Rolls-Royce does not build many cars like the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn: a 4-door saloon with 4.2 L , built from 1949 to 1955 in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted.
How it came about
The Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn is a full-size luxury car that was produced by Rolls-Royce at their Crewe works between 1949 and 1955. It was the first Rolls-Royce car to be offered with a factory built body which it shared, along with its chassis, with the Bentley Mark VI until 1952 and then the Bentley R Type until production finished in 1955.
The car was first introduced as an export only model. The left hand drive manual transmission models had a column gear change, while right hand drives had a floor change by the door. In the British home market the Silver Dawn only became available from October 1953, with the introduction of the model corresponding to the Bentley R Type.
The hardware
Under the skin sits 4.2 L other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 1880 kg. The gearbox is a 4-speed manual or 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 120 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Rolls-Royce's history is not in doubt: the Rolls-Royce Wraith came before it; the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud followed it; it was built at Crewe, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Chevrolet Bel Air, the Porsche 356, the Citroën 2CV. Its Rolls-Royce stablemates include the Rolls-Royce 100EX and the Rolls-Royce 102EX.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn — 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.