1952 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn

The 4-1/2 liter Silver Dawn was the first new post-war design introduced by Rolls-Royce and was built at their Crewe Works between 1949 and 1955. Both its factory-built chassis and body were shared with the Bentley Mark VI until 1952 and then the Bentley R Type. It was the first Rolls-Royce with a 'factory built' (standard) body, with the four-door saloon coachwork built, under contract, by the Pressed Steel Company. The lion's share of the Silver Dawns wore the standard body, with approximately 64 receiving coachwork from outside vendors. Twenty-four examples were bodied by London coachbuilder Park Ward, and six of those were fitted with the Drophead Coupe body (design number 322). H.J. Mulliner also created a Drophead Coupe (a one-off design, number 7297) with a raked and vee'd split windshield and deeply skirted and curved front fenders.

Rolls-Royce debuted its Silver Dawn at the 1949 Canadian International World's Fair in Toronto, another first for the marque. It was initially an export-only model, becoming available to the British home market from October 1953. Examples with left-hand drive configuration had a column gear change, while right-hand drive examples received a floor change by the door.

The Silver Dawn was replaced by the Silver Cloud.

Mechanical Specification
The Silver Dawn rested on a 120-inch wheelbase with a width of 69 inches and stood 64.5 inches tall. Its length ranged between 192 to 210 inches. The separate chassis was made with traditional riveted construction until 1953, after which it was welded. The front was suspended by an independent setup with coil springs and hydraulic dampers, while the rear used half elliptic leaf springs with hydraulic dampers and a live axle. The 12.25-inch servo-assisted drum brakes were hydraulically operated at the front and mechanically operated at the rear.

The inline F-head six-cylinder engine had overhead inlet and side exhaust valves and displaced 4,257cc until 1951, when it grew to 4,566cc. A single double-downdraught Stromberg type AAV 26 carburetor was used through 1952 when it was replaced by a Zenith DBVC42 unit.

Until the arrival of an optional four-speed automatic transmission in 1952 (on the 'E' Series chassis), the four-speed manual gearbox was the sole option.

by Daniel Vaughan | May 2023