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Rolls-royce Silver CloudThe Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud was the main car manufactured by Rolls-Royce from April 1955 until March 1966 (1965), a substantial four-door saloon it replaced the Silver Dawn and was, in turn, replaced by the Silver Shadow. The design was a major change from the pre-War models and the achronistic Silver Dawn. The main design work was by J. P. Blatchley. The chassis was simple steel box section, welded together and very rigid. Construction was still split into chassis and pressed steel and aluminium coachwork (monocoque not arriving until the Silver Shadow). The car was 5.38 metres long, 1.90 metres wide, and massed 1.95 tonnes. The engine was a six cylinder 4.887 litre unit. The gearbox a four-speed automatic. Brakes were servo-assisted hydraulic drums and suspension was independent coils at the front and semi-elliptic springs at the rear. The Silver Cloud II was introduced in 1959. Little changed externally but it had a 6.223 litre V8 engine, which pushed the weight to 2.11 tonnes. Performance was greatly improved, top speed was raised to 183 km/h, but the main improvements were in acceleration and torque. The Silver Cloud III arrived in 1962. External dimensions were slightly tweaked, the headlights changed (a notable, but not particularly favourable among classic car circles, version is the "Chinese Eye", featured on the Mulliner-Park Ward coachbuilt cars, of which only about 100 were made and one drop-head coupe was owned by Peter Sellers for four years), interior remodelled, and the weight reduced by a little over 100 kg. Improvements to the engine boosted speed and performance slightly. Total production: I 2,359, II 2,716, and III 2,297 (or 2,376).
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