This is the history of my 1973 Stag which has evolved many times in 30 years of ownership and inevitable modifications due to an owner that cannot stop fiddling, but I think I'm finally done!
I had always wanted a Stag after travelling in my Uncles in the early 70's as a young boy, that V8 sound and performance was just amazing back then when most families like mine were driving around in Austin Maxi's and Allegros!
So In 1992 I bought a totally standard White Mk1/2 from a friend for my wife to use as her daily driver and various holidays including a trip to Nice via Switzerland over the Alps. The car was an Auto so did rev fairly high on the Autoroutes but was a pleasure to drive.
After a few years the fiddling bug was calling and being in my mid 20's a plan was hatched to deliver more power in an otherwise standard looking car (no bonnet bulge) by fitting a Rover based petrol injected engine and manual gearbox. At the time vey few had done this, so a lot of research was needed. In my search someone put me in contact with David Carter in Sussex who was going down a similar direction.
The Stag Engine was sold to an English couple living in Tenerife, palletised and dispatched from my work in Guildford and then set about purchasing an old Rover SD1 3500 Vitesse and stripped all the necessary parts, looms, ECU, trip computer, Cruise control and the Engine went to TVR for an an upgrade to 4.3 with gas flowed head, enlarged valves and throttle, fully ported inlet performance camshaft, whilst Mark Adams (a local specialist on the Rover ECU) made an adjustable ECU.
To make use of the SD1 radiator and allow more room the engine bay was adapted to make this fit, moving it further forward than the standard radiator. The Battery was moved to the Hood stowage area.
Scan_20210712_121007.jpg
A BMW differential was also recommended by Brighton Stag Specialist and he made a cradle using the existing Stag subframe, which turned out to be horrible with all sorts of vibration and mounting issues.
The front brakes were upgraded to Jaguar 4 pots and vented discs.
Anyway the Engine gave 296 Hp and the car looked standard, but due to the relatively soft springs and lack of Anti squat in the rear suspension the car bonnet would rise like a speedboat under acceleration
which was dangerous! Stiffer springs helped but this compromised the ride so something had to be done!
With The BMW differential in mind a plentiful supplies of BMW parts David Carter and scoured the local scrap yards and found the BMW E30 subframe appeared to be about the right size to fit the Stag, in theory allowing the brakes and suspension. We bought two sets and to see how it might fit but the track was still wider than the Stag which would mean the hubs on the rear wheel would sick out relative to the rim, so knowing the BMW parts are very interchangeable the track can be narrowed by using BMW 5 series wheel bearings and Hubs and shortened 5 series (E28) driveshafts which have the benefit of two CV joints instead of splines. This also meant using Discs from 5 series and calipers with a cable connection for the handbrake (there is no room for the drum).
We added fixing points to the chassis, measured it all up with plum bobs and tape measures and when the wheel alignment was checked it was better than most production cars at the time..very lucky!
The car still looked great, if a little tatty around the edges so in 1997 David Carter and friend Johnathon Finnis encouraged me to do a full body restoration with a change of colour to MG pearlescent Tahiti Blue.
I've run out of space for the next section covering the restoration and final spec on the car, so this will follow in Part 2
I had always wanted a Stag after travelling in my Uncles in the early 70's as a young boy, that V8 sound and performance was just amazing back then when most families like mine were driving around in Austin Maxi's and Allegros!
So In 1992 I bought a totally standard White Mk1/2 from a friend for my wife to use as her daily driver and various holidays including a trip to Nice via Switzerland over the Alps. The car was an Auto so did rev fairly high on the Autoroutes but was a pleasure to drive.
After a few years the fiddling bug was calling and being in my mid 20's a plan was hatched to deliver more power in an otherwise standard looking car (no bonnet bulge) by fitting a Rover based petrol injected engine and manual gearbox. At the time vey few had done this, so a lot of research was needed. In my search someone put me in contact with David Carter in Sussex who was going down a similar direction.
The Stag Engine was sold to an English couple living in Tenerife, palletised and dispatched from my work in Guildford and then set about purchasing an old Rover SD1 3500 Vitesse and stripped all the necessary parts, looms, ECU, trip computer, Cruise control and the Engine went to TVR for an an upgrade to 4.3 with gas flowed head, enlarged valves and throttle, fully ported inlet performance camshaft, whilst Mark Adams (a local specialist on the Rover ECU) made an adjustable ECU.
To make use of the SD1 radiator and allow more room the engine bay was adapted to make this fit, moving it further forward than the standard radiator. The Battery was moved to the Hood stowage area.
Scan_20210712_121007.jpg
A BMW differential was also recommended by Brighton Stag Specialist and he made a cradle using the existing Stag subframe, which turned out to be horrible with all sorts of vibration and mounting issues.
The front brakes were upgraded to Jaguar 4 pots and vented discs.
Anyway the Engine gave 296 Hp and the car looked standard, but due to the relatively soft springs and lack of Anti squat in the rear suspension the car bonnet would rise like a speedboat under acceleration
which was dangerous! Stiffer springs helped but this compromised the ride so something had to be done!
With The BMW differential in mind a plentiful supplies of BMW parts David Carter and scoured the local scrap yards and found the BMW E30 subframe appeared to be about the right size to fit the Stag, in theory allowing the brakes and suspension. We bought two sets and to see how it might fit but the track was still wider than the Stag which would mean the hubs on the rear wheel would sick out relative to the rim, so knowing the BMW parts are very interchangeable the track can be narrowed by using BMW 5 series wheel bearings and Hubs and shortened 5 series (E28) driveshafts which have the benefit of two CV joints instead of splines. This also meant using Discs from 5 series and calipers with a cable connection for the handbrake (there is no room for the drum).
We added fixing points to the chassis, measured it all up with plum bobs and tape measures and when the wheel alignment was checked it was better than most production cars at the time..very lucky!
The car still looked great, if a little tatty around the edges so in 1997 David Carter and friend Johnathon Finnis encouraged me to do a full body restoration with a change of colour to MG pearlescent Tahiti Blue.
I've run out of space for the next section covering the restoration and final spec on the car, so this will follow in Part 2
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