| Author | Message | ||
     Andrew Lark New User Username: drew Post Number: 3 Registered: 6-2009 |
G'day everyone. I was wondering how to identify an Australian delivery Shadow. My Shadow has a 100 octane placard near the fuel filler and the speedometer is in miles on the outside with the odometer in miles also. This makes me think it might not be an Australian delivery vehicle. I can't find an Australian compliance plate, but 1973 might have been too early for these. It managed to pass the blue slip inspection and is now fully registered in NSW! :-) I am going to order history papers from the RREC and VicRoads, but these haven't arrived yet. Thanks, Andrew. | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 1752 Registered: 4-2003 |
An Australian-delivered car from 1969 onwards, and maybe earlier, will have an Australian compliance plate with the ADRs to which the vehicle complies. It is mounted on the left hand valence near the receiver-dryer. If by some weird chance it has been removed, at least you will see the mounting holes, Our 1972 Bentley T-Series SBH1327 is an Australian-delivered vehicle. The compliance plate is marked York Motors, and it is named a ...Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, ADR21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27 (not the dreaded 27A). It wasn't worth making a special compliance plate for one car each year - maybe fewer for Yorks as some went through Kellows - so the Bentleys were marked as Rolls-Royces. Mind you, the rocker covers are marked Rolls-Royce too: the Company didn't bother with the Bentley covers by then as so few Bentleys were made. It is the one Bentley imported to Australia new in 1972, all the rest being Silver Shadows. RT. | ||
| Andrew Lark New User Username: drew Post Number: 5 Registered: 6-2009 |
Thanks for the information Richard. I will have a look and see what I can find. I understood the valence to be the panel below the front bumper, but I might be wrong. Do you mean around the area below the left headlamp inside the engine bay? Do the other item I mentioned provide any clues (MPH speedo and 100 octane placard)? Thanks, Andrew. | ||
| Paul Yorke Grand Master Username: paul_yorke Post Number: 348 Registered: 6-2006 |
Andrew, yes Richard means inside the engine bay. Boring I know, but you could look through the parts books and at the right of the parts there are alternatives for Australian ( and other countries ) I'm too young to remember 1972 cars going out to Australia, but on the later cars the Australian government seemed to have an aversion to things shiny things inside the car. Black indicator and gear shift levers. Black windscreen wiper arms. No sun-visor make up mirror for the missus. Different key for the doors and ignition (RRA as opposed to the usual RRM & RRL. Maybe electric windows on ignition. Maybe lighter tint glass? Two door mirrors? With all the Aus and US safety modifications it makes me wonder how the hell we survive a Sunday afternoon drive over here in the UK.  | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 1763 Registered: 4-2003 |
Sorry if my parts names are wrong (too long living in the third world - Switzerland). The compliance plate is underbonnet just forward of the LH suspension tower, behind the receiver-dryer. Our '72 has MPH and KM/H, but the odometer is in miles. White large MPH and smaller orange km/h markings, as on all UK Crewe cars at least until the mid-1990s. Being a '72, Australia was only just about to convert to KM (1974 I recall ??). I think that the Australian-spec speedos from mid 1973 are km only. There are a number of other giveaways. Easiest to spot is that Australian cars have no rear antiroll bar and a stiffened one at the front. The suspension is far stiffer, and even with no antiroll bar at the back they corner very flat but are a bit skittish. With an antiroll bar at the rear, those cars would do 360s all over the place (ours has done at least one too, despite having no antiroll bar). Mind you, they corner far harder than US-, EU- and UK-spec cars. RT. |
