1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special

For the past century, Cadillac represented the pinnacle of American luxury motor and its products have reflected the pulse and mood of the nation, witnessed by the rise of the tail fins and other flamboyant styling excesses of the 1950s and the most restrained and sober elegance of the early 1960s as the Cold War era began in earnest.

The late 1960s Cadillacs were styled under the direction of Bill Mitchell, who bestowed vinyl roofs and curved side glass to these elegant rolling sculptures, while the tail fins of the previous decade were consigned to the history books. Power was initially from a 429 cubic-inch V8, followed by an even bigger unit displacing 427 CID (at 7.7-liters this was the largest in the industry) was fitted from 1968, rated at 375 horsepower. It had overhead valves, hydraulic valve lifters, five main bearings, and a Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor backed by a Turbo-Hydramatic transmission.

Distinct styling features of 1969 Cadillacs were the loss of stacked headlamps and the vent windows were replaced by rear quarter glass, while the roofline became more squared off. The all-new grille had a stronger horizontal theme, flanked by dual headlamps. The Fleetwood Sixty Special rested on a 133-inch wheelbase, a full 3.5-inches longer than other models, and its factory base price placed it above the Calais and the Deville, but below the Fleetwood Seventy-Five, and nearly identical to the Fleetwood Eldorado. The Sedan had a base price of $6,780 and the Brougham listed at $7,110. A total of 2,545 examples of the sedan were built, and 17,300 of the Brougham.

The Fleetwood Sixty Special had power windows, variable-ratio power steering, dual power brakes, an electric clock, twin front and rear ashtrays, two front and rear cigarette lighters, safety and warning lights, and two-way power-operated horizontal front seat adjusters. Additional standard equipment included Automatic Level Control and the Brougham added a Dual Comfort front seat and adjustable reading lamps.

The Styling was similar to the front-wheel-drive Eldorado, reflecting the lines of the Eldorado Coupe that had been introduced two years earlier.

Buyers were drawn to the four-door Cadillac sedan DeVille that had no center pillar or vent windows, attracting more buyers than any other single luxury car in the world. Nearly 73,000 examples of the Sedan DeVille were built in 1969 and 65,755 of the Coupe DeVille. The Fleetwood Sixty Special had slightly fewer sales of its sedan than the 1968 model year, but two thousand more examples were produced of its Brougham. 1969 was the company's fifth consecutive record sales year and built over 250,000 examples for the first time in company history.

by Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2020