Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

IIRC the stags had a Buick engine which had a bad habit of overheating and cracking, so often other engines found their way into them. Maybe there is a zetec stag out there, or you could make one. I also ran across a BMW 2002 that someone had made into a convertible. Maybe the answer is, pick a car you like and make it into what you want. Dan

If the Stag did have the Buick it would have been fine, but Triumph had to go develop their own V8 on a shoestring budget, even though Rover, who had the Buick in their car, was part of the same group of companies. Symptomatic of the demise of the Brit car industry.

Apparently the only thing wrong with the Triumph V8 was that the head studs would stretch and allow all the water to exit, causing overheating and the heads to warp. So the heads would be skimmed and put back on, only for the cam chain to jump a sprocket as it was now too long, and the valves met the pistons. The engines then developed a bit of a bad name!!

Mark

I ran a '72 stag with original triumph V8 lump in it for 7 years from 1990 when my elder son was born & younger son came along in '93. I bought it in a rusty state a few years before and rebuilt it. The wife still says it was nicest "oldie" we had & kids loved it . Turned out to be a reliable motor, if a little prone to oil leaks....
there are many stories about why the stag engine was unreliable & one I recall was the habit of leaving casting sand in the cylinder head waterways which would do the damage .. I seem to remember it was designed from two slant-4 cylinder saab engine blocks .
A common conversion for a blown Triumph V8 was the dropping in of the rover v8 (buick) which was a completely different drive ( I got another stag for a short time which was a bargain 'cos the chap who converted it couldn't get all the belts set up right & had abandoned the project ) the rover v8 conversion is not a good one for various reasons , the main one being that the block is aluminium so much lighter than the triumph iron block , so the front suspension & power steering is thrown out of kilter.

The original SAAB 99 slant 4 and Triumph Stag V8 were both designed by the UK engineering design company Ricardo and had a common design base. While the engines had their quirks ( the vertical crankshaft driven water pump arrangement in particular and the angled head studs) they were capable on long term reliability if looked after properly. I had a early model SAAB 99 that did several hundred thousand kilometers with no major problems.

SAAB developed and evolved the engine design over many years and the later 99 / 900 series engines bore little resemblance to the first Ricardo versions. The Stag engine had a short life and most have been replaced by Rover V8's based on the original Buick design.

cheers
Rohan

Keep it in the family. Vauxhall Lotus Carlton! (Opel Lotus Omega)
I wanted one but the wife put her foot down and said no not another classic car , so I had to settle for a Astra VxRacing instead,

///M5 .. There is no other!!!

mfast wrote:///M5 .. There is no other!!!

On that theme I have been very happy with my ///M3 Convertable (E46)!

Surely there are cures to the teething problems of the triumph V8 nowadays? In my opinion, the fact that this is a proprietary engine made in small numbers only adds to the charm of the Stag...

Well, in answer to your original question: the computer cannot find a match. 15k euro will not buy anything "classic"worth having.

As usual, many of the posters do not seem to have read the question. Aston Martins and Interceptor drop-heads? Have you folks seen the prices recently?

Your best solution is to buy one of those SAABs, or an early BMW 3 series DHC and treat it as a cheap old car, if you want to break down all over the place and annoy your wife; rather than a real classic.

Or; come to your senses and buy something like my Eos. I bought it new for 21GBP four years ago, what is it worth now? Must be within your price bracket, as are Audi A3 and A4 drop-heads from that period. Grit your teeth, take the family out; drop them off, freezing, then jump into the Elan. Perfect!

Get the family some bikes or some good walking boots while you enjoy the lotus,or if that sounds to harsh then I'd go for the lotus Carlton too.what a car!!!

pauljones915 wrote:Get the family some bikes or some good walking boots while you enjoy the lotus,or if that sounds to harsh then I'd go for the lotus Carlton too.what a car!!!

Cannot fault your reply up to the comma (apart from the lower-case L in Lotus) but I'm not aware that there were ever any convertible versions made. After that your punctuation and response to the original question, heads South.

If it's not a classic type sports car, I recon the jag XK8 is fantastic value for money. One can buy a really nice drop head version for around the 10K mark easily. A lot of car for the money.. Supercharged one is the car for me right now.

Watch he DB7 though. Fab car too but they can rust like a good un.

AB

Jaguar XJS convertible. V12 engine with looks that are becoming loved again (there is even a company re-building them with new Jaguar running gear). As Mark (Elan in the Forest) to elaborate!

alexblack13 wrote:If it's not a classic type sports car, I recon the jag XK8 is fantastic value for money. One can buy a really nice drop head version for around the 10K mark easily. A lot of car for the money.. Supercharged one is the car for me right now.

Watch he DB7 though. Fab car too but they can rust like a good un.

AB

I've always loved the shape of the DB7; for me it ranks alongside the Mk 14 Elite & the 246 Dino.
The Jag was a poor bulbous copy of the DB7 & the Vantage was too in your face IMHO
Although I've been dreaming about getting an Elite, the DB7 might be the cheaper & more sensible way to go.
Sad to hear that they have a rust problem, must find out more about that