THE ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER WRAITH AN ANATOMY OF…

The first post-war Rolls-Royce emerged into a very changed world of uncertainty and austerity. However, despite its considerable cost and only being available with coachbuilt bodies, it proved a long-lived success

In 1945, Winston Churchill, our inspirational wartime leader, suddenly found himself out of a job. The Conservative who had been so pivotal in guiding the nation through the darkest days of the Second World War lost the July general election to Clement Atlee’s Labour Party. It was a measure of changing social values and beliefs, and the conflict-weary population’s desire for a more classless society, that Labour was propelled to a landslide victory, gaining 239 seats and its first ever outright majority. With the end of hostilities, RollsRoyce was arguably in a similar position to its former customer (Churchill once owned a 1921 Silver Ghost Barker cabriolet). While the entire British car industry had made Herculean contributions to the war effort, Rolls-Royce had emerged as first among equals; after all, it was its aero engines that had powered the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and Lancaster bombers that had been so instrumental in vanquishing the Nazis. Conflict had made the company famous for much more than just prestige motoring. But what role might Rolls-Royce play in a fresh era where military production was vastly scaled back, and austerity was necessary as a newly socialist Britain struggled to rebuild itself after six years of fighting? Would the marque’s luxury cars be regarded as, like Churchill, unwanted symbols of a more socially divided past that the country was now keen to put behind it? Was there a place for the pre-war decadence of the Spirit of Ecstasy in what some hoped might be a post-war Utopia of equality, nationalisation and free health care?

Of course, 1945 didn’t spell the political end for Winston Churchill. He’d return as prime minister in 1951, and Rolls-Royce’s days as Britain’s premier car manufacturer weren’t over either. Despite the obvious challenges of selling expensive automobiles in an ascetic world, it was able to adapt, evolve and make itself relevant for the late-1940s and beyond. One of the ways it did that was with the 1946 introduction of the Silver Wraith.

The Silver Wraith followed directly on from the pre-war Wraith. That short-lived model had appeared in 1938 as Rolls-Royce’s smaller chassis, alongside the larger Phantom III and Bentley 4¼ Litre. Just 491 examples were completed before the outbreak of war curtailed its production and the company switched its attention to Merlin, Griffon and Meteor aeroplane and tank engines.

Rolls-Royce had been considering rationalisation even before the war, but the circumstances after it made such a policy all the more important, even unavoidable. It was development engineer (later to become chief engineer) William A Robotham who proposed that the firm should adopt a single chassis design, based on the smaller Wraith. It wasn’t quite a simple case of ‘one size fits all’ because the plan suggested a variety of possible wheelbases, along with six- and eightcylinder engine options that shared many common parts. The realisation of this was the Silver Wraith, unveiled in April 1946, and the closely-related Bentley MkVI that was announced seven weeks later. These two models were the first to be constructed at Rolls-Royce’s 1938 ‘shadow factory’ at Pyms Lane in Crewe, turned over to car production after manufacturing over 25,000 aircraft engines during WW2. Incidentally, the adoption of ‘Silver’ as a prefix for the Wraith was because it was originally conceived as part of a new family of RollsRoyces. In addition, there was to be the Silver Dawn (which eventually came to fruition in 1949), as well as the eight-cylinder Silver Phantom and the somewhat bewilderingly-named Silver Ripple, which sounded more like a premium ice cream brand than a high-class automobile. The Silver Wraith was the first Rolls-Royce to officially incorporate the word ‘Silver’ in its name. While the 1906-1925 40/50 models are collectively known by the title Silver Ghost, that was never their official designation. The fame of the 12th example, AX 201, individually christened ‘Silver Ghost’ because of its aluminium paint and near silent operation, led to the moniker soon being adopted for all its siblings.

Remaining Special

We looked at the Bentley MkVI back in the September/October 2022 issue of RR&BD. But in brief, it had a seven-inch shorter wheelbase compared to the Silver Wraith and also featured the option of a new Standard Steel body supplied via Rolls-Royce, rather than just as a chassis for private coachbuilders to adorn, as had previously been the case. The 4257cc engines were the same, barring carburetion, whether Rolls-Royce or Bentley. However, this wasn’t the full-on badge-engineering that Crewe would indulge in within a few years, for there was no standard body option available for the Silver Wraith. It was available only in chassis form. Rolls-Royce may have been content to offer its own body design for the Bentley, almost as if to see how things went, but it was initially a lot more cautious about extending the experiment to machines sporting the Spirit of Ecstasy. Bentleys could be almost mass-produced, but RollsRoyces would, for now, remain special.

