Category: Rolls-Royce

Introduced at the 1965 Motor Show, the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow represented an entirely new concept from Crewe. Lower lines combined with the traditional `Greek Temple’ radiator and unitary body construction to disguise the vintage of the engine (the V-8, 6230 cc unit introduced for the 1960 season). Although the larger separate-chassis Phantoms were continued, the bulk of production activity was concentrated on the Silver Shadow and its Bentley equivalent, and there can be no doubt that the popularity of the model was largely responsible for the survival of the motor… Read more

Unveiled in Sicily in January 1975, the Rolls-Royce Camargue proved a feast for the motoring press starved of such extravagant machines in the immediate post-fuel crisis years. But praise was muted as the car’s styling was not universally admired. Instead, most reports at the time devoted more space to the car’s two-level air conditioning that constantly measured the air inside and outside the cabin through various sensors and automatically adjusted vents and fans accordingly. To many the marque was synonymous with dignified conveyencers for royalty and the aristocracy but in… Read more

The shape of this car was a radical break with tradition for Rolls-Royce and Bentley. It appeared first on the Bentley S2 Continental chassis in 1959 as a Park Ward drophead design and was attributed to Norwegian freelance stylist Vilhelm Koren. This new talent was found by Crewe’s head of styling on a trip to the Turin Motor Show. The bold crisp lines and austerely simple shape had a dramatic straight-through wing line with single headlights at the corners. There was the merest suggestion of a fin in the backwards… Read more

The Corniche was Rolls-Royce’s coupe and convertible version of the Silver Shadow produced between 1971 and 1996. With the release of the Silver Shadow range in 1965, which had an all-in-one chassis less four-door body shell it was incorrectly considered that the release of this model would see the end of special-bodied models. Up to that time coachbuilders found it easy to construct coachwork for fitting to models with a separate chassis but almost impossible to do the same thing on cars built as a monocoque structure. Rolls-Royce overcame this… Read more

Unveiled in Sicily in January 1975, the Rolls-Royce Camargue proved a feast for the motoring press starved of such extravagant machines in the immediate post-fuel crisis years. But praise was muted as the car’s styling was not universally admired. Instead, most reports at the time devoted more space to the car’s two-level air conditioning that constantly measured the air inside and outside the cabin through various sensors and automatically adjusted vents and fans accordingly. To many the marque was synonymous with dignified conveyencers for royalty and the aristocracy but in… Read more