CLASSIC RIVALS

M D S D MIDLANDS DUEL

Si il i t b t d diff t i ti th St d S i it GTC h l t t ff p l

David Osborne Contributor

his Classic Rivals is arguably harder to call than

Tothers because both the Triumph Stag and the Reliant Scimitar GTC have much in common – literally, where the hood frame is concerned.

Both were four-seater British convertibles, with the Scimitar picking up in 1980 where the Stag had left off almost three years earlier.

Their design pedigrees are impeccable: in this case, Michelotti went against Ogle, although neither car was a pure breed. The Stag was a shortened 2000/2500 (albeit with a bespoke engine), while the Scimitar was a parts bin special which brought tried and tested components together. Triumph and Reliant were never the most flushed with cash either, which stifled future development of their models; nor could they sell enough cars to recoup earlier investment, as markets were wary of reliability issues (Stag) or simply uninterested at the asking price (Scimitar GTC).

It would have been fascinating to see these cars compete against another when new; but with the benefit of more than 40 years’ hindsight, the Reliant was late to a party it was throwing for itself.

TRIUMPH STAG

The Stag is certainly more sinned against than sinning. Much of its potential was squandered by woeful assembly; and with its reputation destroyed, it took years of work by associated clubs to undo the damage. Any contest considering its worth as a classic tourer/GT must be aware of this discrimination.

Not that the Stag was lacking in looks: 2000/2500-based it may have been, but Michelotti made the most of the raw material. Arguably, it was its engine that did much for all the ‘Triumph Snag’ jibes, despite vindication coming years later in the form of a For The Love of Cars episode which proved its cooling system was up to scratch.

No, it was manufacturing that let the Stag down: undersized main bearings, poor cylinder head castings which caused warping, and inadequately specified water pump bearings hurt the Stag’s 3.0-litre V8 more than history should have recorded. Furthermore, the knowledge to repair and maintain the unit wasn’t easily shared or disseminated to the garage trade quickly enough; when timing chains were a service item at 25,000 miles, engines would fail as often from botched maintenance as from shoddy construction.

Clubs and specialists have since exorcised these faults through care and rebuilding the engine – properly. The Stag’s V8 had so much to prove – doubleoverhead cam heads were on the drawing board, but never left it – but the same thing that made it endemic to the Stag made it easy to kill when British Leyland was looking to save money.

That engine made it into production by being signed off before Triumph was swallowed by the BLMC conglomerate. The earliest feasibility studies wanted the Stag to use Triumph’s existing 2.0- or 2.5-litre straight-sixes, but Harry Webster’s plan to utilise Lewis Dawtry’s family of engines –stretching from a 1.5-litre slantfour to a V8 – eventually came to fruition when he convinced management that a V8 was essential for export.

It was also a massive boon for Triumph that the 3.0-litre V8 existed. Had it not been production-ready at the time of the BLMC merger, the Stag would have used Rover’s 3.5-litre V8.

Yet again, politics intervened; the Triumph faithful, in an apocryphal tale, told management the unit wouldn’t fit, much in the same way that Jaguar’s engineers were believed when the XJ40 swerved a Rover V8 during its development.

BL didn’t check, and besides, it simply didn’t have the capacity to send Rover V8s to Triumph; the Range Rover was taking every spare unit available, curtailing the prospects of another highperformance GT, the MGB GT V8. Subsequent owners have converted Stags to Rover V8s, thus making good on the possibility that an alternative timeline might have afforded us. So, what did that leave the Stag

TECH SPEC

TRIUMPH STAG ENGINE:

2997cc V8 POWER: 145bhp 0-60mph: 10.7-11.3 secs TOP SPEED: 115mph ECONOMY: 25mpg WEIGHT: 2807lb/1275kg BUY ONE FOR: £10,000-£25,000

with? A delayed launch, and two iterations – retrospectively dubbed Mk1 (1970-73) and MkII (1973-77).

Despite the looks and the incredible soundtrack, the Stag wasn’t that quick, even for a grand tourer. Similarly priced rivals – including Reliant’s own closed GTE – were faster. No British car during the Stag’s lifetime could offer four seats and a roof which came off, however, and for that it deserves recognition, even divorced from the problems that diluted its prospects before owners even got behind the wheel.

It was clear that the Stag moved Triumph’s sports cars out of the rough-and-tumble world of the grizzled top-down-at-dawn brigade, but its four-speed manual was derived from the unit used in the TR2 – and it showed. More money could have given the Stag the hardware it needed; think of it as great British grand tourer that was killed before its potential could be fully realised. Perhaps however, with a fuel crisis looming in the US and a recession waiting in the wings in the UK, BL’s cashstrapped decision to pull the plug in 1977 wasn’t quite as shortsighted as it appeared.