The chassis for the Silver Wraith was an advancement on that of the prewar Wraith. It was shorter between the axles – 127 inches compared to 136 inches – but sturdier in construction. Up front was independent front suspension by coil springs; similar in principle to the pre-war Wraiths but with the exposed coil springs vertical rather than horizontal and enclosed in an oil bath. At the rear were traditional semi-elliptic springs, lever-arm dampers and a live axle. The driver was able to adjust the stiffness of the dampers via a small lever on the steering wheel. The brakes were hydro-mechanical; the hydraulics worked the front drums while the back ones were operated via a mechanical servo of the frictional clutch type that could trace its Rolls-Royce origins back to 1924, and even further beyond that as a Hispano-Suiza device.

The 4257cc six-cylinder engine was almost that of the Bentley MkV; a model that had been set for launch at the October 1939 Earls Court Motor Show. The outbreak of the Second World War the month before meant that only between 11 and 18 (depending on source) of these cars trickled out of the factory before

A Dramatic Shift

During its early years, Rolls-Royce prided itself on making all the mechanical components for its cars; how else could it guarantee ‘the best car in the world’ if parts from others were fitted? But as motor car usage grew and new technologies were developed elsewhere, the company (perhaps reluctantly) began incorporating items from more specialist suppliers. In 1952, it took the bold step of adopting an entire new transmission for the Silver Wraith, courtesy of General Motors in the USA. The Hydramatic was the world’s first mass-produced fully-automatic gearbox, introduced in 1939 for Oldsmobiles and then, when GM was sure it worked, graduating to Cadillac (arguably Rolls-Royce’s main US rival) in 1941. However, it was during the war – when it was used in all manner of machines, including tanks – that it was truly blooded, and found to be tough and reliable. Post-war, GM advertised it as ‘battle-tested’. It was Rolls-Royce’s post-war chief engineer, W A Robotham, who took a keen

Rolls-Royce threw its weight into the war effort. But the B60 engine would, unlike the MkV, have a second lease of life, for it was used in the contemporary Bentley MkVI and the later Silver Dawn. Instead of the MkV's overhead-valve configuration, it an F-head top end; in other words, overhead inlets and side exhaust valves, plus reshaped combustion chambers. Other upgrades from the pre-war past included new main and big end bearings, chromed bores and an improved timing gear drive. With a single downdraught Stromberg carburettor, it was in a lower state of tune than in the Bentley MkVI with its twin SUs. Rolls-Royce was famous for not revealing power outputs, but when The Autocar magazine did a launch road test in April 1946, it revealed it developed about 122bhp.

Crewe must have been appalled at such vulgar exposure. Mated to the motor was a four-speed manual transmission with synchromesh on the top three ratios – a progression from 1930s’ gearboxes. It was stirred by a lever mounted to the right of the driver; all early Silver Wraiths were right-hand drive, no matter where in the world they were destined for.

The Silver Wraith may have been launched into an austere world, but its price was an extravagant one. While the final cost depended on the choice of body, a customer could reasonably expect to pay around £3400 for a completed car, which with purchase tax (introduced in 1940) added on would amount to around £4350. Given that a comparable Wraith in 1939 would have been around £1600, the new interest in technical developments on the other side of the Atlantic, and saw some early Hydramatic transmission prototypes during the early 1930s. During the war, despite having more pressing concerns, RollsRoyce experimented with automatic gearboxes in existing models, and deemed the Hydramatic worthy of fitment. Rather than buy in the gearboxes, Robotham forged a deal during 1946 to manufacture up to 5000 per year under licence. The plan stalled somewhat when Robotham was shifted away from the passenger car division to Rolls-Royce’s new diesel engine section, but in early 1952, Crewe finally started building the Hydramatic – not that it was officially called this, as the company made it clear that it should be referred to simply as ‘the automatic gearbox’ in marketing and by the press. It was initially only available for export machines, but became available for the home market in autumn 1953, for an extra £99 3s and 4d. Some examples were also sold to Armstrong

Siddeley for its Sapphire 346 and to the British Motor Corporation for Vanden Plas Princesses. Although the advent of the Silver Shadow in 1965 saw the Hydramatic gradually phased out in favour of the GM400 threespeed self-shifter, it remained in service with Phantoms up until 1978.

