The Grand Tour. They also apply to this magenta Triumph Stag that, up until very recently, was a part of May\u2019s collection. It sold this week on CollectingCars.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

May selected this Stag for the final episode of The Grand Tour, in which the three co-hosts drove across Zimbabwe and Botswana. May had never driven a Stag before but had admired the model when he was younger. Who can blame him? The shapely convertible, designed by Giovanni Michelotti<\/a>, who also penned several Lancias, Alfa Romeos, and Ferraris as well as the BMW New Class coupes and sedans, has a decidedly Italian flair.<\/p>\n

\"\"CollectingCars.com<\/p>\n

Despite serving him well on that farewell journey, in which his co-stars\u2019 vehicles fell prey to several mechanical maladies, May decided to part ways with his Stag. \u201cI loved it when we were filming the special, but I\u2019m beginning to think that the magic was in the moment, not in the car,\u201d says May in a video he posted with the car just prior to its sale.<\/p>\n

After filming, the Stag was a bit worse for wear, so May had it sorted out by The Smallest Cog, the restoration shop founded by fellow Top Gear and The Grand Tour co-host Richard Hammond. Its purple paint\u2014Triumph called it magenta, but it\u2019s purple\u2014appears to be in good shape, and the interior upholstery, dash pad, and wood trim covering the dash and center console all appear to be in excellent condition following its recent makeover.<\/p>\n

\"\"CollectingCars.com<\/p>\n

\"\"CollectingCars.com<\/p>\n

Even the car\u2019s little V-8 looks to be in tip-top shape, despite its poor reputation for reliability. The 3.0-liter mill was intended for more widespread use, but the Stag was its only application. The engine was born when Triumph realized it needed a bit more power for its new grand touring Stag drop-top than the brand\u2019s inline-six could provide. Using the existing slant four Triumph was building for Saab as a jumping-off point, the British firm mirrored the engine to create a petite 3.0-liter V-8. The new engine used an iron block and aluminum SOHC cylinder heads. Bosch mechanical fuel injection was considered for the engine, but issues during development led to the 3.0-liter using a pair of single-barrel Zenith-Stroberg carbs instead. <\/p>\n

Output was a respectable but not particularly impressive 146 horsepower at 5700 rpm and 170 lb-ft of torque at 3500 rpm. With 2200 rpm between peak torque and peak power, it\u2019s safe to assume that the Stag\u2019s V-8 is not tuned for outright power and was built to cruise. May admits as much, noting that, \u201cI have never looked at the speedometer. I don\u2019t need to know how fast I\u2019m going, because the answer is, \u2018not very\u2019.\u201d Captain Slow, indeed.<\/p>\n

\"\"CollectingCars.com<\/p>\n

Despite the thorough cleaning the car received after its big television debut, May notes that it still has its flaws: \u201cWhen I\u2019m driving the car, little bits of Zimbabwe emerge.\u201d His video clearly points out the car\u2019s flaws, including the model\u2019s reputation for sub-par reliability, and this example\u2019s loud color. Still, its sale was buoyed by May\u2019s star power among automotive enthusiasts. \u201cIt marks the end of my career on proper telly,\u201d May said. Indeed, it is a noteworthy moment for someone who has been an important figure among automotive enthusiasts around the world for decades.<\/p>\n

With a sale price of \u00a337,100 ($49,699), the Stag brought about $15,000 more than a #1 (concours) example<\/a> and double that of a #2 (excellent)<\/a> car in the U.S. Hagerty Price Guide. Stags generally command similar prices in the U.K. and U.S. Greg Ingold, Hagerty\u2019s senior manager of vehicle valuations, also took a look at our Power List<\/a> of celebrity vehicle sales and didn\u2019t find any of May\u2019s previous cars to compare it to. However, May\u2019s co-stars\u2019 cars serve as a good indicator. \u201cRichard Hammond\u2013owned cars have gone for 14% to 121% above their equivalent Hagerty Price Guide values, and a Jeremy Clarkson car has gone for 106% above its HPG value,\u201d said Ingold.<\/p>\n

For the record, a #1-condition car should not spit any bits of Zimbabwe at you when you turn on the vent, so it\u2019s safe to say that the Top Gear connection can be worth a 100% premium no matter which presenter held the vehicle\u2019s title.<\/p>\n

\"\"CollectingCars.com<\/p>\n

\"\"CollectingCars.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay up to speed with stories written by drivers, for drivers. Get automotive news, DIY tips, market trends,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[284259,284260,61,60,80,33370,19696,284258],"class_list":["post-671035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-car-triumph-stag","tag-car-triumph-stag-1974-base-2dr-convertible-8-cyl-2997cc-146hp-2x1bbl","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-the-grand-tour","tag-top-gear","tag-triumph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}