Weekend Edition – A 1980 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Shooting Brake, and it could be yours…

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Welcome to another Weekend Edition here on Hooniverse, and let’s start with this superb Rolls Royce that I discovered over at the Brown Car Appreciation Society’s Facebook Page. This magnificent car was once the property of John Entwhistle (the late member of the legendary Rock Band, The Who), and will be put up for sale with Bonhams at Beaulieu, National Motor Museum. The date of the Auction is the 7th of September, and Bonhams holds an event of this sort almost every year. Now, let’s discover this Rolls Royce…

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According to the Auction Cataloque:

Introduced in 1965, the Silver Shadow represented a complete break with tradition, being the first of the Crewe factory’s models to employ unitary construction. All-round independent suspension and power-operated four-wheel disc brakes appeared for the first time on a Rolls-Royce, and production cars boasted a roof-line 4″ lower than that of the preceding Silver Cloud. The Silver Cloud II’s well-tried, 6.2-litre V8 continued in the Shadow until the need to maintain power while meeting US emissions targets saw it enlarged to 6,750cc in 1970. Notable developments prior to that had included the adoption of GM400 automatic transmission and air conditioning as standard. For 1973 the front suspension sub-frame was redesigned, enabling radial tyres to be fitted without compromising ride quality, and later that year ‘impact-resistant’ bumpers – another US requirement – were standardised. Introduced in 1977, the revised Shadow II featured power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering and split-level air conditioning among many improvements.

There was never, of course, an official factory-bodied estate version of the Shadow but that did not deter those wealthy enough from commissioning their own, this example being created at the behest of the late John Entwhistle, legendary bass guitarist with ‘The Who’. The coachbuilder is not known, but eight years ago Bonhams sold a similar car that had been converted by FLM (Panelcraft) Ltd of South London.

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The current vendor purchased this car from John Entwhistle’s wife via Hanwells in West London seven years ago and then sent it to Coway coachbuilders in Bolton to be totally refurbished. The car has been kept at an estate in Perthshire, Scotland where it was mainly used for grouse shooting, and has been garage stored in a ‘bubble’ to maintain ideal air temperature. It has been routinely serviced by Alastair Scott of Abernethy, Perthshire, a recognised Rolls-Royce mechanical engineer, and over the last over seven years has not given any trouble.

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Auction estimates price this car somewhere between £12,000 and £16,000 ($19,000 – $25,000) which places this squarely in the bargain of the century category. Unique body style, celebrity ownership, completely restored, and all that Brown, what’s not to love? See the Bonhams Listing here, and if you have the time, take a look at the rest of the offerings here.

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23 responses to “Weekend Edition – A 1980 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Shooting Brake, and it could be yours…”

  1. Vavon Avatar
    Vavon

    Brown gold in the ring, na, na ,na, nana!
    What’s not to love? The gold around the headlights…

  2. Paul E Avatar
    Paul E

    Ahh, it's British–there's a puddle underneath the car (yes, I know, it's probably from the A/C)….

  3. Van_Sarockin Avatar
    Van_Sarockin

    Perfect, although being used for grouse hunting is a bit common. If only it was reserved strictly for falconry…
    Still, it's a cheap way to get a useful bit of RnR history.

  4. Deartháir Avatar
    Deartháir

    It's beautiful, but it has two doors too many to be a shooting brake. That's an estate car.

    1. monkey_tennis Avatar
      monkey_tennis

      And if I owned a large enough estate, it would be the perfect car.

  5. Batshitbox Avatar

    "Yes, it used to belong to John Entwhistle. I bought it at the Oxion."

  6. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Gorgeous, gorgeous wagon! I am surprised how well the rear end fits the car, it is very good build.
    But next time you title a post like this with "and it could be yours", make sure to make this a competition prize for…say…posting semi-relevant vintage Volvo ads.
    <img src="http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2306/09z2.jpg&quot; width="600">

  7. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    I didn't even know John Entwhistle had passed away. RIP.

  8. longrooffan Avatar

    I love this era Rolls Royces (had a Matchbox sedan as an aspiring Hoon) and I love longroofs. This one could find a place in my livery any day of the week. The estimated price of entry is certainly doable but I'd have to sell off the gold on the front end to afford the upkeep on it.

    1. stigshift Avatar
      stigshift

      Still have my red Rolls-Royce sedan and my turquoise Corniche Matchbox cars.

  9. Roller Derby Avatar
    Roller Derby

    And in true Rolls-Royce fashion, she's leaving a puddle of . . . something beneath her on the pavement..

    1. Van_Sarockin Avatar
      Van_Sarockin

      But, being a Rolls, you can be assured it will be no piddling puddle.

  10. Rover1 Avatar
    Rover1

    Hmmph, no sign of a tow bar. How am I supposed to move my polo pony's trailer?

  11. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    So, I'm in the process of saving up for a house. Except, we could get this for less than our ten percent down, it's about as big as any place as we'll be able to afford, and I highly doubt we'll ever be able to afford a house with such classic rock provenance. I mean, the guys from RUSH are from Toronto, but their former neighbourhood's getting sort of expensive. We might be able to swing Jane and St Clair, but that only provided inspiration for Jane, by the most celebrated Canadian alt-rock band of the '90s, the Barenaked Ladies.
    Anyhow, you have no idea how much I'm trying to convince my wife we need this.

  12. stigshift Avatar
    stigshift

    That would be so much more tasteful without the gold trim. All 32 LB of it….

    1. Van_Sarockin Avatar
      Van_Sarockin

      I know. It's almost as if A Lexus dealer got ahold of it. At least it's tempered by being on a brown car…

      1. stigshift Avatar
        stigshift

        PERFECT analogy! Beer really hurts when it comes out of your nose, by the way…

  13. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Everybody unhappy about the gold trim: Isn't that relatively easy to fix? It's not like this is a beacon of originality, to be left untouched forever.

  14. Rover1 Avatar
    Rover1

    And if this estate is perhaps too old for you, there is always the possibility of commissioning your own. Who else but the Sultan of Brunei would take a two door only Bentley Continental, back when Bentley and Rolls Royce were together a British car company, and commission a small production run of 6 longer wheelbase four door estate versions to match a small production run of four door sedans, leaving us…
    <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6QDgIabT-gQ/TBO0VnAwGjI/AAAAAAAAIvE/jeZw0MBBqIY/s1600/4.jpg"width="600"&gt;
    based on one of these
    <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4667959744_9ac9890293_b.jpg"width="600"&gt;

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Nice, if not the most exciting design I have seen. Could live with one, though. They probably collect dust in a warehouse instead of raking up child-seat-equipped miles.

  15. Jeff Glucker Avatar
    Jeff Glucker

    I.Need.This.Car.

  16. Natalie Diaz Avatar

    The car look really awesome . very nice design indeed. I liked the storage space inside the car for the long journeys and this serves the same purpose for me.

  17. C³-Cool Cadillac Cat Avatar
    C³-Cool Cadillac Cat

    Oh, yeah, I'd rock that for another couple of decades.