REVIEW: Rolls Royce Silver Spirit by BoS Models, 1/18

[KARsten]

"We will have succeeded in our task if, late on a winter´s evening, in a dimly lit street, someone looks out of a window and catches a glimpse of a dark and travel-stained Silver Spirit and says 'A Rolls-Royce has just gone by'", Fritz Feller, Chief Engineer for Styling and Future Projects, is quoted saying in the Silver Spirit´s launch brochure. Well, Mr. Feller, if that was the task, you have failed epically, I´m afraid. While the Phantom VI built alongside the Spirit in the Eighties would have stood out like a Renaissance Castle amongst the skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan, Feller´s Englishman in New York was fully assimilated to the Big Apple´s contemporary traffic. Take away the iconic grille and silver lady, and the typically 80´s brick shaped Roller could be mistaken for an American cruiser of its time. So the Silver Spirit (inspired by the Mercedes S-Class) may ironically go down in history as the most unrecognizable Rolls-Royce motorcar ever. That is probably how, despite the flood of other Rolls-Royce model cars in recent years, the Silver Spirit fits in with BoS-Models´ range.

Freshly launched last week, the Spirit comes in a controversial two-tone metallic beige over metallic dark burgundy hue. Whether you like the combination or not, the paint finish is excellent and complemented with nice chrome details on bumpers and along the sides and bonnet. They also frame the headlights which are convincing in their depth and nicely reflect the light on display. Even the indicators have been given proper rounded reflectors underneath the yellow plastic. The chrome grille is superb complete with the RR-badge and a famous silver lady, which is better than that on a Paragon Roller and can compete with her sisters made by Kyosho. The tail lights are quite okay, but the red parts remind me a bit of candy. The windscreen wipers look awkwardly bulky.

The wheels have white wall tires and the hub caps bear a chromed RR-engraving. This, however, comes out very badly to the point of near to complete disappearance on some of the wheels. CMF have done that better on their Phantom VI.
The interior is pretty nice, too, especially the replication of the lavish wood veneer is much better than in Kyosho´s Drophead Coupe (but of course not as good as the Ghost´s superb veneer) and on par with Paragon´s and CMF´s Rolls-Royces. The instrumentation is printed in almost legible detail, so that the molding lines on the steering wheel and gear stalk form an annoying contrast. Inexplicably (and inexcusably for the model of a car that must have had seat belts in the 80s), BoS has not given the model any seat belts and corresponding locks are present only on the rear bench.
Produced in limited numbers anyway, BoS´ Silver Spirit will probably only appeal to Rolls Royce collectors who pride themselves in having the complete Rolls Royce Motorcars pedigree on display. But there it will stand out like the Gherkin between the Tower of London and St Paul´s Cathedral.

http://1-18-modelcollection.jimdo.com/r ... er-spirit/