1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

The Honorable Charles Stewart Rolls, the third son of Lord Llangattock, together with Sir Henry Royce, a self-taught mechanic, combined their talents on December 23rd of 1904 to form what would become the Rolls-Royce Motor Company. From the start, the company would establish a reputation as builders of the world's finest motor cars, and for their engineering and craftsmanship.

The first automobiles from the company were purely Royce, but as Rolls was a talented marketing man with some engineering knowledge, he had his name placed first for promotional and alliteration purposes only. At the time, Royce was 41 years old and Charles Rolls was only 27, however, the two proved to be a good combination.

The newly established firm built its first Rolls-Royce car in 1904 and wore the classically inspired radiator that would persist on the motor cars to this day. In 1905, the Rolls-Royce catalog announced the company had established an agreement with the Barker coachbuilding concern, and additional coachbuilders were soon added. H.J. Mulliner, which had been established in 1900, designed coachwork for C. S. Rolls' personal two-seater Silver Ghost roadster. However, it was not until 1928 that the Mulliner company began to regularly display its coach built bodies on a Rolls-Royce chassis. From that point forward, the H.J. Mulliner would exhibit at least one Rolls-Royce chassis with their coachwork. They were one of the few coachbuilders to resume traditional coachwork after World War II.

Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and Bentley S-Type
Both the Silver Cloud (retrospectively dubbed Silver Cloud I) and S-Type were introduced early in 1955 and were replacements for the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn and Bentley R-Type. They wore sleeker bodywork on a new box-section separate chassis (reputedly fifty percent stiffer than the outgoing Silver Dawn), with Rolls-Royce eschewing unitary construction for the time being. It had improved servo-assisted 11-inch drum brakes and suspension, with the latter featuring electrically controlled damping. It was independent with coil springs at the front and a live axle hung on semi-elliptic leaf springs at the rear. The engine adopted a six-port cylinder head, lightweight alloy head, and the displacement grew to 4,887cc, producing a traditionally undisclosed power output (approximately 155 horsepower at 4,000 RPM). A four-speed automatic transmission was now standard and power-assisted steering was optional (as was air conditioning).

Changes to the 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud included the addition of twin brake master cylinders. The standard bodies were penned by in-house designer John Polwhele Blatchley. The retention of a separate chassis allowed for the production of bespoke bodies, but just 157 of the 2,360 Cloud I models wore custom coachwork. Approximately 20 examples wore aluminum coachwork by Hooper to design number 8425, and James Young produced 24 Sport Saloons on the Silver Cloud I. Mulliner built both all-steel versions and some lightweight versions using a combination of steel and aluminum panels.

Production of the Silver Cloud I continued through 1958. Production of the Silver Cloud began in 1959 and continued through 1962 with 2,417 examples built. The Silver Cloud III followed in 1963 and continued through 1966 with 2,044 produced.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jun 2020