1950s Rolls Royce Silver Dawn - the most beautiful Rolls Royce ever made?

Rolls Royce Silver Dawn

The Rolls Royce Silver Dawn was brought into a new world for Rolls Royce. Gone was the era of the 30s where Rolls had had several models all largely unique in their parts listings and the company had survived the war and contributed their war efforts and now faced life in a new era, one where money wasn’t so freely available and the customer needed something different.

Unlike others which faltered, Rolls rose to the challenge and created the new rationalised range - a range which cut their base costs and yet delivered in a range of cars which would meet customer demands.

Now it would be remiss of us to talk about the Silver Dawn and to fail to mention the Bentley MK 6 which was introduced in 1946. The car with its 4,257cc engine, four speed manual transmission, sturdy chassis frame and independent front suspension was complemented by an attractive all-steel body designed by an in-house team led by Ivan Everden. This was a move away of course, from that pre-war ethos of coach builders creating the final look of the cars.

The success of this car was then instrumental in creating change for Rolls. The demand for the MK 6 always outstripped supply but in the USA, Bentley sales amounted to less than 3% of the output. In plain speak, Rolls Royce see this as a market gap they can fill with a model and they introduce the Silver Dawn as we’re testing today.

There are of course styling variations and some of these are down to simple things like the radiator. However, the team didn’t stray far from the team who had created the successful formula of the MK6 and John Blatchley who had created the Bentley’s interior oversaw the tweaks to the Silver Dawn.

John later went on to become chief stylist at Rolls Royce and some of his successes included the Silver Cloud and Silver Shadow.

Mechanically, both cars share a lot of DNA which plays into the rationalisation strategy, however, the Bentley was fitted with twin SU carbs and a slightly different camshaft. It’s worth mentioning some of this was down to preference of the export market.

The car after all this hard effort comes to market in 1949 and as I mention for reasons later, is export only. The overseas market are the first to cast eyes on it and it goes on show at the 1949 International World Fair in Toronto aimed at the connoisseur who wanted quality but didn’t need a chauffuer.

Although this was the first Rolls Royce to be offered as a complete vehicle, there was the option for coach building and of the cars made, only 64 buyers picked this option.

Rolls Royce, despite a very small production run, didn’t rest on their laurels and in 1951 took the engine up to 4566cc followed by the larger boot introduction in 1952 - features both evident on this car.

Production came to an end in 1955.

In 2010, in the Rolls Royce Enthusiast Club year book, the writer Roy Brooks stated over 70% still exist. The price for a decent one like the one we’re testing isn’t giving you much change from £50,000 but luxury is of course, never cheaply obtained.