Plymouth

US, 1928 to date

Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Mich.

The 4-cylinder 21hp Plymouth car appeared in 1928 at a list price of $725 for a sedan. This Plymouth car replaced the earlier 4-cylinder Chryslers and represented a serious challenge for Ford and Chevrolet in their lowest price class. The Plymouth car had side valves, internal-expanding hydraulic brakes and ribbon-type radiator and gave the Plymouth car a close resemblance to the 1928 Chryslers and De Sotos, and Plymouth cars sold over 100.000 in its first year, even improving its sales position in the bleak economic climate of 1932. Plymouth cars adhered to four cylinders until 1933, when the Plymouth PD-series 6-cylinder was listed at less than $600. 1934 de luxe models of Plymouth cars had independent front suspension, but this was dropped after a year and did not reappear for some time on Plymouth cars. The standard engine in the later 1930 Plymouth cars had a capacity of 3.3-litres, rather smaller than that used in comparable Chevrolets and Fords: a small-bore 2.8-litre version Plymouth car was made for export up to 1939, but the name Plymouth was not usually found on Plymouth cars sold in England, which were nominally Chrysler Kew and Wimbledon sixes. After World War 2 evolution followed that of other Chrysler Corporation cars closely, the old-fashioned styling losing the Plymouth car division its long-held third place in American sales to Buick. Further, Plymouth cars retained the L-head six as its staple power unit right up to 1955, when Flight Sweep versions were introduced with over-square ohv V8 engines on accepted American lines in a variety of powers from 157 to 177bhp. The capacity of these Plymouth cars had 4.3-litres, while the six, now of 3.8-litres, remained available. These 1955 Plymouth cars were lower and longer than their predecessors and could be obtained with synchromesh, overdrive or automatic gearboxes.

The Plymouth Fury models of the ensuing decade represented a breakaway from the traditional Plymouth stolid family car, while the Plymouth Car Division was also responsible for Chrysler’s contribution to the compacts, the Plymouth Valiant launched for 1960. This Plymouth car had rather more European styling than its competitors, with a dummy spare-wheel moulding on the tail; interesting items of specification were the unitary construction of the Plymouth car, alternator ignition, and inclined in-line 2.8-litre ohv 6-cylinder engine. The influence of the Plymouth GT car on America resulted in the Plymouth Barracuda of 1965, a fastback coupé using the Valiant’s 8ft 10in wheelbase and a 4½-litre V8 power unit. Plymouth cars, like Ford and Chevrolet, was aiming at comprehensive coverage of the low and medium price market in 1966, with the compact Plymouth Valiant, the sports-compact Plymouth Barracuda, the medium-sized Plymouth Belvedere, the full-size Plymouth Fury, and the luxurious ‘VIP’ 4-door hardtop Plymouth car, offered only with a 5.2-litre V8 engine and selling for $2.930. An increasing emphasis on sporting Plymouth cars was detectable by 1968, when in addition to the established Barracuda there were two other sports coupés Plymouth car, the Plymouth GTX and the Plymouth Road Runner. All three Plymouth cars were available with 4-speed manual gearboxes and the 6.981cc 425bhp hemi-head V8 also used by Dodge. In 1970, when Valiant prices started at a low $2.172, there was also a Valiant sports coupé, the Plymouth Duster.

In 1971 Plymouth car company added a sub-compact to their Plymouth car range when they offered the 1½-litre Hillman Avenger as the Plymouth Cricket. The 1972 range of Plymouth cars embraced the Valiant on a 9ft wheelbase, the Barracudas and Satellites, and the full-size Furys with V8 engines and automatic transmission as standard. Engines in the Plymouth cars ranged from the Valiant’s 3.2-litre and 3.7-litre sixes up to the largest Chrysler unit, a V8 of 7.210cc. Electronic ignition was offered on the costliest Barracuda model. Casualties of new Federal regulations were the hemi-head engine and convertibles, and the same range Plymouth cars with minor improvements, among them manually-operated sun roofs, was offerd in 1973.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Rolls-Royce

GB, 1904  to date

(1) Royce Ltd, Manchester, 1904 – 1906

(2) Rolls-Royce Ltd, Manchester, 1906 – 1908

(3) Rolls-Royce Ltd, Derby, 1908 – 1945

(4) Rolls-Royce Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, 1946 – 1971

(5) Rolls-Royce Motors (1971) Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, 1971 to date

The Rolls-Royce car was the result of a meeting between Henry Royce, a manufacturer of electric cranes in Manchester, and the Hon. C.S. Rolls, a pioneer motorist then selling Panhards in London, who wanted a quality car to boost falling sales. The first Rolls-Royce cars were based on the 1.8-litre (later enlarged to 2-litre) vertical-twin 10hp ioe Royce with shaft drive, but the range of Rolls-Royce cars was expanded to embrace a 3-litre, 3-cylinder, ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ versions of a 4-cylinder Rolls-Royce Twenty, and a 6-litre pair-cast six retailing at £900. A Light Twenty Rolls-Royce car with geared-up top, driven by Rolls, won the 1906 Tourist Trophy, and also broke the Monte Carlo-London record.

