Mystery Car 100 was recently traded to Leikin Motor Companies for a new car. It is a 1996 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur and currently resides in our used car showroom when not being test driven. But what makes this car more unique is that only 27 of them were produced with the smaller rear window. That was part of the Springfield Edition which added $10k to the original MSRP, for a total of $186,500 on this car. With that package the owner received the following options:
- Dual-tone exterior paintwork
- Formal style rear window
- Chesterfield style buttoned upholstery
- Madrona veneer woodwork with cherry crossbanding
and boxwood inlay - Madrona veneer commemorative plaque added to center console
- Chrome bezels added to instrumentation
So … why did they make a Springfield Edition? According to one source, 1996 was the 75th anniversary of the production of Rolls-Royce vehicles in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The United States of America has always played an important part in the history of Rolls-Royce. In 1919, after the First World War, Rolls-Royce recognized that the USA was the most important car market in the world. Americans bought more cars each year than the rest of the world combined. Consequently, Rolls-Royce of America Inc. was formed to build cars in the USA, a factory was built in Springfield, Massachusetts and the first chassis was completed in 1921. As a commemoration of this anniversary, Rolls-Royce produced a specially designed Silver Spur Springfield Edition.
As mentioned earlier, there were only 27 Silver Spurs made in 1996 with the Springfield Edition package.* And even fewer were produced in the Pickwick exterior color combination (Black over Racing Green). That makes this particular car all the more rare. If you are interested, click here for more details.