Rolls-Royce MPW Siver Shadow Two-door Coupe

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The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was introduced in 1965 to much acclaim for its outstanding modern lines and advanced engineering.

It continued to use the excellent and incredibly smooth and silent 6,230cc V8 engine with a 3-speed automatic transmission but now featured unitary construction with no chassis as such but with an integrated body and frame. This gave a strong and light structure and enabled the car to provide more internal space than the old ‘perpendicular’ models whilst being much lower, lighter and also somewhat slimmer and shorter.

A modern improvement was independent suspension all round with an ingenious automatic self-levelling system powered by an engine-driven hydraulic pump with servo-assisted disc brakes as standard. Dignified but understated, the Shadow was an immediate success and sold very well, particularly in the United States.

However some customers demanded a more bespoke motorcar, so from 1966 Rolls-Royce offered a coachbuilt two-door Coupe which was joined by a Convertible version the following year. With fabulously elegant coachwork designed by John Blatchley and Bill Allen, each and every one was handbuilt by Mulliner Park Ward in a necessarily lengthy process that took all of 20 weeks and resulted in a price some 50% higher than the standard Silver Shadow.

Only the very finest materials were used including Wilton carpeting, Connolly hide and the best burr walnut veneers, giving these cars a level of quality and glamour that far outstripped the saloon. Demand for these magnificent cars was so great that the waiting list was measured in years, not months, a state of affairs that resulted in them being given their own model name, Corniche, in March 1971.

Supplied new to a Mr JR Graham of Prestbury, Cheshire, on 6th May 1970 by Mead Cockshoot Ltd of Manchester, this Mulliner Park Ward Coupe is one of just 600 made before the model was re-named as the Corniche. Looking most attractive in Silver Mink with a dark blue vinyl roof, the interior is trimmed in sumptuous navy hide with lamb’s wool overrugs and Sundym glass.

With just over 77,000 miles showing on the odometer, the car is said to be in excellent running order with a good service history and two service booklets with various stamps by Lex Mead of Cockshoot, JK Seymour, The Murray Motor Company and Stewart Walker. In 2014 the car was treated to a major bout of mechanical fettling at David Dexters including a gearbox rebuild, a brake overhaul, a radiator re-core and a full hydraulic service with bills on file amounting to some £12,000.

Owned by a long-term RREC member who bought it from another RREC member, the car is MOTd until June 2016 and is said to run and drive beautifully with outstanding road manners and all electrics working as they should, and will be driven some 230 miles to the sale from its base in Kent. It comes complete with all its tools, warranty card and original handbooks.

Widely tipped as a model that has been too cheap for too long, the MPW and Corniche Shadows may well prove shrewd investments in times to come, Quentin Willson being so certain that they are ‘blue chip’ investments that he recently put his money where his mouth is and bought one for himself! Whatever the outcome, the lucky new owner of this car will certainly feel like a millionaire every time they slip behind that elegantly slender steering wheel and ease regally into the riff-raff traffic around them. Go on, you only live once…

AMENDMENT: The clock is not working.