Coys Auction - True Greats
Royal Horticultural Halls
Elverton St
Westminster
London SW1
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Before the introduction of the Silver Shadow in October 1965, Rolls-Royce motor cars had traditionally employed a separate chassis, to allow a variety of bodywork designs from traditional coachbuilders. The brief for the Silver Shadow, however, had demanded a lower and more compact successor to the Silver Cloud III, which dictated a unitary construction monocoque bodyshell. But while this could logically have reduced the individual coachwork styles available from Crewe, it proved to be far from the case.
Eight months later the 125 mph Corniche was introduced, the fastest Rolls-Royce yet with 10% more power than the standard car; it also benefited from sophisticated air conditioning, central locking and rack and pinion steering. The Corniche was ousted as the Rolls-Royce flagship, however, by the arrival in March 1975 of the striking Camargue. Its mechanical specification was