1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead Coupe

The Silver Cloud was introduced in April of 1955 and followed in the company's tradition of delivering in chassis form for bodying by outside coachbuilders. Rolls-Royce's companion marque, Bentley, had offered an in-house Standard Steel salon body from 1946, which was well received. The Standard Steel body had been available as a Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn from 1949, though initially only for export. The new Silver Cloud saloon was penned by Chief Designer John Blatchley. It was a close-coupled owner-driver sedan that rested on a new box section chassis of a 123-inch wheelbase. In 1957, a 127-inch wheelbase model became available.

Powering the Silver Cloud was the same inlet-over-exhaust (F-head) six-cylinder that was found in the last Silver Wraiths. A four-speed automatic was standard, with a four-speed manual available to special order. Drum brakes were power-assisted.

During the production lifespan of the first series of Silver Clouds, a total of 2360 were produced, of which 122 were long wheelbase models, a few of them with coachbuilt bodies.

In September of 1959, the Silver Cloud II model arrived. It brought with it an all-new aluminum overhead V-8 engine of 6230cc displacement. It came in two wheelbases and built through 1962, with total production reaching 2,717 examples.

This particular car is one of 107 drophead coupes built on the short-wheelbase Silver Cloud II chassis by Mulliner-Park Ward and one of only 75 left-hand drive examples.

By the late-1950s, Rolls-Royce purchased H.J. Mulliner and two years later, folded Park Ward into the new subsidiary. The new Mulliner Park Ward Ltd. then became an in-house supplier of specialty bodies.

This Rolls-Royce left-hand drive model was delivered through J.S. Inskip to a Mr. H. Reedman, of Trenton, New Jersey. It came equipped with an automatic transmission and air conditioning, whitewall tires, electric windows, an electric antenna, an altimeter, lamb's wool rugs, and an extra rear speaker with volume control.

This is an unrestored car with selective freshening. It has less than 80,000 miles on the odometer. The current owner acquired the car in the mid-2000s.

In 2012, this car was offered for sale at RM Auction's Monterey, CA sale. It was estimated to sell for $250,000 - $325,000. As bidding came to a close, the car had been sold for the sum of $220,000, inclusive of buyer's premium.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2012