“A rolling piece of sculpture,” is what many car enthusiasts would say. The legend, the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II, with its signature grille and bold yet smooth bodylines speaking nothing but elegance.

Provenance-A Gift For The Doctor
There is nothing like a vintage car with a cool back story. Royce-Royce Limited built this luxury seadan for Queen Julianna of the Netherlands in 1960. The queen then gifted the Rolls-Royce to an American optometrist. On a visit to the Netherlands, Dr. Robert J. Morrison fitted Princess Marie Christina of the Netherlands (daughter to Queen Julianna) with corrective contact lenses in Harrisburg during a week-long visit in 1967. Princess Marie Christina’s vision was very poor due to having contracted the German Measles or Rubella at birth. Her vision was described as practically blind “with little more than dark and light distinction.”

As a token of appreciation, the Queen sent the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II to Dr. Morrison as a gift for helping out with her family’s medical needs. After Dr. Morrison’s passing, the classic car was acquired by Mr. Lubeck who sent it off for an immediate full restoration. Vantage Motorworks took on the job and restored the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II back to its as new original status.

A New Upgrade For The Rolls Royce And Some Serious Problems
Some new standard features came along with the Silver Cloud II, which included the L-series V8 engine that had better acceleration and torque than its straight-six predecessor of the Silver Cloud I, but there were problems.

For starters, the new V8 wasn’t as quiet and smooth as the straight-six, and to get the spark plugs changed, you had to remove the front wheel on the right side due to the narrow frame still engineered more for the straight-six engine. Low oil circulation caused several worn camshaft and breakage problems in early versions of the L-series. In time the engineers did eventually come up with a solution to the problem.

Performance numbers were recorded by Motor Magazine in August 1962. The V8 that barely had any room to breathe still cranked out a 0-60 time of 10.9 seconds and a top speed of 104.7 mph.

Power steering came as a standard on the Silver Cloud II and power windows were an option. A better ventilation design was created for the big sedan, and blue instrument lighting, a handbrake warning light, and a combined indicator/headlamp flasher switch were included.