FURTHER REFINEMENTS

Although the Silver Spirit and long-wheelbase Silver Spur arrived at a time of recession, their sales improved throughout the 1980s, ensuring Rolls-Royce Motors had a prestige hit on its hands. Much of the development in the early part of the ’80s was focused on Bentley, culminating in the Mulsanne Turbo and subsequent Turbo R. But by 1989 the Silver Spirit and Silver Spur came in for an upgrade via the Series II.

This ushered in an adaptive damping system known as Automatic Ride Control, which employed electronically controlled dampers front and rear, plus vertical and horizontal accelerometers, linked to a control module that could vary the settings between soft, normal and hard within fractions of a second in response to steering, acceleration and road surface.

A further revision came in 1992 when the Silver Spirit/Spur received a new four-speed automatic gearbox, while the Series III cars of August

’93 saw the classic V8 featuring redesigned cylinder heads with enlarged inlet ports and exhaust valves, while a new induction system improved low-speed torque. Electronic transmission control smoothed out the drivetrain, while revised anti-roll bars and reduced power assistance to the steering sharpened up the ride and handling. Inside, the car gained a revised dashboard with dual front airbags.

The Flying Spur was announced in 1994, featuring the turbocharged engine from the Bentley models.

And the range was again overhauled the following year with further revised cylinder heads, Zytek fuelinjection and a charge-cooler for the turbocharged cars. This latest Silver Spirit and Spur (never called Series

IV, since ‘IV’ denotes death in some

Far Eastern cultures) also gained a new wheel design and a shallower radiator grille – complete with smaller Spirit of Ecstasy – to allow for a modernising raised bumper height.

Despite the SZ family being in the autumn of its career by then, electronic traction control was added for 1997. That same year saw the Silver Spirit dropped from the range, while the Silver Spur gained a light-pressure turbo (non-intercooled) to push power to 300bhp. Body-coloured bumper centres and blue lettering for the model name were added in 1998, with the Silver Spur remaining available to order for another two years.‘