The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a 4-door saloon / variations provided by coachbuilders were: / 2-door convertible / 2-door coupé from Rolls-Royce, built from 1955 to 1966, at the height of the post-war boom. Under the bonnet: 4.9 L I6. John P. Blatchley drew it.
How it came about
The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a luxury automobile produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from April 1955 to March 1966. It was the core model of the Rolls-Royce range during that period. The Silver Cloud replaced the Silver Dawn and was, in turn, replaced by the Silver Shadow. The John P. Blatchley design was a major change from the pre-war models and the highly derivative Silver Dawn. As part of a range rationalisation, the Bentley S1 was made essentially identical, apart from its radiator grille and badging.
The hardware
Power comes from 4.9 L I6; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 4647 lb. It shifts through a 4-speed automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 123 in (short-wheelbase) / 127 in (long wheelbase, offered for 1957 and 1958 cars). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Silver Dawn; its successor was the Silver Shadow; assembly was at Crewe, England, United Kingdom. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Chevrolet Corvette — show what else the money bought that year. Its Rolls-Royce stablemates include the Rolls-Royce 100EX and the Rolls-Royce 102EX.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I