An abortive 3½-litre V8 petrol brougham Rolls-Royce car with square cylinder dimensions was shown in 1905, but 1906 was the start of a one-model policy based on the 40/50hp 6-cylinder Rolls-Royce car, later to win immortality as the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, which Rolls-Royce car made its début at Olympia that year. This Rolls-Royce car had a conventional 7-litre sv engine with pressure lubrication and dual ignition, as well as the 4-speed overdrive gearbox. Output of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was a modest 48bhp, but the Rolls-Royce car’s reputation was assured after a successful 15.000 mile RAC-observed trial in 1907, from which the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost emerged with flying colours. 6.173 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost cars were made: the first ones at Manchester, and from 1908 on the Rolls-Royce cars were made at Derby. At £985 for a chassis the Rolls-Royce car was backed by a unique inspecition scheme, and in mid-1909 it was revised with a longer-stroke 7.4-litre engine and conventional 3-speed box. The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts reverted to 4 speeds in 1913, when cantilever rear suspension was adopted; later modifications were full electrics (1919) and Hispano-Suiza-type mechanical servo 4-wheel brakes (1924). The ‘Best Car in the World’ – a reputation which was well established by Rolls-Royce cars by 1914 – was not normally entered in competitions but in 1911 a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was successfully driven from London to Edingburgh and back on top gear for a fuel consumption of 24.32mpg, and a works team Rolls-Royce car swept the board in the 1913 Austrian Alpine Trials. Armoured-car versions of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost gave yeoman service both during and after World War 1.

Production of Rolls-Royce cars was resumed after the Amistice, the chassis price being inflated to £2.100. In 1920 an American Rolls-Royce car actory was opened, this making the Rolls-Royce car until 1931. Post-war 1 inflation led Rolls-Royce to abandon their one-model Rolls-Royce car policy in 1922 and to introduce a 3.1-litre ohv 6-cylinder Rolls-Royce Twenty with a 3-speed unit gearbox and central change at £1.100 for a chassis. This Rolls-Royce car was regarded by Rolls-Royce enthusiasts as heresy, but the Rolls-Royce Twenty was an excellent if sluggish car which last none of the traditional quality; nearly 3.000 Rolls-Royce cars were made up to 1929. In 1925 the Rolls-Royce car acquired a 4-speed box, right-hand change, and the servo 4-wheel brakes of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, which was retired that year in favour of a 7.7-litre Rolls-Royce Phantom I with overhead valves and vertical radiator shutters. An improved Phantom II Rolls-Royce car with hypoid back axle and redesigned combustion chambers was listed from 1930, while the Rolls-Royce Twenty emerged as the more powerful Rolls-Royce 20/25 with a 3.7-litre engine. A Continental version of the bigger Rolls-Royce car gave a genuine 90mph with closed coachwork. Refinements of the early 1930s on Rolls-Royce cars included synchromesh (on the 20/25 in 1932, and on the Phantom a year later), and centralized chassis lubrication (1933).

In 1931 the Rolls-Royce car company bought Bentley Motors, after Napier had made an unsuccessful bid. The Bentley emerged two years later, as a Rolls-Royce-based 3½-litre: it was not to lose its identity until the 1950s. Sir Henry Royce died in 1933, and the entwined ‘R’s of the radiator emblem of the Rolls-Royce car was changed from red to black, supposedly in mourning. The smaller Rolls-Royce cars acquired hypoid final drive in 1936, in which year an alternative power unit of 4¼-litres’ capacity was offered, first as an option on the Rolls-Royce car, and then as standard: thus the 20/25 Rolls-Royce car grew up into the 25/30. In this year Rolls-Royce cars stopped making their own carburetors, though electrical equipment was not bought out until after World War 2. Aero-engine influence (the Rolls-Royce car company had been making these units since 1914 and had been responsible both for the Schneider Trophy R engine of 1931 and the Merlin of 1935) was reflected in the 12-cylinder Phantom III Rolls-Royce car first shown in 1935. The capacity of this Rolls-Royce car was 7.3-litres, and it was the first Rolls-Royce car to have independent front suspension. Later examples Rolls-Royce cars had overdrive gearboxes. It offered 90-95mph for £2.600 and up. This Rolls-Royce car model was still being made in 1939, along with a development of the 25/30, with independent front suspension, the Rolls-Royce Wraith, which Rolls-Royce car could be bought for around £1.600 complete.

