Rolls Royce Silver Dawn

Rolls Royce launched its Silver Dawn car in the year 1949 mainly for export purpose. This was the first car that was based on the Bentley series of cars. Though the two cars had many common features, it was said that Silver Dawn's performance was lower than its counterpart. It differed in the looks and design than Bentley by features such as:

- Modifications in the car's bonnet

- Entangled R-R logos

- Its standard steel saloon came with a different bonnet

- A radiator which was square in shape

- A bigger boot

- Carnshaft profile

However, this car was not liked by many because it was meant to be chauffer driven in contrast to the owner driven car.

It was only in the year 1953 that it became available to people in the UK. Therefore, a large number of Silver Dawn cars were built with left hand drive in place. The car came into being only after Bentley Mark VI as according to an earlier decision it had to be introduced before the company promoted the Bentley Mark VI cars. The terms small boot Silver Dawn and Big Boot Silver dawn came into being later.

The earlier models of Mark VI and Silver Dawn were made of stainless steel and as a result, rusted easily. The car had a bigger luggage space because of its crocodile shaped boot.

The car comes laced with features such as:

- 6 cylinder in-line engine

- A cylinder head made of aluminum alloy metal

- Independent front suspension made of coil springs

- A Zenith carburetor from Stromberg

- An optional automatic gearbox with 4-speed

- 3048 mm wheelbase

- Spring rears which are semi-elliptic in shape

- Tyre dimension of 6.50 x 16

- A cast iron cylinder block in one piece

- 4 speed gearbox operating manually through the lever fixed at the steering wheel

In the year 1953, the cars automatic transmission became a regular feature. The car was styled on the line of British Razor-edge technique. The car had lavish and rich interiors fitted with semi-integrated headlamps; separate, sweeping fender lines; and semi-enclosed rear wheels (many detailed convenient features, upholstery in leather, and wood coated dashboard and doors. Similar to the Silver Ghost, this car was also silent when running.

Out of the total Silver Dawn cars manufactured, only 170 Silver Dawn cars were 4-1/4-liter, 110 of them were 4-1/2-liter short tail while the remaining 481 cars were 4-1/2-liter long tail.

The milestone car which borne the Rolls Royce name came equipped with a comfortable, well-furnished cabin and was refined in style. A large number of parts of his car are available even today. However, it's over resemblance to Bentley was also disliked by many people. The car was also not very popular because of its 85-90 mph speed.

This car was in production till the year 1955 when it was replaced by its successor, the stylish Silver Cloud.