The Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn is a car that was produced by Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce Limited

Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....

 at their Crewe works between 1949 and 1955. It was the first Rolls-Royce car to be offered with a factory built body

John Polwhele Blatchley

John Polwhele Blatchley was a London-born car designer known for his work with J Gurney Nutting and Rolls-Royce Limited.-Career:...

 which it shared, along with its chassis, with the Bentley Mark VI

Bentley Mark VI

The Bentley Mark VI was the first post-war luxury car from Bentley.Announced in May 1946 and produced from 1946 to 1952 it was also both the first car from Rolls-Royce with all-steel coachwork and the first complete car assembled and finished at their factory...

 until 1952 and then the Bentley R Type

Bentley R Type

The R Type is the second series of post-war Bentley automobiles, replacing the Mark VI. Essentially a larger-boot version of the Mk VI, the R type is regarded by some as a stop-gap before the introduction of the S series cars in 1955. As with its predecessor, a standard body was available as well...

 until production finished in 1955. The car was first introduced as an export only model. The left hand drive models had a column gear shift, while right hand drives had a floor gear shift by the door. Only with the R Type based model was it officially available on the home market, from October 1953.

A mere 760 were produced between 1949 and 1955. Earlier models up to circa May 1954 had a different fascia (dashboard

Dashboard

A dashboard is a control panel placed in front of the driver of an automobile, housing instrumentation and controls for operation of the vehicle....

) from the Bentley Mk.VI and 'R' Type, and were fitted with a single exhaust system. Later models from the SRH chassis series had the Bentley style fascia and the twin exhaust system, as fitted to the Bentley 'R' Type. On the Standard Steel cars throughout the production history, all the body panels forward of the bulkhead/firewall were slightly different to those fitted to the Bentley.

The in-line six cylinder, engine had overhead inlet and side exhaust valves and had a capacity of 4,257 cc until 1951 when it was enlarged to 4,566 cc. The carburettor was a single downdraught Stromberg until 1952 when it was replaced by a Zenith.
The suspension was independent at the front using coil springs, at the rear the live axle used half elliptic leaf springs. The car had a separate chassis made with traditional riveted construction until 1953 after which it was welded. Servo assisted 12.25 in (311 mm) drum brake

Drum brake

A drum brake is a brake in which the friction is caused by a set of shoes or pads that press against a rotating drum-shaped part called a brake drum....

s were used, hydraulically operated at the front but retaining mechanical operation at the rear. Although many cars were fitted with factory built bodies, others were supplied to external coachbuilder

Coachbuilder

A coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for carriages or automobiles.The trade dates back several centuries. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer , formed in 1810. Others in Britain included...

s.

Performance

A factory bodied Silver Dawn with automatic transmission tested by The Motor

The Motor (magazine)

The Motor was a British weekly car magazine founded on 28 January 1903....

magazine in 1954 had a top speed of 94 mph (151.3 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (96.6 km/h) in 15.2 seconds. A fuel consumption of 15.4 mpgimp was recorded. The test car cost £4704 including taxes.