Post-war 2 production Rolls-Royce cars was transferred from Derby to Crewe and the first new Rolls-Royce car model was the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, with a 4¼-litre engine, overhead inlet valves and hydraulic actuation for the front brakes, this Rolls-Royce car costing around £4.300 in 1947. The Rolls-Royce Phantom III was not revived, but sixteen ioe 5.7-litre straight-8 Phantom IV Rolls-Royce cars were made for heads of state from 1949 onwards. Among the customers of the Rolls-Royce car was HRH Pincess Elizabeth, who was to become the first reigning British monarch to use Rolls-Royce cars officially. The 6-cylinder Rolls-Royce cars continued up to 1959. 1949 brought the first Rolls-Royce car factory-bodied model, the export only Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn, using the standard Bentley saloon body, left-hand drive, and steering column change. In 1952 capacity of the Rolls-Royce car went up to 4.6-litres and a long-chassis version was listed with an 11ft 1in wheelbase. The General Motors Hydramatic transmission became an option in 1953, and the famous manual box with right-hand control was finally dropped two years later with the advent of a 4.9-litre Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, a restyled saloon with 15in wheels, which Rolls-Royce car could be bought with power-assisted steering and full air-conditioning. 1960 Rolls-Royce cars were identical in outward appearance, but were powered by entirely new oversquare alloy 6.2-litre V8 engines. Power assisted steering was now standard on the Rolls-Royce car, though the hydro-mechanical servo brakes were retained. The standard saloon Rolls-Royce car cost £6.093, and a limousine version on a 12ft wheelbase, the Rolls-Royce Phantom V, was some £3.000 dearer. A four-headlamp layout was introduced on the Rolls-Royce car in 1963, and a year later Rolls-Royce cars started to supply a 4-litre version of their ioe 6-cylinder engine to BMC for installation in the Vanden Plas Princess.

At the 1965 Shows Rolls-Royce cars introduced an entirely up-to-date design, the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. This Rolls-Royce car boasted unitary construction, self-levelling, all-round independent suspension, and servo-assisted disc-brakes with three separate circuits. It retained the 1960 V8 engine, also the (now dummy) traditional radiator. The Phantom V Rolls-Royce car with its separate chassis was kept on, a ceremonial limousine for head of state being listed at £10.695. A Silver Shadow convertible was available in 1968 for £10.449; 1969 brought both a long-wheelbase version of the Rolls-Royce car model and the enlargement of the engine to 6.745cc. In 1970 a new 3-speed automatic gearbox (already used on left hand drive export models since late 1965) replaced the earlier 4-speed type on the Rolls-Royce car, and the Phantom VI replaced the Phantom V; production of these state Rolls-Royce carriages ran at about 50 Rolls-Royce cars a year. Similar modifications were applied to the parallel Bentley cars. The sensational bankruptcy of February 1971 found the Rolls-Royce Car Division still profitable; indeed, within a month the Rolls-Royce car company had announced their high-performance Rolls-Royce Corniche 2-door saloon and convertible with coachwork by H.J. Mulliner-Park Ward, at prices from £12.829 upward, and that December the 10.000th Silver Shadow Rolls-Royce car left Crewe. By late 1972 prices of the more expensive Rolls-Royce cars had risen to £14.399 for the Rolls-Royce Corniche and £15.559 for the Rolls-Royce Phantom Limousine.

US, 1921 – 1931

Rolls-Royce of America Inc, Springfield, Mass.

The American Rolls-Royce car company was formed in November 1919 to build the famous British Rolls-Royce cars in an American factory and so avoid high import duties. The Rolls-Royce car plant was bought from the American Wire Wheel Co, and the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost went into production there in 1921. This Rolls-Royce car had a 6-cylinder 7.4-litre sv engine developing 80bhp, and came in two wheelbases, 12ft and 12ft 6½in. Right-hand drive was used until 1923. Unlike the British Rolls-Royce car company, Rolls-Royce of America always advertised coachwork and supplied complete Rolls-Royce  cars if customers wished. Most bodies of the American Rolls-Royce cars were by Brewster, and in 1926 this firm was taken over by Rolls-Royce car company. In 1926 came the New Phantom, or Rolls-Royce Phantom I as it was later called. This Rolls-Royce car had a 6-cylinder 7.7-litre engine with overhead valves, and again came in two wheelbases, 11ft 11½in and 12ft 2½in. The Depression badly hit sales of the American Rolls-Royce car, and production of Rolls-Royce cars at Springfield came to an end in 1931, although a few British Rolls-Royce cars were assembled there later. A total of 2.944 American Rolls-Royce cars was made, of which 1.703 were Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts and 1.241 were Rolls-Royce Phantom Is.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, GNG

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com