As promised, this is the introduction to the Stag............or Bumble as she is called (don't blame I didn't name her, named by the previous owner!)
When I was about 6 years old (1978 ish) my Late God-father Les had an Emerald Green Stag. I remember blasting around Castle Bromwich in it and I vowed that one day I would have a Stag.
Fast forward 28 years later and in February 2007 I agreed to buy VML3M, a White 1974 Automatic Stag. Just goes to prove that somethings are worth waiting for!
It all happened at Stoneleigh at the Triumph show. I mentioned to Andy Roberts (well known CT member and President of the 2000 Register) that this year perhaps I might start looking for a Stag. He then mentioned to me that he was in the process of putting his Stag back together so that he could sell it to make way for the Stag Saloon "Janey" to come home from the bodyshop. Several short conversations later and I agreed to buy Bumble.
I went home, rang Sam at work, got shouted at for quite a long time, then she agreed to come to Reading the next night to look at Bumble and do the deal. Next night Sam agreed that it was the right thing to do.............Board Approval and budget application rubber-stamped!
Andy & I then spent the next 4 months finishing off trimming up and fixing the various problems to get it MOT'd and running. We had a huge saga with the Automatic gearbox (in and out 4 times before we got it right!) but eventually Bumble made the trip up to the Midlands in May.
Since then, I have been spending lots of time driving it, and doing the odd improvement here and there. The seats could do with a re-trim, the soft-top is in shreds and I really fancy one of the nice Burr Walnut Dashboards!
The main problem that I have is that being an Auto it revs quite high at speed (4000rpm at 75mph!) so I would really like one of the ZF 4 speed auto conversions. But, at £2k, it will have to wait!
In the meantime, I just loving driving Bumble.............like I said, it took 28 years to get one and it was worth the wait!
1 comment:
Where abouts in the midlands did you go to? that's a lovely triumph. I am after an old VW Beetle in yellow to call bumble bee, after transformers (the original cartoon!) a long time coming but one day....
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