RELIANT SCIMITAR GTC

That the Sta died before it could rest owing to financial difficulties faced by their makers; funds (or a lack thereof) also complicated their development.

Reliant began planning the GTC (SE8) just as the Stag was being wound down in 1977. Had the rumoured straight-six Mk3 extended the Stag’s life, the GTC would still have had the edge in terms of performance.

The GTC flexed less too, owing to its separate chassis and a hood frame adapted directly from the Stag’s item. Torsional rigidity was never really the Stag’s strong point; over-boosted steering and soft suspension meant that one took it easy, and revelled in the V8’s burble rather than aiming for the ultimate line out of a bend. Transmission-wise, the Stag was also at a disadvantage; its fourspeed manual had a staggered, faintly believable throw, and the three-speed Borg-Warner 35 auto box option was ill-suited to the characteristics of its free-revving V8. Again, enthusiasts have remedied the latter issue; time (and experimentation) found that the ZF 4HP22 fitted to the Jaguar XJ40, makes for an excellent substitute.

But we digress. Reliant was considerably smaller than Triump ph, , even before the latter’s merger into BL, so develo ment . even the Ford Capri was killed off, a car that was built solely for the UK from 1984 onwards.

Recession made the GTC an even less appealing prospect to buyers, who from 1983 had the likes of the Escort Mk3 Cabriolet in a smaller, cheaper and more affordable package. Most of the hatch-based soft-tops could carry four at a pinch; like them, the utility of the GTE – a sporting brake with few competitors – was sacrificed in the name of infinite headroom.

Not that the GTC lacked for safety; it was a different car from the B-pillar back, with extra bracing and a roll hoop retained from the GTE. Let’s not forget, however, that the Stag was the first British car with a fuel cut-off switch, which cut the supply in the event of a crash or a roll-over.

Marketing was where the Stag pulled away from the GTC; not only was it backed by a higher budget, it was pitched as a ‘Midlands Mercedes’ – a homegrown tourer that, with hard work, one could afford. The GTC, always the alternative upstart, was £1036 more expensive in 1980 than the SE6B from which it was clearly derived.

Splitting this pair is incredibly

TECH SPEC

RELIANT SCIMITAR GTC ENGINE: 2792cc V6 POWER: 135bhp 0-60mph: 10.2-11.0 secs TOP SPEED: 120mph ECONOMY: 26mpg WEIGHT: 2421lb/1098kg BUY ONE FOR: £5000-£12,000 difficult, with the Stag unable to give a full account of itself in period, its potential finally realised in later years by dedicated fans. A keen driver would pick the GTC, as despite its less torquey 2.8-litre Cologne V6 (the prototype used a 3.0-litre Essex that was discontinued by the time the GTC made it into production), its superior torsional rigidity and better transmission options would be greatly appreciated by the fan who wants to press on behind the wheel; a Stag would be better sat in top on the fast A-roads littering Europe.

Both cars’ interiors were a product of their upbringing –the Stag’s from the 2000/2500 whence it came, the GTC a component catalogue. Nevertheless, the aesthete would plump for the Stag; although a coupe proposal was mooted, the Stag was intended to be (and remained) a convertible. Its Michelotti lines stayed pure and mostly unaltered; the GTC’s bluff, cavernous shape was slowly uglified (if never disfigured) by the requirements of legislators. Wheel fans, will, however, point out that both cars share a common stud pattern, and their alloys interchange to lasting effect.

While both cars have their followers, however, what of the market?

That, at least, is easy to gauge. Collectors have embraced the Stag in the past few years, with a lockdown purchase for a MkII setting a UK auction record: having once sat in the doldrums, a 1977 car made £34,875 under the hammer. Rarity aside when compared to the Stag (just 443 GTCs, including the prototype, were built compared with 25,877 Stags), investors have largely ignored the open-top Reliant, preferring instead the smaller, earlier, purer SE5 GTEs.

To swerve the Reliant is unwise, however. It won’t disappoint on a twisting road and is more than up to the job of protecting a family should the worst happen. While more common than the Middlebridge Scimitars that followed, GTCs remain a rare breed; a breed, however, that remains affordable. The highest price fetched at auction was £10,450 in 2019 – for a car of such unique abilities, it won’t stay that way forever. CCB