Background
Rolls-Royce’s own publicity material described the new Silver Spirit as “a superb example of a successful marriage of tradition and technology” at its launch in 1980.
Other charming, although not especially technological, nuggets of information abound, too. The trip indicator, for example, could be relied upon for accuracy to within “9 yards in every mile.” The door locks were based on a 4,000 year old Egyptian design, don’t you know, with the odds of a nefarious, duplicate key being created calculated at 24,000 to one. The donor sheep who provided the wool for the carpets were noted as being “particularly hardy” and the bristles for the brushes used to hand paint the coachlines emanated from camels, presumably extra hardy ones.
The background to the arrival of the Spirit was somewhat less idealised, however. A mere nine years earlier Rolls-Royce had crashed into receivership, was split from the aero-engine division and had suffered the ignominy of a failed floatation. With this three-ringed circus as context, it is perhaps no surprise that, as the brochure tactfully puts it, “the Silver Spirit took a full eight years to develop despite the long and distinguished service histories of many of the components.” The subtext seems to be along the lines of “it took blooming ages, and we had to use loads of Silver Shadow bits as the budget was tiny.”
Whilst many of the old Shadow favourites were, indeed, in evidence (6.75L L-Series V8 engine and 3-speed GM Hydramatic transmission), there were a few welcomed new features, too. 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.
Other “miniscule budget friendly” tweaks were evident, too. By the late 1970’s the Silver Shadow had become somewhat physically dwarfed by its competition in the crucial North American market. The Shadow was now essentially a mid-sized saloon by comparison and that just wouldn’t do. Was the Spirit 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 create a literal trompe l'oeil effect. To your average North American customer, it seemed that this was a substantially bigger beast than the Shadow, and that’s what mattered to them.
A total of 8,126 Silver Spirits wafted out of Crewe between 1980 and the arrival of the Spirit II in 1989.
