The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a luxury automobile produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from April 1955 to March 1966. It was the core model of the Rolls-Royce range during that period. The Silver Cloud replaced the

Silver Dawn ''Silver Dawn'' is an outdoor 1980 stainless steel sculpture by Spanish American artist Manuel Izquierdo, installed at Wallace Park in northwest Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Description and history ''Silver Dawn'' is a stainless steel ...

and was, in turn, replaced by the Silver Shadow. The J. P. Blatchley design was a major change from the pre-war models and the highly derivative Silver Dawn. As part of a range rationalisation the

Bentley S1 The Bentley S1 (originally simply "Bentley S") was a luxury car produced by Bentley Motors Limited from 1955 until 1959. The S1 was derived from Rolls-Royce's complete redesign of its standard production car after World War II, the Silver Clo ...

is very similar, apart from its radiator grille.

Models

Silver Cloud

Construction is body-on-frame, which permitted special bodied versions, though the overwhelming majority were built with the standard

Pressed Steel Company Pressed Steel Company Limited was a British car body manufacturing business founded at Cowley near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, Budd Corporation of Philadelphia USA, which held the controlling interest, and a Br ...

manufactured steel body shell. A light-weight aluminium alloy was used for doors, bonnet/hood and boot/trunk lid. The chassis is a simple steel box section, welded together and very rigid. The car is long, wide, and weighs 1.95 tonnes. The engine is a 155 hp / 4000 rpm

six-cylinder The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

unit with inlet over exhaust valves: twin

SU carburettor SU carburettors were a British manufacturer of constant-depression carburettors. Their designs were in mass production during most of the twentieth century. The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburetto ...

s were added in September 1957. The standard transmission was a four-speed automatic, the General Motors designed Hydramatic transmission. The turning circle was . Brakes are hydraulic and assisted by the Rolls-Royce mechanical servo with drums and suspension was independent coils at the front and semi-elliptic springs at the rear. Twin brake master cylinders were incorporated from April 1956. Power steering and air conditioning became available as options in 1956. A long-wheelbase version lengthened by was also made available in September 1957, outwardly very similar to the existing car but offering improved leg space for rear-seat passengers. The British ''Motor'' magazine tested a standard-wheelbase factory-bodied Series I in 1956 recording a top speed of and acceleration from 0- in 13.5 seconds and a fuel consumption of . The test car cost £5078 including taxes. The coachbuilder

Harold Radford Harold Radford & Co Limited of Melton Court, South Kensington, London SW7, (opposite South Kensington tube station and now Lamborghini London) were long-established retailers of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars who, under G H Radford, developed a be ...

offered conversions of the 4-door saloon into an estate car. One of these conversions, chassis no. LSMH65, sold in March 2017 for $583,000 (inclusive of applicable buyer's fee) at

RM Sotheby's RM Sotheby's, formerly RM Auctions, is a classic car auction company headquartered in Blenheim, Ontario, Canada. With offices across the United States and several European countries, the company's services include restoration, private treaty sal ...

Amelia Island Amelia Island is a part of the Sea Islands chain that stretches along the East Coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida; it is the southernmost of the Sea Islands, and the northernmost of the barrier islands on Florida's Atlanti ...

auction. File:Rolls Royce Silver Cloud Series I 4857cc January 1959.JPG, Silver Cloud I saloon File:Bonhams - The Paris Sale 2012 - Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Drophead Coupé - 1957 - 004.jpg, 1957 Silver Cloud I drophead coupé File:Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud 1 estate version Blenheim Palace 05-09-15.jpg, Silver Cloud I Estate Car by H.J. Mulliner

Silver Cloud II

The Silver Cloud II was introduced in 1959. It was little changed externally, but was given a new Rolls-Royce developed 6.2 L

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

, which pushed the weight to 2.11 tonnes. Performance was greatly improved and top speed was raised to , but the main improvements were in acceleration and torque. Power steering became standard. Electrically operated windows were now available as an option. Although the improved performance of the new car was welcomed, commentators of the time noted that the V8-engined Silver Cloud II was neither as quiet nor as smooth as the straight-six-cylinder-engined Silver Cloud I, despite the new engine's hydraulic tappet operation. The new wet-linered V8 was also a little cramped in an engine bay intended originally for a narrower unit: in order to change the spark plugs it was necessary to remove the front wheel on the car's right side. There seems to have been a problem with crankshaft breakages in the earlier V8s: this was blamed on lack of lubrication to the bearings. The basic architecture of the Silver Cloud II did not change between 1959 and 1963, but there were numerous minor changes implemented, notable among them a succession of improvements to the ventilation system. Interior changes in 1961 included the adoption of blue instrument lighting, the introduction of a combined indicator / headlamp flasher switch and of a handbrake warning light. A remodelled rear light assembly was introduced in May 1962 and a change to single sealed-beam headlamps was made in August 1962. The ''Motor'' magazine tested a Series II in 1960. They recorded a top speed of , acceleration from 0- in 10.9 seconds and a fuel consumption of . The test car cost £6092 including taxes. File:Rolls Royce CLOUD II dutch licence registration AL-54-97-.JPG, Silver Cloud II saloon File:Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II Drop Head Coupé 1962 (7259181506).jpg, Silver Cloud II drophead coupé

Silver Cloud III

The Silver Cloud III was first displayed to the public at the Paris salon at the beginning of October 1962 but along with the Bentley S3 the cars were displayed on a specialist coachwork stand as if the modifications were to the special order of a particular customer.The French government had suddenly decreed that all French products should be displayed together in the most prominent positions and the Rolls-Royce retreat to a remote stand was to show their displeasure. External dimensions were slightly altered, the interior remodelled, the weight reduced by a little over and improvements made to the

