It's a Stag Party Now

I spent a pleasant Sunday with SABCC'ers Stuart Waddington and Richard Cunningham. Stuart purchased another Triumph Stag, this time a local car.

Readers of these humble scribblings may recall that Stuart purchased a 1972 Triumph Stag located in California through an Ebay auction. I had the thrill of seeing the car not long after it was offloaded from the hauler that brought it to south Alabama. The car was complete and, as expected of a California car, largely free of the dreaded tin worm.

Photo courtesy of Stuart Waddington

Richard and I, no strangers to buying up unloved old British cars, looked at a 1972 Stag about six months ago with an idea of either parting it out as we did with the 1969 Jaguar E-Type or selling it on to another enthusiast as we did with the 1972 Triumph Spitfire. We could not reach an agreement on price with the owner - she had a serious emotional attachment to it as it was one of her late husband's cars. We left it promising the owner that we would try to help her by passing word of its existence on to others.

Stuart's recent return from an overseas work assignment meant that he could strike into the disassembly of his California Stag. Richard happened to mention to him that the owner of the local '72 Stag was ready to deal on her car since she was making preparations to leave the area. Stuart inspected the car, made an offer and became the owner of a second Stag. 

The car was going to require some pushing and heaving to get it out of its garage of the last four years so it could be hauled up on the rollback that was hired for the occasion. Since pushing and heaving are two of my long suits, I offered my services. The Stag was duly delivered to the Garagemahal in Daphne where it joined joined its brother. 

The new Stag is a pretty solid car, too. It spent all its life in the Mobile area - it was likely sold by the late, lamented Freeman Sports Cars on the Beltline. Unfortunately the car was the victim of an engine transplant - a not uncommon fate for a Stag - but Stuart's first car has the original Triumph V8 engine so he has options. 

Stay tuned for more news on this project as it develops.