Just Arrived I Rolls-Royce Silver Spur - FSD 846

Just Arrived

Rolls-Royce Silver Spur - FSD 846

Chassis: CH05056

The Silver Spur That Nature Nearly Claimed

There are cleaner ways to introduce a Rolls-Royce.

This 1982 Silver Spur arrived looking as though it had spent the last few years negotiating a rather close relationship with the local vegetation. Mud covers almost everything, moss has settled into virtually every nook and cranny, and somewhere underneath it all is what we believe to be Exeter Blue, topped with a matching blue Everflex roof.

It isn't exactly showroom fresh.

But then, few 44-year-old Rolls-Royces arrive that way.

Once you look past the mud and moss, the story becomes considerably more interesting. The bodywork appears surprisingly straight, with only minimal visible rust and corrosion around the areas we'd normally expect to find it. The paint itself will need a proper clean before we can judge its condition, but there doesn't appear to be anything immediately alarming hiding underneath all that accumulated countryside.

Inside, things are even more encouraging.

The cream leather remains soft and mostly clean, although there's no disguising the fact that it has lived a life. The woodwork has survived particularly well, with the door cappings and veneers retaining much of their original finish. There is some cracking and age-related damage to the lacquer, but nothing that looks particularly unusual for a car of this age.

It is a rather good reminder that appearances can be deceptive.

Outside, nature appears to have moved in.

Inside, it looks as though someone has been quietly looking after it.

The Silver Spur was one of the first models to emerge from Rolls-Royce's new generation of cars introduced at the beginning of the 1980s. Essentially the long-wheelbase version of the Silver Spirit, it offered additional rear legroom while retaining the same fundamental mechanical recipe: a 6.75-litre Rolls-Royce V8, automatic transmission and the sort of ride quality designed to make the road beneath you feel like someone else's problem.

This particular car has certainly had plenty of time to contemplate that road.

Whether it is ready to meet it again is another question.

The good news is that the engine does fire.

The less good news is that it doesn't stay running.

It's an encouraging start followed almost immediately by a reminder that old Rolls-Royces rarely give you the whole answer at once. There's clearly some life left in the mechanicals, but until we've had the opportunity to investigate properly, there's no point pretending we've discovered more than we have.

At least it wasn't completely welded to the transporter.

The Silver Spur rolled away under its own wheels, which is a modest but useful victory. No forklift was required, no elaborate recovery operation was needed, and for a car that's spent enough time outside to acquire its own ecosystem, that's not a bad start.

What happens next is still undecided.

The body looks promising. The interior has survived remarkably well. The engine runs, albeit briefly. And underneath the mud and moss, there may be a rather handsome early Silver Spur waiting to reappear.

But we'll have to clean it, inspect it and find out what we've actually got before deciding whether this one is destined for another life on the road or a rather different role in keeping other cars there.

For now, the moss can stay.

It has clearly got first dibs on the outside.