For less than the cost of a new family SUV, someone now owns a piece of television history. James May’s magenta 1974 Triumph Stag MkII — the actual car he drove through Zimbabwe and Botswana in The Grand Tour: One for the Road — sold through Collecting Cars at no reserve for a reported £37,100. The Clarkson-Hammond-May era ended with the September 2024 finale. One by one, the cars from that last adventure are finding new owners.
Fifty Years Old, Two Restorations, and African Dust in the Carpets
This is not a museum piece — and that’s exactly the point.
The Stag runs a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V8 through a four-speed manual to the rear wheels — the configuration that gave the model its well-documented reputation for unreliability. The magenta paint remains a defining feature; the chrome on the bumpers, mirrors, and window frames is pitted in places, and the panel gaps are not concours-tight. Inside, the wear is consistent with a car more than 50 years old that completed a televised crossing of southern Africa. A Mark I speedometer sits alongside a modern Bluetooth stereo, 14-inch wheels, and Hankook Optimo tires. The car reportedly went through two restorations before May’s ownership, with specialist reporting linking preparation work to Richard Hammond’s workshop, The Smallest Cog, though that association has not been independently confirmed.
What the Buyer Actually Purchased
The provenance here runs deeper than a sticker on the windscreen.
- The car reportedly sold for £37,100 through Collecting Cars, offered at no reserve
- It appeared in One for the Road, confirmed as the trio’s final special, released 13 September 2024
- Clarkson drove a Lancia Montecarlo; Hammond drove a Ford Capri 3-litre on the same trip
- Clarkson had already been selling a car associated with the same episode, making May’s auction part of a broader dispersal
- May reportedly described the V8 as having a well-earned reputation for unreliability, then said his engine ran perfectly throughout filming and ownership
May reportedly described the situation plainly: the Stag V8 carries a reputation for being unreliable, but his example performed without issue.
The imperfections are not flaws — they are the receipt. Pitted chrome and worn upholstery signal that this car was genuinely there, on camera, during the last journey the three of them would make together. Celebrity-provenance sales have demonstrated consistently that context can matter as much as condition, and this Stag operates on exactly that logic.
The Price of an Ending
At £37,100, the car is the transaction — the finale is what comes with it.
That figure feels modest until you consider what is built into it: reported documentation, a famous final chapter, and the particular weight of watching something long-running reach its conclusion. The Grand Tour is finished. These cars are no longer just vehicles. The broader question of what an affordable new car even means today only sharpens how remarkable that £37,100 figure appears in the current market.
