The development of the 1961 Cadillac actually began about a decade sooner . One sidereal day in the other fifties , William Mitchell take up an aspiring young CM truck intriguer apart and tell him , " If you ever require to amount to anything around here , you better start designingcars . " As much as Chuck Jordan do it hand truck , he could see that his political boss was right-hand .
Cadillac Image Gallery
" Okay then , " recalls Jordan , who retired from the General Motors purpose frailty presidential term in 1992 , " I say to myself : Harley Earl start up out with Cadillac and Bill Mitchell take over the Cadillac studio apartment in 1936 , so Cadillac definitely looked like the place to be . " It was a architectural plan that bore yield in October 1957 when Earl , the father of General Motors ' styling segment , constitute Jordan chief designer for Cadillac .
" If you were in there contrive Cadillacs , that was a big thing , " says Jordan . " Cadillac was the prestige studio , and I want to be certain what we did was significant . The 1959 model was almost finished when I took over as main designer . The studio apartment had a 14 - appendage team : designers , modeller , and technical hoi polloi . We pose comfortable with each other as we face - lift the 1960 Cadillac , so we were ready when it amount time to start on the 1961 . "
Nearly everybody in the Cadillac studio was untested and consecrate . In early 1958 , when the 1961 undertaking started , Jordan was 31 . His assistant , David R. Holls , was 27 , and the residual of the team was equally youthful .
The 1961 Cadillac might have been Jordan ’s first as a studio apartment top dog , but it was also one of the last designs Harley Earl had a hand in . Today , we lean to remember General Motors ' overstuffed , over - chromed , slow - selling 1958 models as Earl ’s last hurrah as styling czar , but they were n’t .
He still had sheer control condition during the origination of the 1959 - 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham – the 2nd - contemporaries Brougham designed in the United States but handcraft by Pininfarina in Italy – and Earl continue in bearing throughout a crucial period of the 1961 Cadillac computer programme prior to his retirement on December 1 , 1958 , whereupon Mitchell took over as General Motors ' design vice president .
Earl was more concerned in the 1959 - 1960 Eldorado Brougham as a topic - typesetter for the 1961 Cadillac than for its own interest . The someone behind the 1959 - 1960 Brougham ’s styling was Holls , who also did the luxuriously - fin even - production 1959 Cadillacs .
While the second - serial Brougham by no means led at once into the 1961 Cadillac , it did what Earl hoped it would . It was n’t strong to change the Brougham into the 1961 Cadillac , partly because the Brougham give one very strong , unmistakable styling element : the crisp , finely molded , thin - pillared greenhouse .
To record more about the conception of the 1961 Cadillac , continue to the next page .
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1961 Cadillac Design
If you park a 1960 Eldorado Brougham and a 1961 Cadillac six - window sedan side by side , you ’ll point out major divergence . Mechanically the 1961 Cadillac was almost identical to its finny 1959 - 1960 production ancestors , with the sameengine , transmittal , frame , andsuspension . Yet the 1961 Cadillac design – trunk and internal – was all fresh , and the design that Earl , Jordan , and the Cadillac studio produce that year was totally unlike anything done before .
" The 1961 model would be a clean - sheet design and my first chance to do a mark - new productioncar , " he remembers . " We all recognized it as a great chance , so we mould night and day . I mean I worked my tail off , because I believe in that car , and I also had the responsibleness . I did a mint of the illustrations at home at night , because there just was n’t time in the studio . "
As so often pass off , the studio ’s first attempts to do an all - new excogitation started passably far out and needed to be rule in .
Dave Holls adds , " We want to get off the gravid fivesome . Chuck come up up with the idea of the skegs , those long , pointy fin along the bottom of the fender , and those first appeared on the 1960 Brougham . The skeg came part from the Cadillac Cyclone Motorama show gondola and partly from the Firebird IIIgas - turbine experimental , which influenced all of us . At first , we were going to make the skeg rife on the 1961 ; the skeg would be the main flipper .
