Many myths and legends exist surrounding the creation of the Triumph Stag and its foibles. This short history is an attempt to clarify inaccuracies often published by the classic car motoring press and repeated as truths for decades.

Selected passages are quotations by the very people involved in the development of the Stag and the relevant acknowledgements are mentioned at the foot of this article.

It is a well coined phrase, but the Stag went from ‘zero to hero’ in around 20 or more years. It was doomed to failure from the outset due to a combination of lack of development, poor quality assurance, inadequate maintenance training, poor reliability and a war in the Middle-East !

Harry Webster, Standard-Triumph Director of Engineering & Development first discovered the talents of Giovanni Michelotti as Chief Stylist of a Turin based specialist coach builder, Vignale. After Michelotti had left to set up his own design studio and designed many of Standard Triumph’s models, Harry received a request from Michelotti in 1965 to supply him with a Triumph 2000, so that he could do a styling piece for the forthcoming Geneva Motor Show.

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