Marque History

THE ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER WRAITH

Rolls-Royce represented a considerable investment at a time when money was in short supply and even the humblest new Austin or Hillman – at a tenth of the price – would have been an unthinkable prospect for many.

Remarkably though, Rolls-Royce’s order books rapidly filled up – there were obviously enough buyers who’d had a ‘good war’ to afford the enormous price. The first chassis was sent to Hooper in February 1946, the second to H J Mulliner in May of that year. While the Bentley MkVI had its Standard Steel body, Silver Wraiths instead had ‘approved’ body styles. From Park Ward – which had been taken over by Rolls-Royce in 1939 –there was a semi-official sports saloon and limousine, while H J Mulliner weighed in with a sedanca de ville and Hooper offered a touring limousine, both of which got the nod from Crewe.

Avant Garde Designs

These favoured designs were very traditional in appearance, hearkening back to pre-war cues of flowing lines and separate headlamps. However, there were plenty of coachbuilders willing to indulge customers with more avant garde designs. Some

Wraith Work

British coachbuilders who produced bespoke bodies for Silver Wraiths included RollsRoyce’s own Park Ward as well as independent concerns such as H J Mulliner, Hooper & Company, J Gurney Nutting & Company Limited and Freestone & Webb. Overseas firms included Pininfarina and Vignale of Italy, and Chapron, Franay, Poberejsky and Saoutchik of France.

were dramatic, others were diabolical. Hooper had been acquired by BSA/ Daimler in 1940 and this measure of security allowed it to develop some distinctive razor-edged designs incorporating sharper lines than many of its contemporaries dared to do. But it also came up with some extraordinary creations, such as a drophead coupe that could be fitted with a transparent Perspex roof. However, it was the commissions it carried out for the eccentric and extrovert Armenian millionaire Nubar Gulbenkian that were most controversial. One slabsided 1947 invention, dubbed ‘The Pantechnicon’, had spats over all four wheels and a horizontallybarred grille complemented by matching bars over the front lights. It resembled an armoured car…but with a sweeping fastback tail. RollsRoyce made its disapproval known. Happily, this fascinating car survives and is undergoing restoration.

Another Gulbenkian sedanca de ville had a sage-green lizard-skin interior while a 1956 Hooper had vertically stacked hooded headlamps

(something of a Hooper trademark) and a fixed Perspex upper section with an electrically-operated inner blind for modesty and temperature control purposes. Its grille, this time with a more conventional treatment than on the Pantechnicon, was topped by ‘Chrysis’, a rather less modest interpretation of the Spirit of Ecstasy by Rene Lalique. Thanks to its glass construction, it was illuminated from within by night. This Rolls-Royce later went on to feature in a 1964 movie, The Love Cage, alongside Jane Fonda and Alain Delon where, arguably, it stole the limelight from both of its human stars.

In the main though, British coachbuilders were quite respectful as to how they treated Silver Wraith chassis. That wasn’t always the case with the very few cars that appeared courtesy of foreign carrosserie. Vignale of Turin built one for American tycoon Joseph Maschuch in 1955 with full-width styling, four oversized headlamps protruding well beyond its radiator grille and a reverse-rake rear window of the sort that would later grace Ford Anglia 105Es. Still, it was positively delightful compared to the Silver Wraith bodied by Poberejsky of Paris that was exhibited at the 1949 Geneva Motor Show. This sedanca de ville dispensed completely with the usual Rolls-Royce grille, retaining only the Flying Lady mascot on top of its bulging bonnet. It looked like a squashed and squeezed Volvo PV444 given a semi-convertible treatment. Rolls-Royce was so appalled by its appearance that it reputedly demanded it be removed from the Swiss show within 24 hours, and refused to issue any warranties for the car. It was such an aberration that it’s a wonder Nubar Gulbenkian didn’t snap it up. Instead, it was rebodied later the same year by Franay of Paris as a considerably more attractive and traditional drophead coupe.

