Soldato
Haven’t done a thread on here for a while but thought I’d post something up about this as it’s a bit different to the usual stuff I buy.
Had some money burning a hole in my pocket and my current barges were being far too reliable, so I started looking for something else to buy. I noticed that anything Rolls Royce or Bentley here was selling for £30k+, which seemed rather a lot compared to what they go for in the UK. I decided to take a chance and found this 1975 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow in Kent for £7k. I paid a friend to go and check it out and he said it was pretty good for the money, so I decided to buy it and put it on a boat from Southampton to Galveston Texas.
This is how it looked in the dealer photo:
It took around a month to arrive to Galveston, then I had to pay someone to trailer it from Galveston to Laredo, then it sat for around a month at Galveston while they did the import process. This wasn't cheap as the taxes are quite steep, plus you have to bribe people to get it through with no issues.
The import process took quite a while, which made me increasingly nervous as there's basically no way to insure it while it's in the import compound and I was wondering if it had "gone missing". Finally though, they let me know it was ready to pick up, and told me they'd arranged a temporary plate for me to drive it 3.5hrs back to my house. Only 50% of that turned out to be true.
We arrived at the border and the car was ready and waiting. They'd done all the papers correctly for me to register it, but they'd "forgotten" the temporary plate. The guy who handed it over to me told me to give a few hundred pesos to anyone who stopped me, which may well have worked if I was in an old F150 with Texas plates, but probably not in a Rolls Royce on UK plates. I decided to risk it anyway though, and within a mile realized this probably wasn't a good idea as the car attracted even more attention than I'd imagined it would.
I used to have a job driving Ferraris and Lamborghinis around the French riviera so I'm used to people looking at me as I drive past, but this was something else. I suspect it's more for the steering wheel being on the "wrong" side rather than the car itself but either way, you feel like a celebrity.
I decided to drive very gently on the way home as I knew it would be a long drive, with heavy traffic at the end, and I didn't want it to overheat. It sat at 60-70MPH with no issues whatsoever: even compared to my L322 or Lincoln, it's an exceptionally quiet and comfortable car and unlike anything I've driven before. You can control everything with the lightest of touches, and you feel like you're sitting in an old library.
In terms of issues, the windows don't work, neither does the AC, and I'm not sure if the stereo is broken or just too complicated for me to operate. I'll address those in the coming weeks - I feel like they're pretty minor given the age and reputation of the car.
I made it home with no issues - once I've got the proper plates I'll take it on a few road trips and share some more photos.
I put a bit of cardboard under it as a precaution, I've always thought that if an old British car isn't leaking fluids, it probably means it doesn't have any fluids.
Feel free to ask any questions / call me a lunatic etc
Had some money burning a hole in my pocket and my current barges were being far too reliable, so I started looking for something else to buy. I noticed that anything Rolls Royce or Bentley here was selling for £30k+, which seemed rather a lot compared to what they go for in the UK. I decided to take a chance and found this 1975 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow in Kent for £7k. I paid a friend to go and check it out and he said it was pretty good for the money, so I decided to buy it and put it on a boat from Southampton to Galveston Texas.
This is how it looked in the dealer photo:
It took around a month to arrive to Galveston, then I had to pay someone to trailer it from Galveston to Laredo, then it sat for around a month at Galveston while they did the import process. This wasn't cheap as the taxes are quite steep, plus you have to bribe people to get it through with no issues.
The import process took quite a while, which made me increasingly nervous as there's basically no way to insure it while it's in the import compound and I was wondering if it had "gone missing". Finally though, they let me know it was ready to pick up, and told me they'd arranged a temporary plate for me to drive it 3.5hrs back to my house. Only 50% of that turned out to be true.
We arrived at the border and the car was ready and waiting. They'd done all the papers correctly for me to register it, but they'd "forgotten" the temporary plate. The guy who handed it over to me told me to give a few hundred pesos to anyone who stopped me, which may well have worked if I was in an old F150 with Texas plates, but probably not in a Rolls Royce on UK plates. I decided to risk it anyway though, and within a mile realized this probably wasn't a good idea as the car attracted even more attention than I'd imagined it would.
I used to have a job driving Ferraris and Lamborghinis around the French riviera so I'm used to people looking at me as I drive past, but this was something else. I suspect it's more for the steering wheel being on the "wrong" side rather than the car itself but either way, you feel like a celebrity.
I decided to drive very gently on the way home as I knew it would be a long drive, with heavy traffic at the end, and I didn't want it to overheat. It sat at 60-70MPH with no issues whatsoever: even compared to my L322 or Lincoln, it's an exceptionally quiet and comfortable car and unlike anything I've driven before. You can control everything with the lightest of touches, and you feel like you're sitting in an old library.
In terms of issues, the windows don't work, neither does the AC, and I'm not sure if the stereo is broken or just too complicated for me to operate. I'll address those in the coming weeks - I feel like they're pretty minor given the age and reputation of the car.
I made it home with no issues - once I've got the proper plates I'll take it on a few road trips and share some more photos.
I put a bit of cardboard under it as a precaution, I've always thought that if an old British car isn't leaking fluids, it probably means it doesn't have any fluids.
Feel free to ask any questions / call me a lunatic etc
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Suggest watching Harrys Garage Arctic Rolls vid if you haven't already seen it for crazy road trip in one of these!
