Me and my Shadow

The venerable Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow turns 60 this year. Owners held a birthday bash at Brooklands, and JOHN EVANS was invited along

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During the model's production run from 1965 to 1980, almost 40,000 Silver Shadows left Rolls-Royce's Crewe factory.

This August, 170 of them, including related versions, gathered at Brooklands Museum to mark the 60th anniversary of the model that ensured the car-making division of Rolls-Royce remained a going concern after the firm's aero engine business collapsed in 1971.

That they did so was largely thanks to James Bond fan and classic car collector Michael Marshall-Clarke, self-styled 'Man with the Golden Roller' (he owns two) and a director of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club.

A good Shadow still elicits murmurs of admiration, and there were plenty of them at Brooklands. Many were Shadow IIs, the updated version launched in 1977 and identifiable by its rubber bumpers. It also gained a larger V8 (from 6.2 to 6.75 litres), improved suspension and more direct rack-and-pinion steering in place of the lazier recirculating ball system.

Strolling among the cars, I was reminded there were almost as many variants of the Silver Shadow as there were colours. In addition to the regular four-door model there was a long-wheelbase Shadow, renamed Silver Wraith for the Shadow II, and a two-door Shadow saloon and a two-door drophead coupé, renamed Corniche and Corniche convertible in Shadow II guise. The Corniche continued to be produced until 1982, the Corniche convertible until 1996. There was also the Camargue, a rebodied coupé built on the Shadow platform.