Rewriting the Book on Luxury - Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow

Greetings everyone! :D

In order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this mighty machine, this week we'll be taking a look at the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and its Bentley equivalent, the T-Series, a range of cars built upon the SY-platform which brought this most prestigious of marques out of the regal but cumbersome era of body-on-chassis construction and replaced it with a forward-thinking monocoque design that was tailored for the driver rather than the passenger.

However, the Silver Shadow illustrates both Rolls-Royce's zenith and its nadir, with the car slowly turning from transformative barnstormer into languishing and stagnating 1960s carryover as it remained in production right to the end of the 1970s, and though it ultimately become the most commercially successful Rolls-Royce model ever built, but at the same time one of the least produced Bentley models, its sheer numbers would serve to dilute these brands and thus essentially rob them largely of their value right at the point where the company was facing an existential crisis thanks to its 1971 bankruptcy and two oil crises.

Chapters:

0:00 - Preamble
0:54 - Keeping with the Times
3:25 - Timeless but Technological
6:25 - Testing and Trials
9:34 - Rewriting the Luxury Rulebook
12:11 - Bankrupt and Broken Off
14:45 - Variants and Upgrades
18:06 - From Asset to Liability
21:46 - A Mass-Production Classic
24:14 - Conclusion

Written permission allowing me to discuss the Silver Shadow and the Rolls-Royce brand has been generously granted by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and I greatly appreciate their candour in presenting me the opportunity to discuss one of my personal favourite cars.

All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated YouTubers. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): [email protected]

The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.

If you enjoyed this video, why not leave a like, and consider subscribing for more great content coming soon.

Press the Join button to get access to new videos a week ahead of schedule by becoming a channel member for just £2.99 a month!

Paypal: https://paypal.me/rorymacve?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/rorymacve

Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D

References:
- AROnline (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)