1977 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II
“ Built to a special specification, this Rolls-Royce was used as a company car by Lord Donald Stokes. ”
Being offered as part of our curated auction in conjunction with the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Annual Rally at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire on the 26th – 28th June’26.

Background
Narrower and shorter than the Silver Cloud it supplanted, the Silver Shadow was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a monocoque bodyshell, disc brakes and independent suspension. But, before the traditionalists close this browser tab to find out where they can watch some VSCC racing this weekend, we should remind you that the Silver Shadow was still largely handbuilt at the time, something that isn’t the case now that RR merely assemble cars from crates stamped ‘BMW 7-series’…

Hydropneumatically suspended using Citroen’s engineering genius, the Silver Shadow introduced the world to the idea that luxury should neither be heard nor felt. In this it succeeded, and a properly maintained example will still stun you with its almost complete lack of NVH, even today: An electric vehicle might have it beaten, but a modern Royce certainly won’t.

You see, the sort of Rolls-Royce that built the company’s reputation wasn’t about offering vulgar finishes, no matter how beautifully they might be applied. It was about creating cars using the finest engineering standards that man could achieve and then cloaking it in a body that drew admiring glances rather than attention; no-one has ever posted a video of a Silver Shadow wafting through London, which is exactly as it should be.

Overview
Finished in the wonderfully of-the-period palette of Walnut with Gold pinstripes, a Cream Everflex roof, and a Beige leather interior, ‘OAS 302R’ started life with Lord Stokes, a man perhaps known best for being the chairman of British Leyland during a large part of its most turbulent decade.

With the highly appropriate family motto of “Speed Well”, Lord Stokes’ 1977 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II, for this, his company car, was even fitted with the Rolls-Royce Handling Package.

Interestingly, he was angling for a Corniche Convertible but got knocked back to ‘only’ a Silver Shadow II.

The poor love.

But don’t feel too sorry for him because, at a time “when Britain was at war with the unions and men standing around braziers held the car industry hostage”, he still found to time to write a testy note (on British Leyland headed paper, no less…) to complain that a fault with his Shadow’s air-conditioning system hadn’t been attended to during its last service, a service that had been, of course, carried out by the Mulliner Park Ward Division in London.

The fault? It was – and you can practically hear the whine in his voice as he dictated the note to his secretary as the indignity of the situation became too much for him – “tiresomely noisy.”

Those with a sense of irony may remember the same Lord Stokes giving a speech in 1970 in which he said: “‘I do not believe that all our stoppages of work result from genuine grievances.”

(If this has piqued your interest in learning more about what was happening at BL in the seventies, we can recommend the following account: https://www.aronline.co.uk/history/british-leyland-grand-illusion-part-one-export-die/)

But enough about “one of the men with very thick glasses who ran Britain at the time” as the seller so brilliantly puts it.

As a child of the seventies the brown and cream colour scheme appealed to our vendor, as did the car’s engine: “I have always loved the sound of the 6750cc pushrod V8, it is like music to me. I never dreamed I could own one.”

But he did – and even better, he bought it in 2017 to celebrate achieving his childhood dream of working for Jaguar Land Rover.

He used it to commute to work from his home near Bath occasionally, rolling majestically along the Fosse Way: “The view from the driver’s seat at the end of the day with the sun shining on the burr walnut dashboard is one of the finest sights in England.”

He took the old girl to the opera at Iford too, and Babington House Country Club – and mindful of the need to keep her grounded, he sometimes wafted through his local McDonalds Drive Thru, too.

However, a change of job and a move to the United States means he now isn’t able to use it as much as he would like.

Estimate: £8,000 - £12,000

View the current bid price here: https://www.themarket.co.uk/listings/rolls-royce/silver-shadow-ii/6ac2e433-5c53-4dcc-9683-f0eb2689b02f