Buying a Shadow 2

[jinkster]

I'm looking at buying a Shadow 2 as a 'daily driver'. I live and work in Qatar but try and pop back to the UK for 5 days per month. I'm wanting to buy a Shadow for when i'm back in the UK and run on a day to day basis.

Everyone I here says buy the best you can afford. If it works and runs fine as the car will be nearly 40 years old, is there any day to day maintenance required? Will it be happy stood for a few weeks at a time? I've seen some Shadows on the market for £4000, some for £8000 and some for £20,000. I was looking at around the £8000 mark. Good idea or bad idea?

[matt5791]

I think, if you spend some time, you should be able to buy a very nice car for £8000 - but it may not just leap out of the market at you. And there may be plenty of nasty cars at £8000.

Classic car auctions can often be worth a look.

[ADP68]

Call around the specialists and see if any know of a car for sale. I've had one for 12 years and I love it. The general opinion is that they need to be driven on a monthly basis in order for things not to go wrong, so even in Winter, I try and drive it around the block for half an hour or so (my block is never salted by the council) and then spray underneath with a hanging basket hook waterer attached to the end of a hose. And it's a good idea to connect it to a battery conditioner when it's not in use.
ETA, my day-to-day maintenance is to check the oil and coolant and tyres prior to driving and letting it warm up properly prior to getting it off the drive. I use Nigel Sandell for my servicing in Isleworth, but there are other guys on the RRBSA website (specialist association) as well as people like Phantom Motor Cars, who are used by some PH people.

Edited by ADP68 on Friday 22 May 10:42

[Bluebottle911]

Definitely a good idea, but I suspect you will need to spend a bit more, say around the £12K mark, to get a decent one that won't need the other £4K spending on it in fairly short order. But if you are up for that, I would advise spending your money on a Turbo R or Mulsanne S.