1978 triumph stag £36,995

If it hadn’t been for a keen online rival bidder, you would now be reading about how I’d just bought a Renault Avantime and how I was embarking on an ill-judged foray into weird French car ownership.

Before I could see it, I heard it. The venue was Boughton House, a summer weekend car meet in the beautiful, manicured grounds of this Northamptonshire stately home, built originally in the 17th Centu

ASKING £7750750 PRICE ENGINE 2088cc/4-cyl/OHV POWER 68bhp@4200rpm TORQUE ...

The classics you love, drive and restore

Looking for an alternative to Eighties German grunt? Then this masterpiece of Swedish engineering should be right at the top of your shopping list

The obvious question is whether it would have been easier to soup-up a stock Europa rather than streetify a 47. It’s a fair one, too, especially if you are unfamiliar with quite how different a Type 4