Silver Dawn is priced $80,000 at RM's vintage cars sale

Fresh from its acquisition of the former Kruse Auction Park - host to the famed and long-running Labor Day classic car auction - RM auctions has announced its intentions behind the deal: to specialise even more in hugely-popular 1950s and '60s classics, custom and muscle cars.

At the same time, RM aims to return Kruse's Labor Day sale to "its former glory, as what was once the world's largest automobiles auction." The upcoming Labor Day sale will mark the event's 40th year and will take place September 2-6 at the auction park in Auburn, Indiana.

But collectors won't have to wait that long to get their next fix of the world's finest and most coveted classic automobiles. RM will be holding its sale of Vintage Motor Cars of Meadow Brook in Rochester, Michigan later this month (July 24).


The 1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn Sports Saloon

Among the many highlights in that sale is this magnificent 1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn Sports Saloon - originally intended to appeal to those 'who wished to drive their car rather than be driven in it' - as was typical of Rolls-Royce's ethos of the era.

First exhibited at the 1949 Toronto Motor Show, the Silver Dawn was to all intents and purposes a Bentley Mark IV with a Rolls-Royce radiator. Outwardly, there was little different between the two cars, except that the Silver Dawn used a single Stromberg carburetor.

A total of 761 Silver Dawns were produced between 1949 and 1955. Of these, the majority had standardized coachwork from Rolls-Royce's in-house contract with Pressed Steel.


Below left: the Silver Dawn's inline six-cylinder engine

Beneath its bonnet is an estimated 128-132bhp, 4,566cc inline six-cylinder engine, automatic transmission, independent front suspension with helical springs and hydraulic dampers, semi-elliptic rear springs with hydraulic dampers, a hydraulic front and mechanical rear brakes with mechanical servo assist.

This example - Chassis no LSNF29 - is appearing at RM's sale with an impressive estimate of $60,000-$80,000.

 

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