Although Rolls-Royce suspended automobile production between 1939 and 1945 to focus on building aero-engines, work on designing a new model continued in the background.
During the 1930s, Rolls-Royce offered three models, each of which included numerous parts that were unique to the company and could not be shared between them. This significantly increased manufacturing costs per car, which quickly became unsustainable during the austerity of the post-war years.
Rolls-Royce was therefore faced with the problem of reducing production costs without compromising quality or performance. The solution was new models that could share common parts, a new engine that could be offered in four-, six- or eight-cylinder inline variants, and a unique chassis that could be configured in variable dimensions. The latter can be seen as a precursor to the patented aluminium space frame, known as the Architecture of Luxury, which underpins all cars built at Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood headquarters today.
These ideas came together in a development programme for what would become known as the ‘Rationalised Range’. In 1946 Rolls-Royce launched the first such model – the Silver Wraith. This was a direct replacement for the Phantom III, introduced in 1936. Like its predecessor, and indeed all pre-war models, the Silver Wraith was a rolling chassis designed to be fitted with bodies manufactured by others.
Rolls-Royce knew that to be commercially successful in these more challenging times, it needed a model that was less expensive and could be produced in greater numbers than was possible with traditional coachbuilding. So, for the first time in its history, Rolls-Royce decided to produce a complete car, with bodies assembled in-house. In much the same way that the Silver Wraith replaced the Phantom III, this new model would take up the mantle of the lower-powered cars the brand had built in previous decades.
The second model in the ‘rationalised range’, the Silver Dawn, was launched in 1949, initially as an export car only, mainly for the North American and Australian markets; it became available to UK customers in 1952. Of the 761 Silver Dawns produced, the majority were supplied with ‘Standard Steel’ four-door bodies of its own manufacture. But, in deference to customer requirements, Rolls-Royce also offered the Silver Dawn on a rolling chassis, with some 64 examples built on coachwork in a production run that lasted until 1955.
As further evidence of the streamlined range approach, in 1952, customers could order either the smaller, more fully-featured Silver Dawn or the larger, rolling-chassis Silver Wraith with automatic gear selection. Indeed, the Silver Dawn would be one of the last Rolls-Royce models to be offered with a manual transmission. It would be over half a century before the arrival of the satellite-assisted eight-speed ZF automatic transmission fitted to all V12-engined Rolls-Royce cars today, but the die was cast.
Towards the end of its life, the rear section of the Silver Dawn was redesigned by the then newly recruited John Blatchley, who had learned his trade with the famous London coachbuilder Gurney Nutting before joining Rolls-Royce. His keen eye for detail not only allowed for increased luggage capacity, but also considerably improved the car’s looks – perhaps unsurprisingly, he went on to become the marque’s chief styling engineer. In 2015, the marque was resurrected with the Dawn, which was the best-selling convertible in Rolls-Royce history when production ended in 2023.
The “younger” Silver Dawn is now almost 70 years old. Yet even today it offers an exhilarating experience for the driver and a relaxing ride for passengers over long distances in modern traffic conditions. It was and is, in every sense, a Rolls-Royce through and through.
