Tag Archives: Wraith

Royal Presidential Film Star – Rolls Royce Silver Wraith #WVH4

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The first post war Rolls Royce model was the Silver Wraith which was built from 1946 to 1959.

Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The initial 127″ wheel base chassis was similar to the pre war Wraith with independent front suspension and semi elliptical leaf springs for the live rear axle.

Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The 6 cylinder motor was fitted with a new cylinder head that featured overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valves, in 1951 the displacement was increased to 4566 cc / 278 cui as seen fitted to the vehicle built in 1952 featured today.

Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The Royal houses of Holland, Denmark and Greece all selected Silver Wraith’s for their automotive collections. Silver Wraiths were also chosen as Presidential vehicles by the Brazilian and Irish governments and I believe both are still in use.

Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Reassuringly expensive Silver Wrath models have landed roles in numerous films including The Return Of the Pink Panther (1975), Arthur (1981), a fine Sedanca de Ville by Hooper bodied example in Withnail and I (1987) and Batman Returns (1992).

Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Chassis #WVH4 was the last to be bodied by Rippon Bros, the Silver Wrath was also the last model to be offered as a powered chassis, and appeared at the 1952 Earls Court Motor Show. More recently after a restoration that started in 2002 this car appeared in the 2011 film The Deep Blue Sea.

Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

In all 1883 Silver Wraith’s were manufactured 639 of them with a 133″ long wheel base option, that was available from 1951 and replaced the 127″ wheel base chassis completely in 1953.

Thanks for joining me on this “Royal Presidential Film Star” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at the reincarnation of a World Land Speed Record Car that lay buried beneath the Pendine Sands for 40 years. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Stockbroker’s Widow – Rolls Royce Wraith #WXA78 Hooper Drophead Coupé

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A month before the public announcement of the new Rolls Royce Wraith model in early October 1938 Scottish agents John Croall & Sons placed an order for today’s featured chassis #WXA78 which was to be fitted with the 6 cylinder motor #D5WU.

Factory records indicate that John Croall & Sons sold the car to a Mrs Tod of Edinburgh, Scotland the widow of a stockbroker who had died in 1935.

Rolls Royce Wraith Hooper Drophead Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance

Mrs Tod asked that her Wraith be fitted with a Hopper drophead coupé body which was given the Hopper design drawing number 9050 which specifies among other details; accommodation for golf clubs, a sixteen by 8 inch hat box, birds eye maple trim, ivory door and window handles, primrose over black painted wings and side panels and an optional kneeling Spirit of Ecstasy mascot.

Mrs Tod kept the Wraith, the first of what turned out to be just three drophead Coupés built and one of only two with Dickey seats, until 1948 when she sold the car to London Rolls Royce dealer Jack Barclay.

Rolls Royce Wraith Hooper Drophead Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance

Barclay’s had the car painted Mason’s black and sold it the following year to a gentleman in Wilmsow, Manchester.

Jack Compton, founder of the Rolls Royce and Bentley Drivers Club, and West Norwood, London based dealer brought the car back to ‘the smoke’, London, in June 1949 and kept it there until 1966.

Rolls Royce Wraith Hooper Drophead Coupé, Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance

Mrs Tod’s Wraith was then treated for foot and mouth disease prior to being sent to the United States and the first of an unbroken chain of five owners to the present day with the Calumet Collection in San Diego becoming the present owners in 2010.

The car was used to take the owners daughters to school in Greenwich Connecticut in the late 1960’s, before restorations began in 1986 which were not fully completed until the 1990’s.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photo’s taken at the 2013 Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Stockbroker’s Widow” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a chain driven World Land Speed Record breaker. Don’t forget to come back now !

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