In the vintage era, Rolls-Royce built only the rolling chassis while independent coachbuilders would make the body to the client’s specifications. It was in 1940 that the first complete Rolls-Royce Motor Car was made, the Silver Dawn. The design work for the new model was started earlier even though Rolls-Royce had suspended motor car production between 1939 and 1945 to focus on building aero engines.
In the 1930s the carmaker offered three new models but there were many unique parts which meant economies of scale were not there. However, then it was devised that new models would share common parts while a new engine could be offered in straight-four, six, or eight-cylinder variants, and a single chassis could be modified according to the car. This was seen as a precursor of the proprietary aluminum spaceframe, known as the Architecture of Luxury, something that underpins every car they make even today. In 1946, Rolls-Royce launched the first such model: the Silver Wraith. This was a replacement for Phantom III, which was launched earlier, and like its predecessor, the Silver Wraith was a rolling chassis. All that changed with the Silver Dawn with coachwork which was done in-house. It was earlier penciled for the North American and Australian markets while the UK got it later in 1952. Only 761 Silver Dawns were made, most with the ‘Standard Steel’ four-door saloon bodies produced in-house. However, there were some 64 coach-built examples made too till 1955. Interestingly, the Silver Dawn would be among the very last Rolls-Royce models to be offered with a manual transmission too. The Silver Dawn had received a styling change towards the end of its production time with Silver Dawn’s rear section being overhauled by the then newly hired John Blatchley, who would go on to become the marque’s Chief Styling Engineer.
The name Dawn was again brought back in 2025 with the Rolls-Royce drophead version of the Ghost sedan. Some of the later cars are even nearly 70 years old and remain a pivotal model for the carmaker.
