Something familiar about your Triumph Stag photos...

As a proud new owner of a Triumph Stag, I bought your 7 June issue to read the article on the car becoming a classic car hero. I spent several minutes looking at the picture of the engine bay thinking how closely it resembled mine, before I looked at the main picture and realised it was my car! I did not realise these pictures existed.

What’s even more bizarre is that I have just proved the theory of your article in that the Stag makes a fine long-distance cruiser. I have just completed a 1000-mile round trip to the Spa Classic at Francorchamps in Belgium with 22 other like-minded individuals in a selection of 12 various marque classics.

Having not completed a long drive before, it nearly all ended in disaster when we ground to a halt on the M25, en route to the ferry, with a complete

loss of power. With the help of breakdown assistance, we limped to Faversham Classics, who fitted a new alternator in no time, so that we were able to make the next ferry and arrived in Dieppe in a biblical rainstorm.

I gingerly started the Stag the next morning and from that moment on my love for the car grew and grew. The weather improved and 11 hours later, via a planned circuitous route, we arrived in Malmedy without another murmur, feeling fresher than we would have done in a modern car.

The return trip was equally troublefree and my delight at the noise of the V8 with the roof down was without compare. I started the trip in a car I had bought from someone else and finished the trip in a car I love.

Julian Tyler, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire