Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Standard Saloon
figurine was named The Whisper, a one-off now on
display at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu. But
for subsequent bonnet figurines, Sykes again chose
Eleanor as his model, transmuting The Whisper into The
Spirit of Speed, to fulfill Rolls-Royce managing director,
Claude Johnson's brief, that the figure convey "the spirit
of the Rolls-Royce, namely speed with silence, absence
of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy
and a beautiful living organism of superb grace…"
By the time Sykes presented the mascot to the RollsRoyce Motor Company, in 1911, she had undergone
yet another transmutation, this time into The Spirit of
HYLAND
