The Triumph Stag is a classic British car made by Triumph. Here, people aren’t keeping it stock—they’re customizing it a lot, including the suspension and interior, which is why it’s the main focus of the episode.
Chrome fittings are shiny chrome-finished trim pieces or hardware used to dress up the exterior or visible areas. In classic-car customization, adding chrome is a common way to create a more showy, high-contrast look compared with stock trim.
“Lowered” means the car sits closer to the ground than it did from the factory. People usually do it for looks, and it can also change how the car feels and clears obstacles.
Non-original wheels are wheels that aren’t the ones the car came with. Changing them can be mostly about style, but it can also affect how the car rides and handles.
Air suspension is a suspension system that uses air instead of metal springs. It lets the car sit higher or lower, which is popular for showy “stance” looks and for customizing how the car rides.
The engine bay is the space under the hood where the engine lives. “Tricked out” just means it’s been customized and dressed up so it looks impressive when you open the hood.
In classic cars, a “purist” is someone who wants the car to stay as close to original as possible. This episode is basically saying the Stag crowd is the opposite—more into modifying than preserving.
Air ride is a suspension setup that lets the car change its height using air. That means you can make it sit higher or lower depending on what you want.
Term
16,000 miles
“16,000 miles” means how far the car has been driven in total. The point here is that it’s very low for a car that’s about 50 years old.
Vinyl seats are the cheaper, plastic-like upholstery material. They’re saying this car has leather instead, which is a nicer (and usually more expensive) upgrade.
This means the car uses a transmission with four forward gears, made by ZF. That gearbox choice affects how the car shifts and how it feels when you drive.
They’re talking about a custom sound system build. Instead of using the factory speaker spots, they redesign where speakers and the bass unit go, and add extra power so the audio sounds better.
A subwoofer is the part of a car stereo that plays the deep bass. It’s usually mounted in a special box or space so the low notes sound strong and clean.
An amp is the power unit for the car’s sound system. It helps the speakers play louder and clearer, especially when you add bigger speakers or a subwoofer.
The Ford Orion is a regular Ford car that was made for everyday driving. It’s the kind of vehicle people used for commuting and family errands. In a classic-car discussion, it’s usually brought up as an example of a common model from its time.
An equalizer is a control that lets you change the sound—like making bass stronger or reducing harsh high notes. It helps the music sound better in the car.
The Holden Caprice is a large sedan made by Holden. It was designed to feel comfortable and roomy for everyday use. It’s mentioned because it’s a standout-looking classic in the big-sedan category.
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Hello, this is Matt and welcome to a very special tyre kickers bonus episode. Today we're
in West London at a classic car meet with a bit of a difference. Now, this isn't a
gathering for all original period correct anoraks. No, this is a meet for those who
are not afraid to modify their classics. And the classic car of choice with these guys
is the Triumph Stag.
The tyre kickers bonus episode.
Well, as I look up and down it all I can see are Triumph Stags. It's probably about 60 here and an
absolute rainbow of colours and not original colours as well. I mean bright metallics,
more chrome fittings on some of these cars than a bathroom showroom and lots of lowered,
non-original wheels, lots of modifications that make them look very, very different. I mean some
of these cars have got air suspension for example, tricked out engine bays with loads of chrome and
interiors that wouldn't look out of place in a Bentley or a Hot Rod. So all in all it's not
your typical line up and it's a site that would send a purist like Max into a cold sweat. So what
I want to know is what have these guys done? Why have they done it? And also why the passion for
the Triumph Stag? So let's go and meet some of the drivers and members of the Stag Empire Club.
Well amongst the sea of stags here in very different colours lots of mods going on. This has
got to be the most modified. It's like a purple, it's on really big alloy wheels and John here
is the owner. What a car. Talk us through it. Well actually I've purchased it from a friend of mine
about six years ago now so credit goes to him in terms of doing it up but I've just maintained it
the way it is six for six years. It was actually in Triumph World as well. Triumph World Classic so
it's one of the most modified stags and it's the only one on air ride as well. Give me a shopping
list of stuff that's on here. Where do you start? Well if you look at the engine the engine's all
been chromed up which is very, very rare. Wow. You could do your hair in that couldn't you?
Yeah absolutely you can so hence why there's lots of people taking pictures with it.
