SOLD

Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow - FSD 824

Chassis:  SRH18762

Some cars arrive dead.
Some arrive barely alive.
And every now and then, one arrives just functional enough to lull you into a false sense of security.

This is a 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow finished in Cardinal Red — a colour that sounds dramatic and, thankfully, actually is. Deep burgundy metallic, period-correct, and mercifully still wearing its age rather well. The paint has the usual signs of time here and there, but it still carries a decent shine and suits the old Shadow beautifully. There’s something about a red Rolls-Royce that feels slightly… rebellious.

More surprising still: it drove itself on and off the trailer.

Around here, that’s practically cause for celebration.

Our forklift driver had already begun mentally preparing for duty, no doubt expecting the usual slow-motion recovery operation. But no — the old girl fired up, selected drive, and moved under her own power without protest. Graceful, even.

Stopping, however, proved to be a more philosophical exercise.

The brake pedal travels firmly and confidently all the way to the floor, followed by a brief but meaningful pause while everyone involved reflects on their decisions. Roughly half a second later, the brakes finally join the conversation and the car stops, eventually. Parking it requires equal parts precision and faith, particularly because this Shadow is actually quite tidy and we’d rather not rearrange its panels accidentally.

We’re fairly confident the master cylinder has retired from active service.

Inside, things continue surprisingly well. The interior is entirely black. Not everyone’s favourite specification on a Silver Shadow, admittedly; many prefer the usual magnolia-and-walnut country-house look. But paired with the Cardinal Red exterior, it works rather nicely.

Its previous owner bought the car back in 2023, where it joined a collection of ten vehicles — which feels like exactly the sort of environment a Silver Shadow expects to live in. It was enjoyed regularly, improved gradually, and by all accounts remained reliably dependable aside from a rear window issue and its increasingly theatrical braking system. In fact, the rear window has already been repaired using one of our own motors, which feels pleasingly circular.

As is often the case with Silver Shadows, the car seems to have reached that particularly familiar stage of life where fixing one issue simply reveals the next one patiently waiting underneath. Sort the window, and the brakes begin auditioning for retirement. Address the brakes, and something hydraulic inevitably starts sweating in protest somewhere else. None of it catastrophic, necessarily — just the sort of rolling negotiation with mechanical reality that tends to accompany a fifty-year-old Rolls-Royce. Which, ultimately, is how it found its way here in the first place.

Originally, this car came to us with dismantling in mind.

But — and this keeps happening lately — we’re not entirely convinced it deserves that fate just yet.

So, before the spanners come out, we’re open to offering it as a straightforward rolling restoration project exactly as it sits. Realistically, we’d need to see somewhere around £3,500 back from it to make that sensible, but if someone fancies a charmingly usable Shadow with decent bones and delayed braking reactions, we’re listening.

For further details, please contact:
Email: andy@flyingspares.co.uk
Direct Dial: +44 1455 299903