A Silver Spur/Silver Spirit? Nope. I used to have a Silver Shadow, and I’d take a freepre-1974 Shadow again in a moment, and if I ever spend money on another Rolls-Royce it will be a Silver Cloud or Bentley S1/S2 LHD.
The 1980s had some growing pains as they were based on Silver Shadow tech but were trying to incorporate modern features. Things didn’t get much better until the Seraph, imo.
Bimmers. Beamers are the motorcycles. 
nah … gimme’ a fiat or mini-c … you got yourself a deal. had you come along and offered me a rolls when i was in my late 20’s … i mighta’ accepted a '37 model year or so.
ref:
'37 model
W/o getting into it, the actual dynamics/personalities are somewhat different than this. Bottomline, the old man is 91 yrs old, and gddtr lives across the continent. So his knowledge of what goes on will be limited, and in not too many years, he will be beyod caring. Car wasn’t all that “beloved” - he bought it because he “got a deal” on it. He has another Rolls - 60s, I believe.
“Honey, lets not drive behind that guy.”
And according to Doug DeMuro, not especially fun to drive. He’s reviewed a couple on his YouTube channel, and, if I’m remembering rightly, found them sluggish and heavy, with decent-but-not-great handling. He said all the luxury went into the interior, especially in the back seats; the presumption being that the owner of the car would spend most of her time working or relaxing in the back, leaving the driving to her chauffeur.
Presumably, Rolls-Royce figures that the kind of person who the kind of stupid money needed for a new Rolls, but who is interesting in speed or driving experience, will buy a performance supercar like a Bugatti or a Lamborghini.
I agree. In law school, I occasionally went out drinking w/ a prof who drove a Rolls. On occasion that we decided I was the less drunk, I’d drive him home. Just a big - VERY smooth riding - boat. Seats weren’t even all that comfortable. Very upright as I recall. Of course, it was a long time ago and I was generally pretty intoxicated when I was driving it.
In 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a Rolls-Royce to King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. Rolls customized it for the King - converted it to left-hand drive, took out the liquor cabinet and replaced it with a silver ablutions bowl, made the rear passenger compartment luxurious enough for a king.
Ibn Saud gave it to one of his sons. Because in Arabia, men sit in the front seat; the rear seats are for women. And the King found the front passenger seat cramped and uncomfortable.
They used to say if you wanted to be chauffeured around you bought a Rolls. If you wanted to drive yourself you bought a Bentley. I’m not sure how true that actually was, especially back then when Rolls-Royce owned both brands. IIRC they were both pretty similar.
Did you ever sit in the back seat? As mentioned before, the presumption was that the person driving would be a chauffeur. No need to to put much effort into making the help comfortable. All the effort went into making the back seat comfortable.
Cripes! Traditionally a Rolls had a good backseat position, and the driving was done by a servant. But in that picture they’ve got the driver half way between the front and back wheels, and the passenger sitting over the back wheels. So – cramped driver position, and sloshy backseat position.
Interesting thread.
I periodically follow a YouTube channel called “Curiosity Incorporated” by an antique dealer from Edmonton Alberta. Last year he bought an old racoon and squirrel infested 1968 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Convertible for next to nothing and he’s since been restoring it and publishing periodic update videos.
It’s a year later and he’s still chipping away at it. What he can’t do he has done in a shop. In the video below he visits the shop after a bunch of parts have arrived he been waiting for for months.
His discussion with the mechanics about how stupidly over-engineered the Rolls Royce brakes are is hilarious.
I would definitely run the other way if given a Rolls.
No thanks. I quite respect the historical build quality and craft of Rolls Royce cars, but I don’t want one.
The hydraulic brakes (licensed from Citroen) are a big part of why most vintage car types are down on the Silver Shadow/Wraith and Silver Spirit/Spur. They’re the equivalent of the Mercedes vacuum-actuated features in the 600s - seemed cool and advanced at the time, but hard to maintain and not much better than what was already out there.
I just saw a review of the new Rolls Ghost model.
The sharkskin seats* and 12-cylinder power sound nice. On the other hand, it resembles a high-end Ford sedan with a fancier grill and hood ornament**, which is doubtfully worth paying $419K for.
In keeping with the Rolls tradition, the mileage stinks (14 MPG combined).
*might be hard on your butt, though. (?)
**according to the review, Rolls is trying to attract new/woke customers who would otherwise be embarrassed/turned off by too-obvious opulence, which seems counterproductive.
Looks like the 1985 models get about 8-9 miles to the gallon, or 12.5 gallons to go 100 miles. The price of gas in Vancouver is about $3.75 (Canadian) a US gallon. My Prius Prime gets about 60 mpg, so the gas for the Rolls would cost about 5.5 times what I’m paying now, so up from $40/month to $220/month. And the Prius gets an oil change every 6 months; I’m guessing yearly regular maintenance on the Rolls means more oil changes and other costs as well. I’d rather spend the $2,100+ a year on something else. Actually, just about anything else
Absolutely. It can sit in the garage beside my '74 camaro and I’ll take my grandchildren for a spin in it, every once in a while over the next 2 years. THEN I’ll flip it. 
As I read in the ‘Dog and Lemon Guide’ back when it was a print publication: If you can’t afford one new, you can’t afford one second hand.
I was at my independent import repair shop earlier this week and they had a couple year old RR Wraith
up on the rack.
“A total POS” was the shop manager’s verdict. RR buys a BMW chassis & drive train, removes the fragile German electronics & stylishly austere interior then replaces it with failing British electronics & a fragile but luxo interior, then wraps the whole thing in an extra couple tons of sheet steel.
Run away! Run away! was his advice when I asked about owning one. And they work on a lot of high end cars; German, Italian, and British.
Sadly an older RR wouldn’t be better. They’ve always been lived beyond the bleeding edge in gee-whizzery that doesn’t age well. So yes, a 10 yo one will be less whizzy than a 2 yo one. But it’ll be farther beyond it’s “best by” date as well.
I was offered a Rolls about 10 years ago for ~$20K. I thought it would be cool to tow a horse trailer with it to shows, but apparently it can’t handle it,
