Southern Tablelands Heritage Automotive Restorers Club Inc.

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10^th Anniversary Dinner July 2011	Car of the Month

Lawrie and Jane Nock’s 1972

Rolls Royce Silver Shadow

Article and photos by Lawrie and Jane Nock.

I recall my father regularly pointing out to customers that they could afford to have anything they wanted, but perhaps not everything they wanted. A Rolls-Royce was often used as the example of something which many people could afford if they were prepared to sacrifice other desires.

I never wanted a Rolls-Royce enough to do without other things. I did look at buying a second hand Silver Shadow Rolls during the 1970s, but I bought a townhouse instead. Owning a Rolls has never been one of my great aspirations, but I have usually bought second hand cars rather than new ones, so contemplation of a second hand Rolls was not totally out of step with my ways.

Following my retirement, idleness was not too much of a problem but Jane believed that I was becoming a bit of a hermit and she was not ready to be living with a hermit, so she set out to find a new interest we could both share. We had some friends who were members of STHARC and they seemed to enjoy their membership of the club and its activities so we thought we might get into an old car which was old enough to go on historic registration and join the club.

Earlier this century second hand luxury cars became very affordable. My first foray was a Mercedes 380 SEL which cost an absolute bomb when new. I bought it for about the same price as a tarted up Hyundai Excel. It wasn’t quite old enough for historic registration but was well on its way. When a friend pointed out to me that second hand Rolls-Royces had been advertised at less than $10,000 I was stunned. At that price, such an automobile seemed too good to be true. I chased down ads and eventually found a dealer in Sydney with one advertised for $10,000. It was a mistake, but having spoken to the dealer I thought that even at a bit of a premium, such a car could be an interesting acquisition. Off we went to look at the car. The dealer assured me that I did not want this car no matter how much I liked the price. He had several other very nice Shadows in the warehouse and we drove a couple – actually the first time I had ever travelled in a Rolls let alone driven one. They are very nice cars, once you get used to the size of them. We ended up not buying a Rolls. Jane saw a the only car she liked so we came away with a different vehicle which we still have. This left me still without my Rolls.

Another friend who says he was only trying to assist me to get what I wanted, told me of a Rolls-Royce advertised for sale in nearby Queanbeyan. By this time I was much more knowledgeable about buying a Rolls. I had been chastised by another friend for not having had the Bentley we bought checked over by a proper specialist and the dangers of such foolhardiness. He gave me the name of a local expert who I should have look at this car before I purchased. We went off to look at the car. No point in driving it, because we were going to get someone who actually knew what he was doing to do that for us, if we were serious about it. Bill was very accommodating and checked the car out for us. He said it was a good one so on the strength of his advice we bought it. We decided that we probably needed to have it on full registration so we could get full use of it and that’s the way it has stayed up till now.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was released in 1965. At that time it was the benchmark in automotive engineering and the pinnacle of luxury in a factory built motor car. In a leap from Rolls-Royce tradition into the modern world, the body was of monocoque construction. Doing away with the conventional chassis allowed a much more economical body design. It originally came out with a 6.23 litre V8 motor and 4 speed automatic transmission which were much the same as what had been fitted to the Silver Clouds produced from about 1960 onwards. It had power steering, 4 wheel disc brakes and independent suspension on all wheels. With air conditioning, electric seat adjustment, electric windows and central locking it was as modern as could be. The original Shadows also retained the beautiful picnic tables as fitted to the predecessor the Silver Cloud.

By the time our Shadow was built in 1972, the picnic tables had disappeared from the design, the engine had been upgraded to a 6.75 litre design and the 4 speed automatic had been replaced by a newer 3 speed version produced by General Motors in USA. Our car was built to order placed by York Motors in Sydney, for an Australian customer who for some strange reason specified that the standard Sundym tinted window glass be substituted by clear glass. The car was also ordered in a non standard but still factory colour, Indigo, which is a very dark shade of blue.

We only have some of the history of the vehicle. It was owned for some years by a Victorian Rolls-Royce enthusiast who sold it to the owner from whom we acquired it. The new owner found that he wasn’t using the car enough so decided to make some space in the garage. While this person had the car he had the engine removed and completely overhauled. Other Shadow owners who have driven the car have usually noted how good the engine is. We have had to replace the rear wheel bearings which was a bit of a fright with one retaining nut costing about $150, but when I was told how much it costs to have rear wheel bearings replaced on some fairly ordinary current model cars, I felt a whole lot better. We also had a Sydney specialist replace the rear body and suspension mountings.

The paint work looks like it is the original and after nearly forty years it is starting to show its age. These cars are surprisingly cheap to buy so engaging in a $10-12,000 paint job just doesn’t make sense. We patch up the gaps and enjoy using the car for what it is.

On the highway it cruises comfortably at the speed limit and on the only serious highway test I have done on fuel efficiency, I managed something between 15.5 and 16 litres per 100 km. On corners, the independent suspension provides a surprising ease of handling, especially for such a big car and if emergency braking is required the twin callipers on each of the front wheels and single callipers on the rear discs do an excellent job.

This is probably the most driveable of the old cars we have. We enjoy driving this car and our friends enjoy travelling in it.

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