A Keeper... My 1989 Rolls Royce Silver Spur LWB/Windsor Blue Metallic/Tan Connolly Hides/33 K Miles

Hello Everyone. Hope you all are well after the chaotic past two years. I had originally wanted a new car (a hybrid of some sort) but there was nothing but black and white cookie cutters on all the lots. No choice of colors and black interiors only...ugh! A Rolls was not even on my radar until I saw a few online and thought why buy a new all “plastic computer on wheels” when you can get a classic wood and leather Rolls for the same money. I read all the caveats about these cars. While cars of this vintage sell for not much more than a top of the line Accord, buy the best example you can afford and be prepared to spend more than the car is worth to keep it on the road during it's lifetime...OK (fingers crossed). They made a lot but a lot sit and that's the worst thing beyond seasonal storage. Service history is key. This car happened to tick all the boxes for me it's overall condition, the colors, even the old Motorola phone is still in the back seat arm rest but it was 2500 miles away in California. So I made sure I found a qualified local independent shop that could work on the car and service it if need be. These cars can be worked on by a competent DIY mechanic as the workshop manuals are readily available online. Most of the difficulty lies in the way it's put together and ease of access and the need for specific tools. Parts sometimes can be expensive and hard to find especially trim and interior fittings. The cost of refinishing the wood dash ,door sills or upholstery is insane. Thankfully mine are in pretty good shape, some slight hairline age cracks in the lacquer but not bad. As far as where these cars live,you don’t seem to find many worthy examples anywhere but the East /West coasts and South. Money and nice weather obviously. It took a couple months of searching before this one showed up. My car has some sorting to be done. The cruise is inoperable which is common. If yours is working consider yourself lucky. The tiny 30 plus year old ECU's fail and need rebuilt or replaced. The speedometer reads 10MPH slower than you are actually going. GPS on the phone helps avoid tickets...lol, as she does fly. Driver’s seat back/forward a bit hesitant,probably just old grease. Passenger seat was finally restored to full function. Had both of their ECU's rebuilt as battery acid leaking from the memory seat backup battery damages the circuit boards beyond 10 years. All engine and major mechanics are fine. Rust free body and under carriage. Nice paint/stripes with no dings. I had the car gone over. Serviced the mineral oil brake system (not to be neglected EVER), and all fluids and filters before it’s Winter nap. New tires are on the list for Spring as they’re almost five years old. These car’s are big and heavy. Extended storage tends to flat spot them easily. Time to wake her up for Spring. Winter storage wasn’t too prolonged as I managed to get her out once or twice a month with our somewhat mild winter here. Salt being the biggest enemy in Ohio. –Mike-

A Bit Of History

In mid 1987 Rolls Royce introduced the 20,000 series with a major redesign update from the previous models. To distinguish these updated cars and the serial number jumped from 15,000 to 20,000with this particular example being number 25,206. These models are referred to as the desirable 20,000 series as a result.
In 1989 the Mark II model was introduced to the 'Silver Spirit/Spur' line up - the models remained named the Silver Spirit and Silver Spur but the refinements and improvements included a redesign of dash with more modern instruments which improved the interior look quite considerably with the old rectangular trip computer box being replaced with better looking round gauges. The road was illuminated by stylish one piece Euro styled head lamps while cars destined for the U.S. were required by law to use the quad sealed beams. The car's venerable 6.7 liter V8 and GM Turbo Hydromatic 400 transmission added an improved Bosch mechanical fuel injection system. A more robust cooling system and there were a number of design improvements to the brake system including ABS. The suspension was another innovation with the 'Automatic Ride Control' system adjusting the dampers in all four wheels in real time. There was also a new Japanese air conditioning system that replaced the old GM based system. Only 1,658 Silver Spurs were built over a five year period from 1989-93. The long wheel base Silver Spur model (4"longer than the Spirit) is becoming increasingly hard to find with approximately only 331 cars built per year.
For those who are unfamiliar, Rolls Royce no longer exists as it had for over one hundred years - this 1989 Silver Spur is one of the last in the original line of cars built in the legendary Rolls Royce factory in Crewe, England with a quality and craftsmanship that far surpasses that of today's mass produced models with many BMW parts. Also, Connolly Leather has stopped production since 2002 and any stocks left of the leather they had produced has already been depleted. Today, upholstery shops uses a 'Connolly' substitute leather supplied by different European tannery's that uses reportedly use the same Vaumol, Autolux and Laxan graining processes that Connoly used and is about as close as you can get to the original factory leather, but as any enthusiast will tell you, there is no substitute for the smell and feel of the authentically original 'Connolly' leather interior.