A world record number of Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow cars are to go on display to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the launch of the model.
The historic meeting will take place on the famous racetrack at Brooklands Museum, in Weybridge, Surrey, on the 16th of August.
The unique event, which will re-create an iconic photograph that was taken in the 1970’s of 100 cars lined up on a British motorway, is being organised by enthusiast and collector Michael Marshall- Clarke who is a director of the Rolls Royce Enthusiasts’ Club,
He said:” We already have 160 cars registered, coming from all over Europe and one owner travelling from Australia and another coming from America, so we will be making our own little piece of history, it will definitely be a world first. Then to follow a black tie event in the evening, we have the biggest cavalcade of Silver Shadows ever making a 60 miles trip to Stonor Park in the Chilterns on the Sunday.
In a Q and A , Michael , who owns a rare gold Corniche and a gold Silver Shadow explains how the project started.
Q. What was your inspiration for this event?
A. “I collect Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow automobilia, and about 3 years ago I found an original 1970s brochure that features a series of 10 adverts that R-R ran on consecutive days in The Times newspaper. The adverts take the reader through the stages of building a Rolls-Royce in the ‘70s and culminate, on day 10, with a shot of 100 Silver Shadows on a closed section of motorway. I thought that the image was stunning and that’s where the idea of trying to recreate it came from.”
Q. What did you do next?
A. “I knew that the 60 th anniversary of the Silver Shadow was coming up, at that time over 2 years away, and so I put my mad idea of recreating the ‘100 Shadows’ shot out on my social media – I’m ‘The Man With The Golden Roller’ on Instagram with over 10K followers – to see if there was any interest, and I was blown away by the response from around the globe. I knew then that I had to make it work, and it’s now grown into a fully-fledged weekend event.”
Q. Why did they use 100 cars?
A. “100 was significant because it was the number of Silver Shadows produced for the home market, and so the number of new owners, each month in the 1970s. The Silver Shadow still remains as the bestselling Rolls-Royce of all time, with nearly 38,000 built between 1965 and 1980. That sounds like a large number, but when you consider that the British motor industry churned out about 5500 cars a day in 1977, only 10 of those would have come from Rolls-Royce.”
Q. Have you managed to find out any history about the original shot?
A. “Yes, I’ve researched the original shot and have found out that it was taken in 1974 on the M3 near Basingstoke. It was the most expensive single advertising shot up to that time, with 100 Silver Shadows worth an average £12,000 each – around £125,000 in today’s money – needed to complete the photo. R-R had to beg, borrow and steal the 100 cars necessary, as they had no spare stock – all their cars being ordered and owned by a customer. There are 99 Rolls-Royces and only one Bentley in the photo, but this figure is, purely by luck, almost accurate to the production ratios of the marques at the time.”
Q. Why was the Silver Shadow such a bestseller?
A. “It was a huge gamble for Rolls-Royce in 1965, their first modern monocoque car, abandoning over 60 years of separate chassis and bodywork coachbuilding tradition. It was also designed to target a growing affluence during the boom years of the ‘60s and ‘70s, appealing to a new type of customer, the owner-driver. You were just as likely to see sports and TV stars or business owners driving a Silver Shadow as you were a Lord or Lady. When Rolls-Royce went bust in February 1971, the receiver recognised the sales success of the Silver Shadow and that saved the motor division from oblivion.”
Q. Why did you choose Brooklands as the event venue?
A. “I started thinking about a possible venue big enough to take 100 Silver Shadows, there was no way we were going to be able to shut a motorway like Rolls-Royce did back in 1974! I’m a member of Brooklands, the motor museum in Surrey, and had the idea of using the old finishing straight as our stand-in motorway. Brooklands is steeped in motoring history; Charles Rolls was there at the track’s inauguration in 1907, Bentleys thundered around its banking way back in the 1920s and Vickers – owners of Rolls-Royce Motors in the ‘80s – manufactured aircraft on the site for decades, so there’s a real connection.”
Q. I understand that the event is open to all ‘SY’ cars, can you explain?
A. “‘SY’ was the Crewe designation for all cars based on the Silver Shadow platform; the Shadow itself in standard and long wheelbase variants, its successor the Shadow 2 and Wraith 2, the coachbuilt convertible and coupe versions – called ‘Corniche’ after 1971, and the Pinifarina-penned 2 door ‘Camargue’ – the most expensive production car in the world at the time of its launch in 1975.”
