Rolls-Royce, 1980, Silver Spirit

Rolls-Royce "Silver Spirit", 1980

The legendary Spirit of Ecstasy, Rolls Royce’s little statue symbol, was designed by Charles Sykes, a good friend of Lord Montague of Beaulieu, who commissioned the statue to embellish his car. It is said that its creator was inspired by the shape of the Lord’s secretary, Mrs. Eleanor Velasco Thornton.
The fact that the statue was also known as “Emily”, her nickname, would seem to confirm this. The statue appeared for the first time in 1911 and was made in silver for about 4 years before being produced in a nickel-based alloy. From 1980, with the presentation of the Silver Spirit, Rolls-Royce vehicles have been fitted with a “Spirit of Ecstasy” protection device which makes it automatically retract into the radiator grille if somebody is trying to steal it.
The Silver Spirit, presented at the Paris Motor Show, has no real mechanical differences to the Silver Shadow made in 1965, but it is actually stylistically different in that, although it is as long as the Silver Shadow, it is lower and wider. Its window surface is also much bigger, which contributes greatly to lightening the lines and hiding the true dimensions