Silver Wraith
Coachwork defines every car
Rolls-Royce sold the Silver Wraith as a rolling chassis, so coachbuilder, body style and original commission outrank model year. It was the marque's first post-war model and last series built around commissioned bodies.
Market value · road
$22K–$50K
Typical $42K · 33 sales · +12% vs ’19–’20
- Engine
- 4.3–4.9L (F-head inline-six)
- Gearbox
- 4-speed (manual; automatic from 1952)
- Wheelbase
- 127 or 133 in (standard and long chassis)
- Construction
- Separate chassis (body by independent coachbuilder)
- Front suspension
- Independent (coil springs and wishbones)
Market & Price
The price and the proof
A terminal for one car: the model curve over the documented record, the benchmarks it is measured against, and the instruments that read it.
Records: 69 documented road sales on file · 2003–2026; estimate band $22K–$50K · good road cars. recorded sale prices · mixed hammer and premium-inclusive basis.
Compound annual growth
| Window | This car* | S&P 500 | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | +16.5% | +18.8% | +21.9% |
| 5Y | -5.4% | +11.4% | +17.6% |
| 10Y | +2.8% | +13.3% | +11.8% |
*Modeled price CAGR · S&P is a price index, no dividends
Deepest drawdown · model window
Forecast ladder · model quantiles
| Horizon | P10 | P50 | P90 |
|---|---|---|---|
| +6M | $35K | $43K | $52K |
| +12M | $33K | $44K | $57K |
| +24M | $31K | $45K | $66K |
Median path with the 10th and 90th percentile · not investment advice
69 of 69 recorded sales · shown in USD · recorded currency in each record
Public results show no simple year curve. Coachwork and condition dominate.
Floor
$22K
Typical
$42K
Ceiling
$50K
Estimate band for good road cars. 33 documented sales since 2019 plotted below.
Band and axis shown in USD. Sale positions use indicative fixed-rate conversion to USD; sale readouts retain recorded currencies. Indicative band for sound formal saloons, limousines and established coachbuilt cars; exceptional open or one-off bodies excluded.
Instrument calibration for this file is in progress — the terminal above reads the documented record directly.
Amounts are published auction results in USD. They are not adjusted for inflation or differences in body, condition or buyer's premium treatment.
Overview
The first Rolls-Royce after the war
Rolls-Royce suspended motor-car production during the Second World War and developed a rationalised range for the market that would follow. The Silver Wraith, launched in 1946, shared a flexible engineering base with other post-war Rolls-Royce and Bentley models but remained a rolling chassis.
That choice preserved the commissioning process at a moment when specialist coachbuilding was contracting. Formal saloons and limousines dominate surviving cars, but dropheads, sedancas, coupés and continental one-offs show how wide the chassis brief was.
The Silver Dawn of 1949 and Silver Cloud of 1955 shifted Rolls-Royce towards complete cars. Silver Wraith production continued for clients who still wanted a body designed around one commission.
- Built
- 1'783 cited
- Production
- 1946–1959
- Coachwork
- Commissioned individually
- Long-wheelbase
- 639 chassis
- Factory
- Crewe
Reference
Technical specifications
Powertrain
- Engine
- F-head inline-sixoverhead inlet and side exhaust valves
- Displacement
- 4'257 cc; 4'566 cc; 4'887 cccapacity increased during production
- Output
- Not officially quotedperiod and auction references vary by engine and body
- Transmission
- 4-speed manual or automaticautomatic selection was available by 1952
Chassis
- Frame
- Box-section separate chassissupplied as a rolling chassis for coachbuilding
- Wheelbase
- 127 in or 133 inlong-wheelbase chassis entered production in the early 1950s
- Front suspension
- Independent coil springtwin wishbone arrangement
- Rear suspension
- Live axlesemi-elliptic leaf springs
- Brakes
- Servo-assisted drumshydraulic front and mechanical rear operation
Production record
- Published total
- 1'783 chassis1'144 standard-wheelbase plus 639 long-wheelbase
- Count dispute
- 1'783 to 1'886specialist references disagree on the total and the 1958/1959 endpoint
- Body supply
- No standard factory bodyHooper, H.J. Mulliner, Park Ward, James Young and continental houses all clothed the chassis
HICON BID
Buying interest, silently.
A HICON Bid is a confidential expression of buying interest on the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith file — never public, never shown to other members. It is not a binding purchase, and HICONIUM holds no funds.
HICON Bids are a member instrument. Sign in to place one.
The vault
Open a file on yours.
You keep one? The record starts in your garage — identity, papers, photography, and the market evidence this file already carries, bound to your chassis.
The value drivers
What moves the price
Two F40s can be indistinguishable in a photograph and a million apart at the hammer: the difference is never in the paint. Build the file below and watch the band move.
Indicative band · the base car
$22K–$50K
a good, honest road car — before its file is read
Spans are indicative, drawn from the documented sales cited beside each attribute. The calibrated multipliers — and how they compound for one specific chassis — are member instruments.
The cars
The Silver Wraith register
Documented individual cars — chassis, colour, ownership and sale history. Open one for its full provenance. Public records only; members see the complete registry.
02 documented · public records