The Luxury Sales Vehicle

Since the earliest days of the 20^th century when Charles Rolls and Henry Royce became partners, Rolls Royce automobiles have been synonymous with luxury. The first of their hand built cars came out in 1904. In 1906 they made a reputation for themselves when they introduced the 40/50, a car so rugged that its chassis became the first British armored car used in World War I and even carried over to World War II. That chassis wasn’t the only impact Rolls Royce had during the wars, they also developed and manufactured some of the most efficient airplane engines of their time.

Hand building cars is an expensive proposition and so, while others managed to change models on a fairly regular basis, Rolls tended to stick with a given model for a number of years. For example, the Silver Cloud III seen here was part of the Silver Cloud line that was introduced in 1955 and ran through 1966. The first version of the Silver Cloud was powered by a 4.9 liter inline six cylinder engine that made for 155 horse power. The engine was attached to a four speed automatic transmission. The car featured hydraulic brakes and after the first year, there were options such as power steering and air conditioning.

The Silver Cloud II was released in 1959 and sported a much larger 6.2 liter V8 which could hurdle this extremely heavy car all the way to 114 miles per hour. Then, in 1963, the Silver Cloud III was introduced with the same basic power plant that featured an increased compression ratio that boosted horse power to 220. The Silver Cloud III would be sold through 1966.

The car seen here is a 1965 long wheel base version of the car. Built in Massachusetts it has true left hand drive as opposed to the right hand drive British cars. Originally sold in Beverly Hills, this is the actual car used in a famous 1990s Grey Poupon commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_LbyHCpALM).