Leather is absolutely all customised as you can see. It's all stitched. The whole floor of the car
and the top of the car is exactly the same so it's all been buffed up at top and bottom
completely on 17 inch wheels which I don't think there's a stag around that's on 17 right right
now and it's on air ride as well so it goes up, goes down, you know you could do the hokey-cokey
with it put it that way. So why the stag then John? What is it about the car? I think it's
I used to see my brother driving them you know good friends driving them and as you grow up and
you see certain cars with a certain look you just fall in love with them so it's the look of it
as you can see here today it's about 50 cars there's possibly more. Everyone's got a fascination
with it now 50 years on this car's 50 years of age as I am and it just feels part of the family
right? And what about people who say I shouldn't mod these you know cars you should leave my original
that sort of thing? Well most of the stuff on here is original so like the engine which is probably
the most important part of the car so the original engine is in there and this car itself has only
got 16,000 miles original which is absolutely probably unheard of right so the guy that did it
not only brought the car which was a low mileage and then he spent an absolute fortune doing it up
and credit to him and like I said I'm the proud owner of it and I'll keep it the way it is because
I love stags. It's amazing just look we look at the interior here I mean John was saying it's
a quilted leather a cream quilted leather I mean it I mean obviously without a doubt it's better
than it came out of factory. Oh hundred percent I mean it's soft leather in there again looking
around I don't think you're going to get a car done up as nicely as this in terms of the leather
it's just crazy amounts of money I won't even tell you how much the the chap spent on it but
it was an absolute small fortune. Yeah I mean I mean normally these would have come with obviously
vinyl seats and trimmed out to a budget but this is obviously no no expense spared is it? I mean
when you go in the garage obviously it gets kept in a heated garage when you go and walk in the
garage you can just smell that leather still it's intoxicating. So you've got the upgrade on the
dashboard the walnut kind of kit on there you've got a wooden steering wheel got a decent sound
system because these suffer from having a rubbish sound system. It's got probably one of the best
sound systems you can pay I mean given it's a triumph stag it's very hard to put a bass sound
system in here without taking the seat sound so on but I've got four kids as well so you know we
love jumping in the car so I didn't want to change the back end and so that you know you can still
drive in the car with the number of people in there. Just tell me about the feeling how do you
feel about this car? It's the noise anyone who loves stags is that v8 rumble and when you hear
the noise and you put your foot down it's just music to your ears right they're not fast cars
but they're the sort of car that you just can hear and listen to two roads down and everyone
realizes that it's probably a stag coming down the road. Well I've come into the middle of what
like 40 50 stags now and I've been told this is the most modified stag here and with zack it's
on an r-redge it's um 475 74 75 it's um r-redge sort of like a metallic red yeah metallic
red so red color and it's got four-speed zf gearbox right let's describe it for people people I mean
there is probably probably nothing on it that's original by the looks of it modified wheels modified
steering wheel with a chain modified interior sound system which sounds my sound system sounds
out of eight track stereo yours yours you can actually hear yeah what's with the obsession
of doing this then it's just something different it's twist of classic car and modern like they do
in America you have a Chevy Impala but it's a Chevy Impala body but they put new twist to it
they put an old look with the new four-speed gearbox engine that's what they do in America
right well look for the benefit of people listening to this let's run around the car and
describe what you got on here right first of all we're going to do this really quick zack right
tell me about the wheels there's a play wire wheels knock off golden chrome yeah so so like a
spoke wheels with gold inside and in chrome running outside okay let's come down the car
not original paint what color did you say this was it's a candy's mazda sole red color yeah really
really nice interior is all quilted leather and stuff yes it's been done it's a Bentley continental
twist because the original stag ones are PVC another so open the door then let's have a quick
look at the interior so it's quilted leather all over the dashboard in red there's a it's
a slightly unusual steering wheel tell us about that yeah one of my mates suggested do something
different allow for okay so he come up with this idea do you have a chain steering wheel looks
different from everyone else yeah it's actually a chain yeah right okay well that's I've never seen
one of those before and look at this sound system okay now look for those of you've got stags you'll
know this for those you don't you can only normally in a sander stick stag fit a very small
tiny rubbish speaker in the door in this door I've got 12345678
nine speakers yeah it's been custom made by a friend of mine who's moved to Miami now my god
his name was Nigel and he rebuilt my stag for me and it took him a month to do one door panel each
so you've got two door panels you've got the back panels and then I also modified so there's more
speakers in the back as well yeah the seat has been modified like a speaker box so it's not the
box is not in the back you can see yeah you've got a subwoofer in behind the seat yeah that's Alex
subwoofer oh my god let's keep let's keep going Zach because coming around the car
we've got those blingy wheels in the back it's right the boot now normally there's a bit of
tatty carpet in the back of these but this is all got a gold metal inlay to it
with what looks like obviously a big amp yeah that's an Orion amp very powerful I'll go back to
you on the back you can't see I've got battery in the front and equalizer my god yes so it keeps
all the way see this car's built different to the other one's got sound system nothing's in a way
