AN ANATOMY OF THE… CLASSIC CORNICHE

Up until the arrival of the Silver Shadow and its T-series sibling, Rolls-Royce’s separate chassis construction meant there was always the option of coachbuilt bodywork. Even though the increasing adoption of the monocoque process by the British car industry had resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of traditional coachbuilders, there were still some customers who wanted something more than the ‘Standard Steel’ bodies that Rolls-Royce offered as, well, standard.

With the Silver Cloud, this was still easily achievable because the bodyshell sat on a chassis rather than being integral to it. However, when Rolls-Royce entered the modern world with 1965’s Silver Shadow, finally moving over to monocoque construction, it seemed the end for special-bodied models aside from the exclusive Phantom V. Fortunately though, that proved to not quite be the case; soon, both Rolls-Royce itself and one of the few remaining specialist coachbuilders, James Young, proved that variations on the Silver Shadow theme were both possible and desirable. We’re talking, of course, about the two-door saloon and convertibles that later evolved into the Corniche and Continental models.

There had once been a multitude of different