Marque: Rolls Royce - Company History & Models - Cars By Brand

PAST: This model was launched after the takeover of Bentley by Rolls-Royce and subsequent range rationalisation; the Silver Dawn is actually a Bentley MkIV. Stangely this pre-war car wasn’t offered until well after hostilities had ended and continued in production alongside the Silver Cloud right up until 1959.

PRESENT: If you like your Rolls’ old school then few others typify the upper crust nature of the brand than the Dawn. An acquired, vintage, taste to drive of course but thanks to a detuned Bentley engine the Silver Dawn has entirely respectable performance for its era which matched many sports cars of the day.

FUTURE: Perhaps it’s a fashion thing but values of these rare Rollers do not appear to be soaring and you can pick one up fairly cheaply. Buy on condition as restorations will be costly, especially on the rarer bespoke-built models.

PAST: Replacing the Shadow late in 1980 with the longer wheel-based Silver Spur arriving soon after. Fuel injection and other mods (including an improved central locking system) for 1986 and trim revisions until it was replaced.

PRESENT: Good to drive, and much better than the car it replaced, a Silver Spirit is both aspirational and affordable and a realistic step up from, say, an XJ6 so long as you buy a good one. Not as taut or zesty as the sportier Bentley alternative but, as you’d expect, cruises beautifully and luxurious is an understatement when describing the interior.

FUTURE: Classical rather than classic right now, but this means values are still kept low. Pre ‘85 cars not as well built and carb-fed cars can prove bad starters. Plenty of cheap, rot-infested cars around however so beware of false bargains and get the best you can afford as it will be cheaper in the long run. There’s plenty around so be choosy.

The price of being able to blow away Escorts in a turbocharged wing-back armchair was an inheritance-shrinking £101,400. The Escorts are all but gone, but you can buy a 320bhp Bentley Turbo R for the same price you’d have shelled out for an XR3i back in the 80s. Prices start from around £7000 for an early car, which is dangerously tempting. Cheaper and less likely to have grazed its knees in a scrap with hot hatches is the more sedate Rolls Royce Silver Spirit, a car built around the same bodyshell and using the same 6.75-litre V8. That was launched in 1980, with the lengthened Silver Spur following on to provide sir with some extra room to flap the Times in the rear. The chauffeur may have long gone, but so too has the premium pricing. £5000 is all you need for a mechanical lottery, or double it for a decent Roller. You might want to look post-1986 for better build quality along with ABS brakes and fuel injection instead of carburettors, but neither the Bentley or Rolls have much to do with modernity. The engines are mostly reliable, never having done much more than throb lazily (even the Turbo Rs), but they will rust in places like the wheel arches and the wing bottoms. All that weight also puts stresses on suspension components that will eventually give up expensively. But whatever state it’s in, a Roller or Bentley never loses the aroma of riches.