The 6.8 litre V8 powered Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit superseded the Silver Shadow, although maintaining much of the same layout and the same V8 engine, and was introduced in 1980 to much applauds. Although the Silver Shadow was tremendous in terms of production numbers, the car was becoming dated and Rolls-Royce craved a renewal of its image in 1980, such as the Silver Shadow had done 15 years earlier. The Silver Spirit did not displease, with the French press instantly showing much positive praise to the car when it was first launched at the Paris Salon. The eighties proved a positive phrase for RR with sales of the Silver Spirit ever increasing, with this latest luxury Rolls being said to have had the best road handling for a RR to date, mainly due to the sophisticated self levelling hydraulic suspension. The unmatched luxury leather interior remained standard, whilst the anti locking brakes, air-con and fuel injection became standard features 6 years after the release of the Silver Spirit. The quality and workmanship of the Silver Spirit chassis was proven when RR choose to use the chassis for other models across the range, including the Flying Spur and touring limousine. Successfully proving innovating for its day, the Silver Spirit was the first Rolls-Royce to sport the retractable Ecstasy mascot, plus spurring on other production models to ensure RR profits upon its highly successful renewed model. RR used the spanning base of the Silver Spirit when creating the Silver Spur, a limousine variation which RR knew would prove successful to its high end luxury cliental. The late eighties saw the introduction of the mark II Silver Spirit, with little changes being made between the original and the newer variation. The new mark II had only notable changes to the suspension of the car, with the introduction of the mark III also only sporting minor changes from its predecessor, specifically to the old V8 which was renewed. For those who were interested in a more powerful option from the Rolls-Royce range, the release of the Flying Spur was a perfect solution, which was simply a turbo charged Silver Spur. The Flying Spur was released in 1994, with the 4th mark of the Silver Spirit released within the same year to run along side the Flying Spur in production, and with another newly created RR variation. The Silver Spur, also offering the limousine extra long wheel base, had the long wheel base as standard which was found on the Silver Spirit. The latter models produced did not lack power, with the Silver Dawn sporting a Garret turbocharger for increased power, as standard. Fact File Number produced: 8129 Production dates: 1980â€1998 Place of assembly: Crewe, England Model successor: Silver Seraph in 1998 Distinction: First retractable RR mascot, which was spring loaded to sink into the radiator, now an iconic feature of the RR range Designed by: Fritz Feller
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