Topaz Triumph Stag History File

In the course of my business last November, I had to go to Paris to install a Bang & Olufsen sound system to Bryan and Jo’s apartment in central Paris. When he told me he had, secure underground parking it seemed a good idea to use this as an opportunity to have a Topaz Adventure.

Knowing this trip was on the horizon the hard top was duly fitted and I decided to book the Stag in for a service with Faversham Classics I had been having carburetor problems so it was very reassuring to have the car running better than it had for some time.

In order to reassure myself that the car could make the trip to Paris I used it for a couple of runs to Maidstone, it cut out once but a quick fiddle with the dashpots and all was fine. On the second run I even had the massive event of the milometer turning back to zero for the second time.

So late Saturday afternoon Carl my manager and I drove down to the Eurotunnel terminal. While on the train, I swopped the dashpots hoping this might have been the cause of the problem. However once on French soil as the rain started the car let rip with its first cut out, a prod of the dashpots and it started again regrettably, it did this a further four times before we hit the outskirts of Paris. A quick stop to refuel and off we go again into the centre of Paris. Along one of the busier roads, I heard a siren and as the police car reached us yep, you guessed it breakdown number six. As the police car squeezed past us, I offered a typical French shrug and got one in return as he speed off.

When we finally arrived at Bryan and Jo’s apartment, we quickly unloaded the car and Bryan took me around the block to the car park. The car sounded great as we descended three floors down underneath a hotel.

Sunday morning we spent setting the sound system up, this involved hooking it up to the internet. Unfortunately computers being what they are this was not as straight forward as we had hoped and we had to abandon it while we went for a fantastic French lunch. Most of the afternoon later we went back to finish the set-up, after several hours including comprehensive help from a computer guru in the UK, we failed to get the set up as we needed it.

Monday morning we needed some trunking to tidy up some of the wires. Bryan took us to a department store that had the most amazing husband/boyfriend Crèche I have ever seen. Imagine the best hardware/tool shop then multiply it by ten. I could have spent ages down there; the wife would spend a fortune in the rest of the store though.

Bryan and Jo have a lovely typically French apartment in the chic centre of Paris they looked after us impeccably and treated us to a taste of their French way of life.
Monday morning and back to the Stag. I had started to think it might be fuel starvation rather than the carbs sticking so after a prod around the fuel pump the car started first time, it continued to work properly until we got onto the motorway. Unfortunately, it then broke down every 70 miles until we got back to Calais. All I did was remove the dashpots fiddle about and it would run again for another 70 miles. The weather was awful Bryan’s barometer suggested it would be a Tempest and each time we broke down I got wetter and colder and the Fawlty Towers clip with Basil beating his car was getting more and more tempting. We finally got to the terminal bought our duty frees jumped into the car, turned the key and it was having none of it, 15 minutes later it eventually started but we had missed the train and had to wait for the next one.

Despite all the problems Topaz got us there and back 500 miles, each time it stopped, I was able to get it going again and we were able to do what we set out to do. Perhaps with 200,000miles on the clock Topaz was just feeling its age. The next day I spoke to Faversham and they are going to give it some TLC probably a new fuel pump and another going over the carbs.

A new fuel pump later and over Christmas the car broke down again turns out the new pump must have been faulty. After a reliable Drive It Day trip of 100 miles, I decided to risk the Stag again. It took all this time to get the client back to Paris to allow us to finish the job.

So with the roof down we roared down the M20 to Dover for the ferry. An uneventful trip to Paris with just the Sat Nav having a moment due to roadwork’s we arrived just after midnight.

What a difference the weather makes, the install went perfectly (French routers are different apparently) Bryan was delighted and entertained us fabulously showing off his favourite Cafés and Restaurants. The following day after a generous lunch, we set off for home. Again, the car did not bat an eyelid and behaved as the Grand Tourer it was designed to be.