10 Cars That Embarrassed Their Makers

Photo by HHA124L

5. Triumph Stag

Debuting in 1970 the Triumph Stag was marketed as “A Different Kind of Triumph.” They weren’t wrong, the Stag is different all right, just not in a good way. Previous Triumphs were regarded as handsome, while the Stag was awkward and rather ugly. The Stag was a convertible, but because the chassis was weak, a fat roll hoop was attached to the windshield header in order to give the chassis more rigidity. This took away the convertible look and turned it into something unique and weird. A newly developed V-8 engine was used in the Stag, which was basically two Triumph Slant-4 engines usually seen in Triumphs. Unfortunately the V-8 engine was terribly unreliable. The Stag marked the beginning of the end for the Triumph brand.