Background
The redoubtable Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, launched in 1965, had originally been slated for a 10-year production life. However, as is so often the case with the British motor industry, things didn’t go…exactly…to…plan. In 1971 Rolls-Royce crashed into receivership primarily on the back of problems producing a turbofan engine for Lockheed’s new L-1011 TriStar. A dizzying display of corporate quick-step followed resulting in the car and aero-engine divisions being split apart and the car division undergoing a failed floatation. All this turmoil back at the ranch meant funds were on the non-existent side of tight. And so,it was decided that the Silver Shadow must soldier on, and the Shadow II was launched in 1977 to help prolong the car’s competitiveness.
The inevitable couldn’t be forestalled forever, of course, and Silver Shadow sales were on the wane, especially in North America. With the passing of the years the Silver Shadow had become essentially a medium sized car when compared to the burgeoning size of its US competitors. This was not something that passed muster in the world of the American uber-luxury car market so clearly something had to be done.
The feat of following the most ubiquitous of all Rolls Royce models to date with something bigger on a budget of thrupence ha’penny fell to Engineering Director John Hollings and engineer turned stylist Fritz Feller. Their challenging brief necessitated leaning very heavily on the underpinnings of the SY platform (Silver Shadow) and clothing it in something more modern……and big looking. The result was the SZ platform in the guise of the Silver Spirit which was launched in 1980.
Whilst all the old Shadow favourites were in evidence (6.75L L-Series V8 engine and 3-speed GM Hydramatic transmission), there were a few new features. A so called “refinement package” had been applied to the rear suspension and the track of the Spirit had been increased by 3-inches, for example. A reinforced rear subframe was fitted and the Girling self-levelling suspension was tweaked. These relatively low-cost improvements made the Spirit a noticeably better riding and handling car than its predecessor. Was it bigger though? In short, not really, but importantly it looked bigger. Thirty percent more glass, lowering the waistline and reducing the amount of decorative trim all helped fool the eye, and the North American customers, that this was a substantially bigger beast than the Shadow.
By 1989 the Spirit II was in the showrooms. Little externally had changed but there were plenty of changes under the skin. Automatic Ride Control and ABS were now fitted and Bosch MK-Motronic fuel injection was now order of the day. Ultimately there would be four iterations of Spirit with its production life even exceeding that of the Shadow. A shade over 8,000 cars were produced with 1,152 of those being Mk II versions.
