CLOUDS AND PHANTOMS

The general trend in the motor industry towards monocoque construction in the late 1940s did not go un-noticed at Rolls-Royce’s Crewe headquarters. But the company was in an almost unique position, and several factors influenced its decision to stay with separate chassis construction for the next generation of cars.

Perhaps the most important factor was that Rolls-Royce needed every component of its car designs to be as versatile as possible so that it could be used in multiple different models. This was an outcome of the rationalised range philosophy, which was still relatively new as thoughts turned to that next generation around 1950. A separate chassis could easily be produced to a common design with a variety of different wheelbase sizes; a monocoque was far harder to re-engineer for different sizes.

There was also the problem that monocoque bodies demanded very high tooling costs, which had to be amortised over the production life of a model. Rolls-Royce built cars in small numbers, and the implication was that showroom prices might have to rise in order to cover those tooling costs. This was undesirable. It was also undeniable that a proportion of customers still wanted bespoke coachwork, and that required a separate chassis, while Rolls-Royce themselves could also exploit a separate chassis by building several different body designs for it.

The magic of driving a Rolls-Royce is well encapsulated in this advertisement. The long bonnet with the famous mascot of course belongs to a Silver Cloud.

So a separate chassis it was. The first priority was to create a ‘mainstream’ model to replace the Silver Dawn and its Bentley equivalent, and from the outset the preferences of the American market were an important consideration. So the new car would have to offer more space, lighter steering, softer suspension and an automatic gearbox. It was to be called the Silver Cloud.

The Silver Cloud was an all-time classic design. Superbly proportioned, it looked even better with discreet two-tone colour schemes, as seen here. The car is a 1959 Silver Cloud II with V8 engine, but is visually identical to the earlier six-cylinder models.

The extra space was found by making the wheelbase 3 inches longer than in the Silver Dawn and by moving the engine forward in the chassis so that the passenger compartment could be longer. The best automatic gearboxes were those made in America, and so Rolls-Royce decided to buy in the Hydramatic type made by General Motors and to modify it to suit their requirements. Developing power assistance for the steering would take time and this would not be ready for the new model’s introduction, but careful suspension design would give an appropriately compliant ride without compromising the handling. The independent front suspension was also entirely redesigned as the new and much stiffer chassis took shape.

A long-wheelbase Silver Cloud appeared in 1957, with an extra 4 inches of legroom in the rear. All the length was accommodated in the rear doors without unbalancing the profile.

The six-cylinder engine was already being uprated for later models of the existing production cars, and there was still plenty of sales life in it. So the largest viable size of 4887cc was planned for the Silver Cloud, with a new alloy cylinder head and twin carburettors as standard. There would be no distinction in power and performance between Rolls-Royce and Bentley versions, and indeed the plan was to make the saloon versions of the two cars exactly the same – barring radiator grilles, the bonnets that fitted their differently shaped tops, and badges.

Still using the same elegant lines, Rolls-Royce created a drophead coupé through its HJ Mulliner coachbuilding division. The model was available for only four years, from 1959 to 1963. This left-hand-drive model is a Silver Cloud II version.

As for the body, it was designed by John Blatchley and Ivan Evernden in Crewe’s own body department, and would be made by Pressed Steel again. Its design picked up on some new trends emerging around 1950, and the result was both timeless and beautifully balanced, though grander and more imposing in every way than the Silver Dawn. Although separate chassis would again be made available for those who insisted on a bespoke style, relatively few did, and this certainly contributed to the demise of at least three major bespoke coachbuilders. Freestone & Webb closed in 1958, Hooper a year later, and in 1959 Rolls-Royce bought HJ Mulliner to merge it with its Park Ward body division.

The Silver Cloud and companion Bentley S series were introduced in April 1955, and intentions caught up with reality around a year later when power-assisted steering and air conditioning became available. A long-wheelbase derivative followed in 1957, with 4 extra inches in the rear compartment; standard bodies from Pressed Steel were modified appropriately by the Park Ward division. To counter the extra weight of these, the engine compression ratio was raised while both valves and carburettors were enlarged, and the more powerful engine was standardised on all models.

There were several coachbuilt designs on the Silver Cloud chassis, and this very distinctive style was by Hooper.

In the beginning, the Bentley proved more popular, probably as a legacy of the situation created by the Mk VI/R-type and Silver Dawn arrangements at the start of the decade. So overall, it was the Bentley that sold in greater numbers, although by the later 1950s the Silver Cloud had become the customer favourite and Bentley sales slowed down. Special bodies included several very attractive coupé designs for a high-performance Continental version of the Bentley chassis, and similar designs were ordered for the Silver Cloud too.

Although a late 1950s Silver Cloud was capable of a very respectable 105mph, its performance was outclassed by some rivals. A solution was in hand, though: ever since the early 1950s, Rolls-Royce had been working on a new V8 engine that would equal or better the best of those available from American manufacturers. This was introduced in 1959 into barely modified Silver Clouds and S-series Bentleys, which became Silver Cloud II and Bentley S2 models.

A tapering bonnet and paired headlamps brought a slightly more modern look to the Silver Cloud in 1963, and the model became the Silver Cloud III. The rest of the classic lines remained unchanged.

The new V8 engine was heavily inspired by American practice, but it was built to meet the usual high Rolls-Royce standards of refinement. Its layout was conventional, with a single camshaft mounted in the 90-degree vee between the two banks of cylinders, but to save weight Rolls-Royce had designed the cylinder block to be cast from aluminium alloy. A design compromise had been to put the spark plugs underneath the exhaust manifolds, where access was very difficult, and some commentators felt that the engine was rougher at idle than the six-cylinder it replaced. It did add performance, though: a 6.2-litre V8-engined Silver Cloud could reach 113mph and accelerated more quickly than its predecessors through its GM-derived Hydramatic gearbox.

