COVER STORY SILVER WRAITH II VS SILVER SPUR
‘It's not the extra length, you know – it's the volume it creates. That's what makes such an impression.’ Anthony Kearsley is telling me not to think of the difference between a Silver Shadow and his Silver Wraith II as four inches in the wheelbase, and he's right of course. Four inches, or ten centimetres, can't really make the difference between a luxury saloon and a truly exclusive, opulent limousine, but nearly 200 litres of volume can. That, according to my schoolboy maths, is how much more space you enjoy within the long wheelbase members of the Silver Shadow family, with a very similar figure for the Silver Spur over the Silver Spirit.
Rolls-Royce had a track record of offering extended wheelbase options on otherwise standardised saloon bodies, going back to the first Silver Cloud, when they were always sold in small numbers (see side-panel, p. 20). Silver Clouds, Silver Shadows and Silver Spurs are large cars anyway; few people felt the need for more room or more exterior presence. Yet those that were driven to look for something even more individual than the experience of ordering a new Rolls-Royce could be tempted. Certainly, the extra legroom in the back was welcome, if only necessary for tall chaps on long journeys, but other details in the model specification tell you that space for rear passengers in a working limousine was not the
