1981 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit

I have always loved the styling of Rolls-Royce Motorcars from this era . . . the giant chrome bold & upright grilles with the "Spirit of Ecstacy" hood ornament, the distinctive traditional & somewhat boxy luxury sedan styling, the very heavy weight, and more.

Nighttime Picture After Paint Job

I often surfed the internet, eBay Motors in particular, looking at miscellaneous Rolls-Royce's from this era for sale . . . to the point where I often got made fun of by most of my friends. :) They claimed I would effectively turn 53 on my 26th birthday. In their defense, my "old man shoes" contributed to that a little bit . . . but hey, as with the Rolls-Royce, I like comfort. ;-) Anyways, I was always just looking, never a real intention to buy. I had too many cars. Later, I started entering way lowball bids just to keep watch on the cars. Long story short, one day before an auction ended in October of 2007, I had to walk up to my wife and say, "Honey? There's a pretty solid chance I just bought another car, but look how fun it looks!" Fortunately, she knew that type of thing was likely before she married me . . . so she has had some time to get accustomed to it. :) Before the auction even ended, I started to get very excited. :)

Now, just like anyone would expect of a car bought off of eBay . . . it was like playing the lottery, it could have gone really badly or really well. More likely, it was to go badly . . . and the car needed a lot of work, was misrepresented (even warranting a partial refund from the seller), etc. Fortunately, the price was right . . . which left quite some padding for the restoration that the car needed. Time for the fun to begin . . . I setup the following pages to show the condition the car was received in, what was done to bring it back to acceptable, and more. :)

Restoration Process - Mechanical, Interior, Paint, Stereo, Misc., etc.

Below is more about the car as a driver . . . routine maintenance, gas mileage, & overall impressions.

As expected for a car that weighs over 6,000 lbs. with 27 yr. old technology, my fuel efficiency is less than stellar. Although, after routine maintenance and letting the car be driven again . . . the gas mileage improved and got quite steady around 11 mpg. The car rides incredibly well, gliding over road imperfections and even railroad tracks barely alerting the driver of such obstacles. There is a very large amount of body roll when taking corners or curves, however. The acceleration is frighteningly slow. The loose steering makes it a little challenging to drive, and the aerodynamics hit the wind like a brick wall. As someone once said, "You drive a Bentley," but you simply "make progress" in a Rolls-Royce. ;-)

By the numbers, this car does not do anything particularly well . . . but there is something subjective about it that makes it wonderful. A combination of the heritage, history, ultra soft & comfortable ride, etc. makes this an incredibly fun car to own.

Make sure to come back by periodically to see the progress on this project, and thanks for stopping by!

© Vivek K. G., 2007-8.