ROUND 9: RV8 vs STAG

Now here is an interesting comparison. At first sight, the MG RV8 (19921995) and the Triumph Stag (19701977) are hardly contemporaries, but bear with me because things are not quite as clear cut as they might appear.

Starting as ever in the red corner, MG's RV8 came about through an odd set of circumstances. Over half a million MGBs had been sold between 1962 and 1980, so there were still loads on the road when production drew to a close. Their bodies had all been produced for MG by Pressed Steel, who could see a continuing demand for replacement parts from all those existing owners, especially once the classic scene got going. As a result, they did not scrap the tooling, but instead sub- contracted it out for small runs of new panels as required. It is David Nicholas of Pressed Steel who deserves the credit for storing the tooling rather than allowing it to be scrapped. In due course another David, David Bishop of British Motor Heritage, realised that it was potentially possible to produce new MGB bodyshells and sell them for less than people were investing in the renovation of their old ones. He completed the enormous task of locating all the required tooling, and the first new Heritage bodyshell was produced in February 1988.

The next step towards the RV8 was arguably the introduction of the Mazda MX5, which showed there was still a market for the kind of classic British sports car that had seemed to be killed off by the hot hatch. The problem for the Rover Group was that it would take some years for them to bring a potential MX5 rival to market. It is obviously simplifying things a great deal, but the idea of producing a limited run of retro cars based around the new MGB bodyshells to test the water and to keep the MG name in front of sports car buyers gradually took hold. Rover Special Products duly obliged, creating a car that subtly updated the MGB look whilst retaining much of its structure. Into this they shoe-horned a 3.9-litre version of the venerable Rover V8 (now with electronic fuel injection), a five speed gearbox and revised front and rear suspension – still a live rear axle with leaf springs, but now with twin lower torque control arms to aid location. Power of the new car was ample at 188bhp, and a Quaiffe torque-sensing diff help to lay it down on the road. The interior was more sumptuous than any MGB had ever been and featured burr elm trim and beige leather seats, and perhaps the only thing that drew comment and complaint was the omission of power steering on a car ticketed at £26,500.

Unfortunately, the RV8 had been planned to cash in on a burgeoning craze for classics that had been pushing prices of many to previously unseen heights, but it was launched in the face of an emerging recession and a collapse of that particular bubble. As a result, initial sales were poor and despite only ever being planned as a limited run of around 2000 cars, even that modest total was looking increasingly optimistic once sales began in 1993.

Salvation came from Japan, where an RV8 was exhibited later that year at the Tokyo Motor Show. The Japanese loved it, and that's where the majority of the 1983 examples eventually produced ended up being sold. Many of those have since made the long journey back to the UK, though. The car in our pictures is one such example – look closely at the interior shot and you'll be able to spot the Japanese-spec flare in the footwell to be used in the case of a breakdown for warning other road users of your presence at the road side.

In many ways, the evolution of the

Triumph Stag was just as unlikely.

It has its roots in a styling exercise carried out by the irrepressible Michelotti, not at Triumph's behest but intended to advertise his own company. However, when Triumph boss Harry Webster saw the sleek

2+2 convertible that Michelotti had created from an old Triumph 2000 prototype, he was so enamoured that he insisted Triumph should take it on.

It was given the project code of Stag.

Original plans had been that the new car would be introduced with the 2498cc straight-six first, then a more upmarket V8 which was under development would be added to the line-up. The six-pot option never materialised, but the V8 plan survived Leyland's takeover of Rover in 1967 (Rover was then readying its own ex- Buick V8 for launch in the P5B), but grew from a mooted 2.5-litres with fuel injection to a production reality of 2997cc and carbs.

Despite being conceived on a modified saloon bodyshell, the Stag (this was to be the only recorded instance of a Triumph code name surviving through to adorn the finished article) ended up not having a single panel in common with it and requiring all new tooling. That was not obvious from the styling though, because the refreshed Mk2 saloons bore a close family resemblance to the Stag. That is hardly surprising, because Michelotti had been entrusted with the refresh, and as we saw earlier, although the Mk2 saloon was introduced first as a sales priority, it had in fact been designed after the Stag.

That was just one reason why production of the Stag was put back more than once, and it was not finally launched until June 1970. But what a sensation it was when it did arrive! With up to date monocoque construction (stiffened with a T-bar to eliminate scuttle shake) and fully independent suspension, not to mention power assistance for the steering and brakes along with electric windows as standard, it was graceful, effortless and alluring and there really were no direct competitors for it at the time. Fitted with the manual/overdrive gearbox rather than the three-speed automatic, it was good for 117mph and could get to 60mph from rest in 11.6 seconds. That was mightily impressive for a four-seater weighing some 1273kg, but in many ways that wasn't what the Stag was about. This was a car that exuded sophistication and glamour. It was a sports tourer rather than a sports car, perfect for cruising, for being seen in and for revelling in the admiring glances it elicited from all who saw it.

Unfortunately, it was also a warranty nightmare for Triumph, and parent company

British Leyland. I really don't want to dwell on the downsides here because they have been done to death in the past and I know that Stag owners are heartily sick of seeing them repeated, but I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't recognise that engine failures blighted both the Stag's reputation and its sales. They were also a major factor in it being withdrawn from the US market in 1973, a market incidentally which had been expected to take a large proportion of the 12,000 cars Triumph hoped to produce each year. In the end fewer than 3000 cars were sold across the Atlantic, and over 19,000 of the eventual total of nearly 26,000 cars were sold in the UK.

By the time production ended in June 1977, Triumph had played around with the details but not fundamentally altered the Stag, so talk you may hear of Mk1 and Mk2 models is really rather misleading. Fortunately specialists, owners and the excellent Stag Owners Club all subsequently completed the development that Triumph had started, and today a well-sorted Stag is the kind of dream car it always promised to be. That, combined with the model's inherent appeal, is perhaps why the survival rate is so astonishingly high – nearly a third of the total production are listed as still being alive in the UK. Even allowing for the fact that this figure will include many examples that have actually shuffled off the mortal coil but not been notified to the DVLA as deceased, we can't think of any other classic of this vintage which comes even close to that figure. That alone should serve to indicate just how highly regarded it is by those in the know.