Power-assisted steering was now standard, and oil reservoirs needing attention just once a year had replaced the central chassis lubrication system of the first Clouds. There was, however, one notable criticism, and that was of the brakes. These were heavy cars which now had a high top speed, and the all-round drum brakes with their gearbox-driven mechanical servo were only just up to the job of stopping them. Nevertheless, the arrival of the V8 engine brought increased customer demand for the three years when the Silver Cloud II was in production. It was accompanied by the availability of a two-door drophead coupé body built by HJ Mulliner and derived from the standard saloon, which went on to become a lasting favourite.

The Silver Cloud dashboard, with its instruments all in the centre, was an anachronism by the time this one was fitted to a Silver Cloud III drophead coupé in 1963. The big steering wheel was looking old-fashioned, too – but the exquisite materials, fit and finish remained timeless.

The replacement for the Silver Cloud II was, inevitably, called a Silver Cloud III (or Bentley S3), and arrived in October 1962. The engine had very slightly more power, the power steering required slightly less effort, but the brakes were still drums with a mechanical servo and the slight delay that came with it. The main changes were to the front end, modernised with four headlamps and a sloping bonnet that led to a shorter radiator grille, and to the interior, where individual front seats at last replaced the earlier split-backrest bench and a more upright rear backrest delivered more legroom.

For those whose budgets would not stretch to a Phantom, James Young offered their SCT100 design, the so-called ‘mini-Phantom’, on a Silver Cloud chassis.

These final separate-chassis ‘mainstream’ models lasted in production until late 1965. Bentleys were few and far between (although the Continental chassis proved popular and lent some of its special body styles to the Silver Cloud too). Outside of the Rolls-Royce-owned Mulliner-Park Ward body division, there were also coachbuilt bodies from James Young, but there were not many of them.

The Phantom IV was a rare model, and this Hooper-bodied landaulette delivered to Her Majesty the Queen in May 1954 was unique among them.

However, the Silver Cloud and its Bentley clone were not the very last separate-chassis models from Rolls-Royce. That distinction belonged to larger and far less numerous cars that bore the Phantom name and shared the essentials of their design with the Clouds. These massive cars – the largest and most expensive Rolls-Royce models ever built at the time of their introduction – remained in production for just over thirty years, the last being built in 1990.

In line with the rationalisation scheme, the Phantom V used a longer version of the Silver Cloud chassis – extended by 22 inches and with wider axles, bigger tyres and other detail differences. It was introduced in 1959, and so always came with the then-new V8 engine. Most of those built had seven-passenger limousine bodies with a division and folding occasional seats in the rear compartment; the majority were by Mulliner-Park Ward and their lines were clearly related to those of the Silver Cloud, although there were also some by James Young, who offered a special touring limousine design as well until they closed down for good in 1967.

This style of coachwork by Park Ward was originally introduced for the Bentley Continental chassis, and is usually known as the ‘Chinese-eye’ model.

The Phantom V replaced the Silver Wraith at the top of the Rolls-Royce range and was in low-volume production, to order only, for nine years. In 1962, a landaulette body became available, and the more powerful V8 engine and four-headlamp nose became standard. Just 793 chassis were built, for an average of just over 88 cars a year, and among them were two very special high-roof models built in 1960 and 1961 as state ceremonial vehicles for Her Majesty the Queen. Possibly even more famous was the one delivered to Beatle John Lennon in 1965. Originally in traditional black, it was repainted yellow in 1967 with hand-painted swirls like a gypsy caravan. The original idea for the Psychedelic Rolls-Royce came from fellow Beatle Ringo Starr, and the hand-painting was done by a Dutch artists’ collective called The Fool.

Two very special Phantom V variants were built for Her Majesty the Queen. Known as the ‘Canberra’ vehicles, they had a roofline 5 inches higher than standard, and a glass rear dome that allowed the rear-seat occupants to be seen during a parade. This could be covered by aluminium panels when the vehicle was travelling normally.

Little changed when the Phantom V became a Phantom VI in 1968. The Silver Shadow version of the V8 engine was fitted, while separate air conditioning systems now served front and rear compartments, and there was a different facia layout. From 1972, the back doors were hung conventionally instead of rear-hinged, and from 1978 the larger 6.75-litre V8 engine arrived, together with the GM400 automatic gearbox and high-pressure braking system from the Silver Shadow.

The classic formal limousine body on the Phantom V and Phantom VI chassis remained available for more than thirty years. Many were used for ceremonial duties, and this example bears a municipal coat of arms in the usual position above the windscreen.

Most Phantom VIs were built with the Mulliner-Park Ward limousine body, although there were some landaulettes and two chassis were bodied as rather ungainly convertibles by Frua in Italy. Among the 374 chassis constructed between 1968 and 1990 (an average of just over thirty-one each year) were another special high-roof state vehicle for the Queen, and a standard limousine for the same customer. All of them were splendid – but hugely admired – anachronisms by the time the last one was built.

Two Phantom VI chassis were shipped to Italy and were bodied as convertibles by the coachbuilder Frua in Moncalieri near Turin. Each car was different. This is the earlier one, completed in 1973 for a Swiss diplomat. It is to Frua’s credit that he made such a good job of the lines of this gigantic two-door body.