A SHOWCASE of LUXURY and THE EXOTIC
E n j o y T h e E l e g a
“ For the first 40 years of its existence , Rolls-Royce built only rolling chassis , onto which independent coachbuilders installed bodywork specified by the client . It wasn ’ t until the late 1940s that the marque produced its first complete motor car – the Silver Dawn . Launched in 1949 , it marked a profound change for Rolls-Royce , reflecting the realities of the post-war market while giving the marque more control than it had ever enjoyed over the exterior design of its products . It was also the second model to be built on a single , variable underlying structure , foreshadowing the Architecture of Luxury upon which all Rolls-Royce motor cars of the modern era are built .”
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER DAWN
A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn , launched in 1949
Although Rolls-Royce suspended motor car production between 1939 and 1945 to focus on building aero engines , design work on 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 it and could not be shared between them . This significantly increased the manufacturing costs per car , which quickly became unsustainable during the austerity of the post-war years .
Rolls-Royce therefore faced 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 straight-four , six or eight-cylinder variants , and a single chassis that could be configured in variable dimensions . The latter can be seen as a precursor of the proprietary aluminium spaceframe , known as the Architecture of Luxury , that underpins every motor car built at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood today .
These ideas came together in a development programme for what would be known as the ‘ Rationalised Range ’. In 1946 , Rolls-Royce launched the first such model : the Silver Wraith . This was a direct replacement for Phantom III , introduced in 1936 . Like its predecessor , and indeed all the pre-war models , Silver Wraith was a rolling chassis designed to be fitted with third-party , coach-built bodywork .
Andrew Ball , Head of Corporate Relations & Heritage , Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
44 THE ART OF APPRECIATION