so that's amazing so look here's the question I mean obviously you know why modify it that's a
question number one I think you can get a classic and a modification you'd get better look because
it's 50 years people are forgetting it's 50 years car you keep as much as original the engines original
the gearbox is original all it is is just the body that's being re-spread and I've just upgraded the
interior and what do you say to those people are going well the engine sounds good you don't need a
great sound system that you don't need to change the color everyone's got a different opinion
isn't it I mean people leave black hood I got red hood yeah yeah you know people got a normal car
uh mine's got all chrome power steering wheels and all the chrome engine bits in there and the
the other question is why a stag I think out of all the classic cars stag is got the sexiest look
and it sticks out more than other classic cars like Ford Caprice here of course but there are
good cars not knocking them but stag is another level I'm indie form stag empire okay so tell me
about today it's great turnout isn't it yeah so I don't know what I didn't even expect this kind
of turnout to be honest with you I've been promoting away as you could probably see most of my people
will follow will follow me I've been promoting away online but this is just this is great I did not
expect this so tell me about stag empire then what what are you about so basically obviously first
started it was just a group of friends we should just go for a little spin here and there between
us having jokes I've always loved the stag since being a kid started to you know organize little
events just between us it wasn't even events so it's just more link cops and just going for a
cruise together then we actually organized a cruise to Windsor which had about 20 30 stags
went viral online some of our cars which we put up went viral for different reasons maybe because
they were modified and now yeah I felt like I wanted to do something like a car show just with
stags just to get everyone together whether it's modified original I wanted to get all the
communities together all age groups together just to enjoy this car because for me as a kid
I've always loved this car I loved it I've always wanted one as a kid so now owning one I wanted
to see a lot of them just put together and it just looks like one of those events where it's like
looks like smarties little skittles it is just I just love it it's just I don't know I've lost
lost my words looking around there's like a massive variety of stags here this isn't your
boring anorak meet where everybody's going is it standard you know you guys really go to town on
some of these cars why do they like modding them so much to be honest with you this is the whole
thing that if you're looking at the show if you're going to get just original stags there's only
probably so much I mean the purists may not agree but there's only so much you could probably do in
a show and have a chat about but if you go to these a show like this now we got originals we got cars
with so many different modifications and they're not stupid modifications not none of the bodies
have really been filtered with too much or mucked around with but they've all got the unique touch
you could go speak to people understand why they did it and everyone's got a different reason
and a different touch and that's what makes this show so special now you guys you know the age
profile here is on the young side it's not like a normal stag driver what is it about the stag
I think a lot of us grew up seeing our parents uncles driving these cars and then over the years
we've seen some of the probably few the older generation guys maybe transformed into the
wire wheels so I think we've kind of just carried that on and how much money do people spend on
these these cars there in this club well this I could tell that you right now my car's
in right now getting painted getting the engine done and the figures are looking very stupid by
the time I finish with this car it will be to the 40 000 mark I could tell you that clear
do you always like an addiction is it with these cars for these people or is it a love or what is
it how do you sum it up I think it's love I think since we've built like a bit of a community around
it it's love and it's just like even if you look around today some of the even the older generation
guys even the younger they're all kind of having a chat just to understand what made them do it or
what made them buy the car why they're here today it's all love that's what it is and that's the
whole reason of putting this show together is to get everyone together well that's about it from
this bonus episode from here in west London a really interesting mix of cars you know sometimes
you come to meets and they're just a bit dull this one totally the opposite super friendly people
here people are passionate about their cars and a really different kind of mix from normal
classic car meets you know there's 60 70 stags here people from all walks of life but the passion
is for the car so it's made it really really interesting not every car is modified here
but the ones that are do do stand out so if you want to have a look at some of the pictures we'll
put some online on instagram and facebook but for now that's it for this bonus episode we'll see you
in the next one
About this episode
At a classic car meet in West London, the hosts zero in on the Triumph Stag—especially one of the most modified, and the only one on air ride. They talk low mileage, 17-inch wheels, and a no-expense-spared interior swap to quilted leather and walnut trim, plus a V8 rumble and a four-speed ZF gearbox. The conversation widens to the “Stag Empire” community, cruises like Windsor, and how owners spend—sometimes around the £40,000 mark—to keep classics on the road.
Would you add air suspension, massive alloys and a 25 speaker sound system to a Triumph Stag? In this bonus episode, we meet members of a London car club not afraid to bend the rules (and spend the money) to create the Stags they really want. They're not British Leyland purists but the passion they have for the 70s cruiser is infectious. Come with us as we meet the drivers and their cars at Stag Empire's biggest meet-up yet.
See photos of the cars, the mods and the people behind them on our Instagram and Facebook profiles.
