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Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow 1965–1980
The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a luxury car produced by British automaker Rolls-Royce in various forms from 1965 to 1980. It was the first of the marque to use unitary body and chassis construction.
The Silver Shadow was produced from 1965 to 1976, and the Silver Shadow II from 1977 to 1980. To date, the combined model run has the largest production volume of any Rolls-Royce.
[B]Silver Shadow[/B]
The Silver Shadow was designed with several modernisations in response to concerns that the company was falling behind in automotive innovation, most notably its unitary construction.
Style-wise, the John Polwhele Blatchley design was a major departure from its predecessor, the Silver Cloud. More than 50% of Silver Clouds had been sold on the domestic market where, by the standards of much of Europe and most of North America, roads were narrow and crowded.
The new Shadow was 3 1⁄2 inches (8.9 cm) narrower and 7 inches (18 cm) shorter than the Silver Cloud, but nevertheless managed to offer increased passenger and luggage space thanks to more efficient packaging made possible by unitary construction.
Other new features included disc brakes replacing drums, and independent rear suspension instead of the outdated live axle design of previous Rolls models.
The standard wheelbase Silver Shadow measured 203.5 inches (5,170 mm), 4,700 lb (2,100 kg) and had a book price of £6,557 in the first year of production.
The Shadow featured a 172 hp (128 kW) 6.2 L V8 from 1965 to 1969, and a 189 hp (141 kW) 6.75 L V8 from 1970 to 1980. Both power plants were coupled to a General Motors-sourced Turbo Hydramatic 400 automatic gearbox, except on pre-1970 right-hand-drive models,
which used the same 4-speed automatic gearbox as the Silver Cloud (also sourced from General Motors, the Hydramatic).
A distinctive feature was a high-pressure hydropneumatic suspension system licensed from Citroën, with dual-circuit braking and hydraulic self-leveling suspension. At first, both the front and rear of the car were controlled by the leveling system;
the front leveling was deleted in 1969 as it had been determined that the rear leveling did almost all the work. Rolls-Royce achieved a high degree of ride quality with this arrangement.
[B]Two-door versions[/B]
A two-door saloon was introduced early in 1966, followed by a convertible in 1967.There are two different versions of the two-door saloon – one by Mulliner Park Ward featuring "Coke bottle" style fenders, and the very rare James Young model that was only built in fifty examples
(comprising 35 Rolls-Royces and 15 Bentleys). The James Young version was discontinued in 1967, leaving only the curvier Mulliner Park Ward model. The convertible variant, by Mulliner Park Ward, was marketed as the Silver Shadow Drophead Coupé.
[B]Silver Shadow II[/B]
In 1977, the model was renamed the Silver Shadow II in recognition of several major changes, most notably rack and pinion steering; modifications to the front suspension improved handling markedly.
Externally, the bumpers were changed from chrome to alloy and rubber starting with the late 1976 Silver Shadows. These new energy-absorbing bumpers had been used in the United States since 1974, as a response to tightening safety standards there. Nonetheless,
the bumpers on cars sold outside of North America were still solidly mounted and protruded 2 inch(5 cm) less. Also now made standard across the board was the deletion of the small grilles mounted beneath the headlamps.
Outside of North America, where tall curbs and the like demanded more ground clearance, a front skirt was also fitted to the Silver Shadow II and its sister cars.
In 1979, 75 Silver Shadow II cars were specially fitted to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the company with the original red "RR" badges front and rear, pewter/silver paint, grey leather with red piping, scarlet red carpets,
and a silver commemorative placard on the inside of the glove box door. 33 75th anniversary cars were designated for and shipped to the North American market.
[B]Silver Wraith II[/B]
Rolls-Royce considered offering a more exclusive, long-wheelbase Phantom VII model based on the Silver Shadow, but production was not pursued and no prototypes were built. Instead, a long-wheelbase variant, some 4 inches longer to provide additional rear seat legroom,
was offered in the United States from May 1969, and available to domestic customers from early 1970. A pilot series of ten long wheelbase cars had been built in 1967 and sold, one of them to Princess Margaret. Some long-wheelbase models were fitted with a privacy glass divider.
Outside of North America, the cars with a divider were fitted with a separate air conditioning unit mounted in the boot - North American safety laws made this impossible, as the petrol tank would have had to be relocated. The cars with a divider lost the entire gain in wheelbase.
The glass divider was electrically retractable.
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info form wikipedia.org[/SIZE]
