1969 Silver Shadow with 12K miles

[G-MAN]

This is an interesting car. 12,000 original miles. If you can tolerate the salesman's pitch, this video is worth watching.

Those of you old enough to remember what cars from 1969 (even a Mercedes-Benz) looked like on the inside, you can't help but be struck by how "advanced" this Rolls was at the time. Think of your typical dash layout, gauges, etc. from that era and then look at the dash on this thing.

 

[SteveSRT8]

A truly unique car, those were built with extreme care by people who took great pride in them.

Beautiful...

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
A truly unique car, those were built with extreme care by people who took great pride in them.

Beautiful...



After watching "How It's Made: Rolls-Royce Phantom", I am still amazed at how much work goes into those vehicles. Easy to see why they cost so much.

 

[kschachn]

It is common lore (and may be correct) that R-R has their own ranches, free from barbed wire to raise cattle for leather. A dealer once told me that they cut a piece of wood for the instrument panel that is half the length, and then split down lengthwise so that a knot on one end is mirrored on the other. He stated that the factory keeps extra wood in a vault for future damage repair.

 

[G-MAN]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
A truly unique car, those were built with extreme care by people who took great pride in them.

Beautiful...



After watching "How It's Made: Rolls-Royce Phantom", I am still amazed at how much work goes into those vehicles. Easy to see why they cost so much.


The modern Phantom, while (IMO) faithfully carrying forth the handcrafted tradition of Rolls-Royce, really has nothing in common with the Silver Shadow except the brand name. The last Crewe built Rolls was the Silver Seraph, which could legitimately be called the Silver Shadow's progeny. Compare this one in and out and you can definitely see the family genes.

 

[hattaresguy]

Fantastic cars, nothing is built like a RR or a Bentley for that matter since they were the same car for so long. The wood, the leather, the feel of the doors. Everything is solid and real, its like being on a nice boat.

The engineering just wasn't quite up to German standards back in the 70's and 80's, but the quality never wavered. The British auto industry had some issues.

Great deals on the used market if you are a bit handy. Parts are not cheap, but they have a faithful owners club so tracking down stuff second hand isn't terrible.

I love the late 90's Arnage T, really great car. The boosted 6.75L V8 really pulls like a freight train. Its the only car that after I drove it around, and got back into my S class I felt like I was downgrading. No other car ever did that to the S.

But someone on this forum who has never seen one will probably say a panther platform or 300C is better.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
It is common lore (and may be correct) that R-R has their own ranches, free from barbed wire to raise cattle for leather. A dealer once told me that they cut a piece of wood for the instrument panel that is half the length, and then split down lengthwise so that a knot on one end is mirrored on the other. He stated that the factory keeps extra wood in a vault for future damage repair.


Like Mercedes they have great parts support. You can get leather and wood from the factory to match your car. They have very good records.

 

[01rangerxl]

I don't understand selling a car like that with a taped up non-functional window, A/C "on the fritz" and a known brake problem. Then again maybe the repair estimate is more than the car is worth. At least the wood isn't peeling and cracking everywhere like on a lot of them.

These are high quality cars, but they aren't very durable cars. They are something to be locked away and rarely used, and even those ones have issues.

 

[G-MAN]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
These are high quality cars, but they aren't very durable cars. They are something to be locked away and rarely used, and even those ones have issues.


There are thousands of RR owners who would disagree with you. If properly maintained, The Silver Shadow, Silver Spur, etc. are extremely durable and reliable. The ones with "issues" are invariably the ones that sit too much.

 

[kschachn]

They do, for a price

I have an acquaintance that has a 1979 Camargue. It's a very odd car to work on, part of which is "British", part of which is "Rolls-Royce", and part of which is "1979". He got it for a very reasonable price, it's also weird to think that it cost so much when new.

Don't get me wrong, I like it, it's just... odd.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Like Mercedes they have great parts support. You can get leather and wood from the factory to match your car. They have very good records.

 

[artificialist]

One of my auto teachers worked on a similar Rolls Royce.
He had to get a coworker to guide him into the service bay because the suspension would absorb the speed bump 100%
He also said a replacement water pump was $1500

 

[G-MAN]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
One of my auto teachers worked on a similar Rolls Royce.
He had to get a coworker to guide him into the service bay because the suspension would absorb the speed bump 100%
He also said a replacement water pump was $1500


Sounds wonderfully apocryphal.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
I don't understand selling a car like that with a taped up non-functional window, A/C "on the fritz" and a known brake problem. Then again maybe the repair estimate is more than the car is worth. At least the wood isn't peeling and cracking everywhere like on a lot of them.

These are high quality cars, but they aren't very durable cars. They are something to be locked away and rarely used, and even those ones have issues.


They are quite durable, just different than other cars. A lot of people are intimidated by them until they get used to the RR way of doing things.

Also one must remember that even though they can be picked up cheap now, they are still a high end car with high end car ownership costs.

