The Rolls-Royce Enthusiast's Clubub

ANTONELLO RUSSO

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1979 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II
Reg: KRS 453V

History from the owner: 
I acquired her in 2006, as my wife was expecting our first child. I had been driving a 1989 Alfa Romeo Spider when I met her. When news of her first pregnancy spread amongst our friends, many suggested that we acquire a sensible family car, as the little Alfa Romeo would not be equal to the task of serving a young and growing family. We initially didn’t take their advice seriously. One day, however, while browsing the Sunday papers in a pub in West London my wife saw an ad stating “Rolls Royce Silver Shadow blue on blue for sale, Aberdeen”. “This looks good actually” she stated. Room for five people and a large boot for prams and other family paraphernalia: It did seem such a good idea it didn’t take too much discussion. After some research and several visits to the Hunt House for precious insights and good advice we flew to Aberdeen and experienced our first tour of Scotland in a Shadow, driving to Elgin, along Loch Ness, to the Argyle and the Borders, then to York and finally back to London. 
 
Since then we had two more children, and our Shadow has been our companion for many enjoyable trips around England and overseas, many exciting days at Royal Ascot, and plenty of more mundane trips to nurseries, schools, family stores, parks, playgrounds…
 
Our car was fitted with air vents to the boot as the first owner, according to the documents, carried “dogs in the boot” (someone had crossed the word “dogs” and replaced it with “wife”); she also has a flexible map-reading light over the passenger pillar so as not to inconvenience the driver with too much light.
 
During these last 14 years she has truly proven to be a great family car, with only a few unexpected quirks to keep in mind: for example, once my toddler son managed to open the rear door while driving in London, on the Mall. Thankfully he was strapped to the child seat. I asked a RREC member how to activate the child locks to the back doors. He replied “there are no child locks: if you travel with children make them follow you on a Range Rover driven by the nanny”.