Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit / Silver Spur

Probably the best selling Rolls-Royce after the Silver Shadow, the Silver Spirit is undoubtedly a car that was most commonly used by royals in Malaysia in the 80s and 90s. It was always the automobile of choice whenever they attend functions as it oozed class when parked as well as when on the move. The Silver Spirit was produced between the years 1980 – 1999 and there were about 20,000 units built during that period. There was also a long wheel base version of the Silver Spirit which was known as the Silver Spur. A notable feature of the Silver Spirit was that it had rectangular headlamps and it was a first for Rolls-Royce. It was also the first model to feature the retractable ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’.

At the time when the Silver Spirits were produced, Rolls-Royce and Bentley still belonged to the same parent company as Bentley. I had a write-up on this is one of my earlier posts titled ‘The difference between a classic Rolls-Royce and a classic Bentley’. The similar platform was used by Bentley to produce their models in the same era which included the Bentley Eight, Mulsanne as well as the Bentley Turbo models. Of course, the differences were only cosmetic and naturally they were carrying different badges. 

The super-luxurious interior

All models were powered by the 6.75 litre V8 engine and being a huge car it certainly needed a big heart to move it from one place to another. Over the years they had done some facelifts to update the car as well as introduce new suspension systems, the introduction of ABS as well as fuel-injecting the later models. The initial models were twin-carburetor powered. And coming to the transmission, the earlier models has a 3-speed automatic gearbox mated to the enormous 6.75 litre V8 but in the 90s, a 4-speed automatic was adopted which personally I think was a good move.

Below is the long wheel base Rolls-Royce Silver Spur which happens to be a very rare model. It was spotted at one of my visits to a friend of mine. It wasn’t really in fantastic condition but it was a Silver Spur. It’s really a stunner if you like big cars like me. Buying one in Malaysia is not too expensive and it’ll cost you about RM 80,000 onwards for a good example but maintaining it with the road tax and general maintenance of course is not that cheap. The full road tax for this model is almost RM 20,000 per year unless of course your car is more than 25 years old and you’ll be eligible for the 80% discount of which the road tax will be RM 4,000. It’s a lot of difference but it’s still a lot of money!! But sitting in one will definitely make u feel like a king.. haha..

Below is a video of a 1989 UK Rolls Royce Silver Spirit