This is the kind of car you buy, drop $10k-$15k into it, and have a nice driver.

 

[ArBee]

In the late 1970s, I worked in a shop that catered to exclusive cars - Royces, Astons and the like. One day a well dressed fellow dropped off his Silver Cloud for exhaust system replacement. He was going off on a cruise, and cautioned us to use only R-R factory parts. We did as instructed, ordering the required parts, and fitting them with even greater than usual care. Two weeks later, the man returned for his car. When presented the bill, he blanched and got weavy on his feet. After being guided to a chair and fanned, he gradually recovered. The cost? $2500 in 1978 money. With premium cars, it's not the purchase price that nails you, it's the maintenance.

 

[G-MAN]

Originally Posted By: ArBee
In the late 1970s, I worked in a shop that catered to exclusive cars - Royces, Astons and the like. One day a well dressed fellow dropped off his Silver Cloud for exhaust system replacement. He was going off on a cruise, and cautioned us to use only R-R factory parts. We did as instructed, ordering the required parts, and fitting them with even greater than usual care. Two weeks later, the man returned for his car. When presented the bill, he blanched and got weavy on his feet. After being guided to a chair and fanned, he gradually recovered. The cost? $2500 in 1978 money. With premium cars, it's not the purchase price that nails you, it's the maintenance.


Depending on what year his Cloud was, it was at least 14 years out of production by 1978. OEM replacement parts for out of production models of any brand are expensive, but especially when it comes to a Rolls because not very many were made to begin with. Sometimes when Crewe would get a replacement part order they would literally have to have it made--a one off replacement part. That can get real expensive.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
A truly unique car, those were built with extreme care by people who took great pride in them.

Beautiful...



After watching "How It's Made: Rolls-Royce Phantom", I am still amazed at how much work goes into those vehicles. Easy to see why they cost so much.


Very easy. The insistent focus on quality at the exclusion of pricing is rare, this one was from those days. Cost was not an issue, just perfection.

Their 412 V8 was a Cadillac design, just tweaked and rendered in aluminum instead of iron. I've had the pleasure of seeing a few at the shows around here, we have an active RR club that can really put out some beautiful examples. The way it used to be...

 

[G-MAN]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Their 412 V8 was a Cadillac design, just tweaked and rendered in aluminum instead of iron.


The 1969 Shadow would have had the 6.2 liter engine; the 6.75 didn't come out until the 1970 model year.

That the RR V8 was based on an American design is an old and totally false rumor. The L410 V8 was developed totally in house by Rolls-Royce and was not based on any existing powerplant.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: G-MAN
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Their 412 V8 was a Cadillac design, just tweaked and rendered in aluminum instead of iron.


The 1969 Shadow would have had the 6.2 liter engine; the 6.75 didn't come out until the 1970 model year.

That the RR V8 was based on an American design is an old and totally false rumor. The L410 V8 was developed totally in house by Rolls-Royce and was not based on any existing powerplant.


Heard it so many times and read it in print a lot as well. I can't prove it, but I will stick with it. Examined side by side the engine's blueprints were said to be virtually identical in too many ways to list. Just staring at the cutaway drawing is very revealing.

But I'm ok with whatever you like best!

 

[G-MAN]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: G-MAN
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Their 412 V8 was a Cadillac design, just tweaked and rendered in aluminum instead of iron.


The 1969 Shadow would have had the 6.2 liter engine; the 6.75 didn't come out until the 1970 model year.

That the RR V8 was based on an American design is an old and totally false rumor. The L410 V8 was developed totally in house by Rolls-Royce and was not based on any existing powerplant.


Heard it so many times and read it in print a lot as well. I can't prove it, but I will stick with it. Examined side by side the engine's blueprints were said to be virtually identical in too many ways to list. Just staring at the cutaway drawing is very revealing.

But I'm ok with whatever you like best!


Anyone who looks at the blueprints of the 1949 Cadillac V8 and the Rolls L410 and concludes they are the same design is crazy. Some notable differences: RR is a deepskirt design; Caddy isn't. RR has a gear driven cam; Caddy is chain. RR has a wet intake; Caddy is dry.

The first prototype V8 developed by Rolls in the decade of the 50s was the L380, which was a 5.2 liter, hemi-head design, and a clean-sheet powerplant. It was not based on any engine Rolls had ever produced or any engine produced by any other car company. Testing revealed all sorts of issues: lack of power, and the width of the engine, which made it almost impossible to fit in the engine bay of the then current Rolls models. The engineers went back to the drawing board and redesigned the heads and the L380N was born (N for "narrow"). The engine still did not produce that much more power versus the I6 it was to replace, so they increased the displacement to 6.2 liters, and the L410 was born.

Here's a couple of pics of the L380 Rolls-Royce Hemi that the L410 was based on. Does that look like any Cadillac V8 from the 50s?

 

[Jarlaxle]

I thought the Rolls V8 was based on the Packard OHV engine.