Q. How many cars have you got attending?
A. “I started off aiming for a straight recreation – 100 Silver Shadows, and cars from the SY generation – but over the last 2 years of developing the idea this target has become more ambitious, grown by demand from owners all over the UK and Europe, I even have two enthusiasts travelling from the USA and Australia to be there. As of today, I have 160 cars attending. It should be an awesome sight! A once in a lifetime event. I’d like to hit 175 or even 200 before the day, if we can.”
Q. Will this be a world record then?
A. “Yes, I think so. I believe that it will be the largest gathering of Silver Shadow/SY generation cars ever in one place. A world-beater for sure!”
Q. Can you give us some details about the anniversary weekend’s events?
A. “The event takes place over the weekend of the 16/17 August, in just 8 weeks’ time! The morning of Saturday 16 th August will see all the Silver Shadows gather at Brooklands for the ‘100 Shadows’ recreation. There will be a programme of technical and historical seminars during the day that owners can attend to learn more about their cars, as well as experts on hand to answer any questions. We’re also aiming to present a 1965 to 1980 model timeline using the attending cars, and we’ll gather the attending Pinifarina-designed Camargues under Brooklands’ very own Concorde, as a celebration of the best in 1970s automotive and aviation engineering, in honour of the Camargue’s 50 th anniversary. Saturday evening will see 150 guests attending a Diamond Anniversary dinner, in celebration of the Silver Shadow, to be held in Brooklands’ famous clubhouse. I’m hoping that we might also have a couple of special, VIP guests in attendance – two ex- Crewe personnel who were actually working at Rolls-Royce during the Silver Shadow era, both of whom were involved in the original ‘100 Shadows’ shot. I’m keeping my fingers crossed to complete this historical circle at the event.” “Sunday 17 th August is our Diamond Anniversary Road Run. We have 120 Silver Shadows lined up to join our leisurely drive of ‘60 miles for 60 years’, from Brooklands to Stonor Park in the Chilterns, home to Lord and Lady Camoys. This will be another record-breaking event, as I believe it to be the biggest cavalcade of Silver Shadows in history. I think we’ll need to come up with a collective noun for a gathering of Silver Shadows! A whisper maybe? Interestingly, I’ve recently learned that Brooklands to Stonor was the route taken by the motoring press back in 1992 for the launch of the Bentley Brooklands model, so Crewe history shadows us again here too.”
Q. How do cars register to attend?
A. All SY cars must be pre-registered and buy an advance ticket to take part in the event programme and ‘100 Shadows’ recreation. Tickets can be purchased by emailing [email protected] but you’ll need to act fast as ticket sales end on 1 st August.
Q. Is the event open to members of the public?
A. ‘Yes, the beauty of Brooklands is that it will be open as usual on the 16 th event day, so anyone can come along and see the spectacle. And on Sunday, Stonor Park too will be open to the public to view our cars at the end point of our Road Run.”
Q. Of all classic cars, why are Silver Shadows your passion?
A. “I’ve always been into cars, but I guess Silver Shadows became my thing because I grew up watching the Roger Moore era 007 movies and there always seemed to be a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in them. To that kid, they embodied style and success, and I promised myself that one day I’d own one. I’ve now got two, both gold – a 1972 Corniche Convertible, called ‘Moneypenny’ and a 1974 Silver Shadow Saloon, called ‘Auric’ after ‘Goldfinger’. To the adult me, they represent the very pinnacle of a golden age of British automotive engineering – something to be celebrated and preserved, but most of all driven!
Q. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A. I’ve loved cars since I was a little kid and my Mum used to buy me a Matchbox car every week. I studied to be a car stylist, not an easy thing for a boy from rural Norfolk, and eventually ended up fulfilling my dream, working for Ford in their UK Design Centre. These days I’m a passionate classic car collector, researcher and enthusiast – active on social media and at local and national events – committed to the future of the classic car world by championing the achievements and understanding the legacy of heritage vehicles. I’m a Director of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club and enjoy writing about classic Rolls-Royces and my many classic car adventures.