In December 1949, the first lefthand drive Silver Wraiths appeared for export, which boosted their appeal for the vital American market. Towards the end of 1951, the engine capacity was increased to 4566cc and the wheelbase lengthened

Production Figures

Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith (127-inch wheelbase) 1244

Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith (133-inch wheelbase) 639

Total 1883 from 127 inches to 133 inches. These modifications were closely followed by the introduction of a GM Hydramatic four-speed automatic transmission a few months into 1952. By now, the Silver Wraith was one of three Rolls-Royce models offered by the firm; the Silver Dawn with 120-inch wheelbase and Bentley MkVI-pattern Standard Steel body had been introduced in 1949, while the leviathan 145-inch wheelbase Phantom IV (the proposed ‘Silver’ prefix having been dropped) came along in 1950, albeit only for Royalty and heads of state. Fortunately, if Rolls-Royce deemed you unworthy of the 18 Phantom IVs crafted between 1950 and 1956, the Silver Wraith was a desirable enough substitute for most. Examples still in use today are the Irish Presidential State Car,

Brazilian Presidential Ceremonial State Car and the President of Zimbabwe’s Ceremonial State Car, while the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Australia also employed Silver Wraiths for Royal duties. The British High Commissioner of Malaya, Sir Henry Gurney, also had one as his official car but was killed in it during October 1951 by communists fighting for independence from the UK. His car survived the ambush and was later passed onto the Chief Minister of Penang Island. The final major change to the Silver Wraith came in 1954, when the engine was stretched to 4887cc, although there was a switch to twin SU carburettors during 1956, which raised power to around 180bhp. Not that this was admitted by RollsRoyce, of course. Once the Silver most reasonable price possible. please telephone the number below, or visit our website.

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Cloud was launched in 1955, sales of the Silver Wraith dwindled, and the final one was delivered in August 1959, to the Ghanian Embassy in West Germany. While there was no direct replacement, the Silver Cloud and new Phantom V – no longer limited to only the highest in society – largely filled the void left by the Silver Wraith’s retirement. However, in 1976, the Silver Wraith II title was given to long-wheelbase

The View

John Tupper, managing director of IntroCar, says:

The Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith represents a somewhat different ownership prospect from that of its standard-bodied contemporaries, the Silver Dawn, Bentley MkVI & R-Type. While it shares much of the same running gear, this suits the serious collector better than the owner who likes spinning through the country lanes in a regal, yet driveable, piece of motoring history. While just as driveable, the presence of a division on Silver Wraiths makes the experience entirely different for all but the most disparate of family units! Mechanically, the correspondence with their standard-bodied contemporaries means that the Silver Wraith is beautifully catered for by a number of well-stocked parts variants of the Silver Shadow. The Silver Wraith bridged the gap between pre-war Rolls-Royces and the V8 era, spanning the end of the war almost through to the dawn of the 1960s, a decade that would transform the company and its cars even further. The model can be regarded as the last of the very traditional ‘mainstream’ Rolls-Royce, for which a Standard Steel body was never available suppliers, and the cars are simple enough for the dedicated hobbyist to do much of the maintenance. High quality specialist technicians, while always busy, remain in some number. Equipped with the right manuals, and some help from the field, high-end classic car workshops should be up to the job.

If buying, there are a few things to look out for. On cars with a manual gearbox, look out for clutch judder. Reconditioned clutches should be avoided. The original linings were asbestos and for technical reasons modern equivalents are a real lottery, even when carefully rebuilt. It's a twelve-hour job to replace a clutch (so doing it twice or more to achieve something only vaguely acceptable is no fun). We now supply a complete modern diaphragm clutch with flywheel. On automatic cars, beware of jerky upshifts, particularly when cold.

A good engine will be nearly silent when warm. When the engine is at temperature, point a laser thermometer (cheap to buy) at the front, middle and rear of the engine, looking for significantly higher temperatures at the rear of the and which retained a six-cylinder engine right through to the end. It’s one of the more overlooked models these days, compared to its close contemporaries, the Bentley MkVI and Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn. Yet it outlasted both these machines by several years. It’s also notable for holding a record that is unlikely to be beaten now, as the most numerous coachbuilt RollsRoyce of the post-war era. engine where the coolant galleries become furred up. Bottom end knocks and upper end tappings are signs that an engine overhaul might be due. However, the good news is that mechanically these cars are nice to work on, and very little is difficult to fix with a bit of effort and money.

The coachwork is where the demons may lie in wait. Most were constructed with a combination of aluminium and wood, both of which rot over time. Examine door shuts carefully and look for corrosion underneath. Both are signs that an expensive rebuild will be necessary. Chrome work and other fixings were unique to the coachbuilders and sometimes bodies, so anything missing will not be easy to replace. Take your time going over the car, and, if possible, bring someone who has experience of coachbuilt bodywork.

The "Silver Wraith" moniker covers a huge number of coachwork styles which attract varying amounts of attention and value. But the main thing, perhaps, is that in the Silver Wraith you combine post-war drivability with pre-war glamour. The chances of seeing an identical vehicle on your travels are vanishingly rare!