The RREC, like the RROC, has a forum thingie, but you need a password.
I suggest that all of the worms that have crawled out of the woodwork
this week form a mini-pressure group to get these members-only
restrictions lifted. I've effectively done this by posting here, as the
RREC are members of this list! (Or were - they certainly used to be.)
Given the international nature of both the Internet and Rolls-Royce
ownership, it seems dumb to have a US clique and a rest-of-world clique.
IMHO, there should be one forum for the whole world.
Whichever club decides to throw their doors open to the public first
will doubtless be the one that gets lots of interest, posts, and thus
membership applications (plug, plug).
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Just a comment - good early Spirits are now actually *cheaper* than good
Shadows of any age in the UK, and the complex hydraulic system seems
less troublesome with the use of Mineral Oil, a change which happened at
the same time as the model change. I don't know whether this price
inversion has happened in the US yet.
An early halfway-decent Spirit can be had for around £ 11,000 (naff ones
aren't much cheaper). An equivalent late Shadow is around £ 12,000.
Naff Shadows are changing hands about the £ 4500 mark - in the words of
the RREC bulletin, "reflecting the cost of restoring an abused example"
or some such - I can't find the article, this is just from memory. In
other words, Caveat Emptor!
If you prefer the aesthetics of the Shadow over the Spirit, then of
course a Spirit isn't going to tempt you. However, if you want to
decide if RR or Bentley motoring is for you, and the likelihood of less
hassle is appealing, an 80's Spirit probably the cheapest way to RR
ownership. They aren't appreciating yet, but depreciation is about nil;
so if you decide you've made the wrong decision, it won't hit your
wallet unduly.
Mechanically, the first Spirits are near-as-dammit identical to the last
Shadows, apart from the change in hydraulic fluid used as mentioned
above. The interior is also very similar. Just the exterior is majorly
different. They start to get different (in some respects simpler) under
the bonnet and inside from about 1987 onwards - but the prices don't
change much until you pass 1990, when the Spirit II came out, with its
adaptive suspension and re-designed interior. One like mine (1988) is
worth about £ 14,000 - not a lot more than a Shadow of maybe 20 years
older - and has all the toys like fuel injection and ABS, and reputedly
a less rustprone body.
Yours,
Richard J. H. Shears
The only person on the list who likes Spirits...
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