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

which included fitting SU carburettors in place of the inch units used on the Series II Silver Cloud. The compression ratio was increased to 9:1, reflecting the higher octane levels of premium fuel in major markets, although the option of a lower 8:1 compression ratio was still offered in markets where non-availability of higher octane fuels might be an issue. Rolls-Royce, as before, refused to disclose overall engine power output, but indicated that there had been an improvement of "perhaps 7%". Increased power and weight reduction boosted speed and performance slightly. The engine now included a nitride hardened crankshaft to reflect the extra power being generated and in response to reports of broken crankshafts in the earlier V8 Silver Clouds. The transmission was a GM Hydramatic which Rolls-Royce used under licence. The headlights were grouped in a four-headlamp layout subsequently continued in the later Silver Shadow. Other external changes included a slightly increased slope of the bonnet to correspond with a reduction in radiator grille height. Between 1963 and 1966 there were no major changes. Stainless steel wheel trims replaced chrome-plated ones in April 1963, and an improved rear window demister was introduced in November of the same year. Wider front seats were fitted in January 1964, and five months later a revised headlamp surround now incorporated a very small RR monogram. A chrome badge reading "Silver Cloud III" in an italic font can be seen on the right bottom side of the boot of most UK and European delivered examples, whilst US versions were delivered without this badge. As with earlier models, Rolls-Royce continued to make the Silver Cloud chassis available to traditional coachbuilders. A notable version is the Fixed Head and Drop Head Coupe styled by

Mulliner Park Ward Mulliner Park Ward was a bespoke coachbuilder in Hythe Road, Willesden, London UK. Mulliner now is the personal commissioning department for Bentley. Mulliner Park Ward was a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce and made bespoke bodies in London fo ...

, having unusual slanted headlights, also found on contemporary Italian designed or Italian-influenced high performance cars from Lancia, Triumph, Lagonda and Gordon-Keeble. It was derived from the earlier

Park Ward Park Ward was a British coachbuilder founded in 1919 which operated from Willesden in North London. In the 1930s, backed by Rolls-Royce Limited, it made technical advances which enabled the building of all-steel bodies to Rolls-Royce's high st ...

design for the

and S2 Continentals,Walker, Nick: ''A–Z of British Coachbuilders, 1919–1960''; Bay View Books, Bideford, Devon, UK (1997), pp. 149 and 158–159 made also available for the S3. Some 100 of the 328 coach-built Silver Cloud IIIs were of this style. File:1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III LWB Saloon SCT100 by James Young - rvr.jpg, 1963 Silver Cloud III James Young
long wheelbase saloon File:1965 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III Mulliner Park Ward (21428586344).jpg, 1965 Silver Cloud III Mulliner Park Ward
fixed head coupé File:Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 3.jpg, 1960s Silver Cloud III Mulliner Park Ward
drophead coupé File:1966 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Drophead Coupé by H J Mulliner, Park Ward (8534762367).jpg, 1966 Silver Cloud III Mulliner Park Ward
drophead coupé File:1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III James Young Saloon.jpg, 1965 Silver Cloud III James Young
saloon

Production

* Silver Cloud: 2,238 * Silver Cloud Long Wheelbase: 85 * Silver Cloud special coachbuilder styles (convertibles, coupes etc.): 121 * Silver Cloud II: 2,417 * Silver Cloud II Long Wheelbase: 258 * Silver Cloud II coachbuilder styles (convertibles, coupes etc.): 107 * Silver Cloud III: 2,044 * Silver Cloud III Long Wheelbase: 206 * Silver Cloud III coachbuilder styles (convertibles, coupes etc.): 328

Popular culture

A silver 1962 Silver Cloud II appeared prominently in every episode of American Aaron Spelling's ''

Burke's Law (1963 TV series) ''Burke's Law'' is an American detective series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1966. The show starred Gene Barry as millionaire captain of Los Angeles Police homicide division Amos Burke, who is chauffeured around to solve crimes in his 1962 R ...

'' and ''

Burke's Law (1994 TV series) ''Burkes Law'' is an American crime drama television series that aired on CBS during the 1993–94 and 1994–95 television seasons. It was a revival of original ''Burkes Law'' television series, and starred Gene Barry as millionaire cop Am ...

'', as the personal transport of millionaire detective ''Amos Burke.'' The unusual car, for a working police detective, featured in many show storylines, which included efforts by Burke to

seduce Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises". Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...

females tangential to the weekly murder. A black 1965 Silver Cloud III 'Chinese eye' Mulliner Park Ward drophead coupé previously owned by Jimmy Savile was prominently featured in the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film ''

Blowup ''Blowup'' (sometimes styled as ''Blow-up'' or ''Blow Up'') is a 1966 mystery drama thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and produced by Carlo Ponti. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film, and stars David Hemming ...

''. A white 1965 Silver Cloud III featured prominently in '' The Avengers'' episode "Mission: Highly Improbable" broadcast November 1967. In a 1971 song called "Up to Me", the British

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Jethro Tull refers to this car with the lyric "I'll buy a Silver Cloud to ride." A black Silver Cloud III was given away as the grand prize in a sweepstakes in the 1985's

The Wrestling Classic The Wrestling Classic was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on November 7, 1985, at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois in the United States. It was the prom ...

Footnotes

References

External links

Production figure sources

Video (RT 09:51) Review of 1958 Silver Cloud I.
{{Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a luxury automobile produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from April 1955 to March 1966. It was the core model of the Rolls-Royce range during that period. The Silver Cloud replaced the Silver Dawn and was, in turn, r ...

Cars introduced in 1955

Limousines Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Silver Cloud Coupés Convertibles