" We did all kinds of strange things up at the top of the fender , like little mid - waisted fins and things like that . Tons and tons of my sketches essay to find new way to do the upper fins , and some version of the elevator car did n’t have upper fins at all . Mr. Earl did n’t like that , though , and neither did Bill Mitchell . So finally we put even fins back on the car , but the skeg remain in a cut back form . "
Cadillac provide three unlike sedan cap for 1961 . The first , the one used on six - window hardtop sedan , deduct from the Brougham . And , according to Dave Holls , the Brougham ’s upper – with its bridge - like silhouette , thin , orthogonal sheet panel , and every bit slim A - column – come from a four - place Lancia Flaminia coupe by Pininfarina .
The second roof , for a four - windowpane hardtop sedan , used the " cantilever " or " flying wing " silhouette . This was General Motors ' very flat , sparse upper with a scan , wrapper - around rearward window . The flying wing come out on General Motors cars ranging in size from the Corvair to the Cadillac , and was an update of the corporate " flattop " two - room access hardtop manner of 1959 - 1960 .
" We never considered that roof to very successful on the 1961 Cadillac , " Jordan observe . " The quick - wing roof looked gawky because we had to invoke it after client quetch about bumping their head on the 1959 - 1960 versions . When we raised the flying - offstage roof on the 1961 Cadillac , I always thought it appear a little ungainly . "
Cadillac share these roof stemma and a sharp - angled variation of General Motors ' " bubble - top " two - door hardtop design with Oldsmobile Ninety - Eight and seniorBuicks .
The third saloon ceiling used by Cadillac for the class was the six - windowpane gruelling design that appeared on the Series Special . It featured a more formal up structure with a unreasoning rearward one-quarter and rearward volcano windows attached to the doors .
It was also the year when General Motors abandoned the expensive , knee - knock , " bird’s-eye " wraparound windshield ( except on Series 75limousines , which bore the elan through 1965 ) and went to a more conventional type .
" We want something new , " recalls Holls , " but could n’t get anything that satisfied Earl until we did the Brougham windscreen . He told us , ' You ca n’t just end it at the bottom of the column . You ’ve got to something different . Do a little band do something else there . '
" He did n’t want the windscreen to look likeChrysler’sanybody else ’s . He wanted that little curve , that switchback where it went into the belt ; that was Mr. Earl ’s pinch . The Brougham also had a 60 - degree rake to the glass , which was very flying for that time . And then when we finally got that windshield right , he say , ' Oh my God that ’s more beautiful than the wraparound ! ' "
All 1961 Cadillacs gained considerable delicacy in their detailing . Holls say the accessory road lights were among preferent details . " They look like Marchal or Lucas lamps : clear lens of the eye , bullet in the center , float perpendicular struts , and a rear acoustic projection into a mirror - same parabola . You could never have done a headlamp like that in an American cable car , but we had more fun doing those route lamps . "
Body - color wheelcovers added yet another distinctive touch sensation . Holls borrow the estimation from Rolls - Royce . " We ’d try soundbox - color wheelcovers for 1960 , but Cadillac decided they did n’t want to practice all those colors , so they offered the 1960 version only in black , snowy , and a brushed ending . Most people enjoin the brush wheelcovers , " he says . " Cadillac all missed the point , and the sales rep did a terrible marketing job . But they finally got it mightily in 1961 . "
For more on the 1961 Cadillac , see the next page .
1961 Cadillac
While the 1961 Cadillac reckon entirely different from its 1960 predecessor , it stay on very similar automatically . The biggest change was a unexampled front frame , which lowered the tubular X - member chassis to give more seat tallness and head room .
The 1961 Cadillacenginewas basically the 331 - cid ohv V-8 of 1949 world-weary and stroked to 390 cubes . The 345 - bhp Eldorado powerplant of 1959 - 1960 , with three 2 - barrel carburetors and treble exhausts , was no longer offer up .
The only useable 1961 engine birth 325 bhp at 4,800 rpm with a 10.5:1 condensation ratio ; the sole uncommitted infection was General Motors ' four - fastness Hydra - Matic . A 2.94:1 axle ratio total standard , but equipping a Cadillac with optional air conditioning mandated a 3.21 differential . The Series 75 limousine used 3.36 and 3.77 axles , and limited - gaucherie was also optional .
Cadillac ’s pillowy ride was a social occasion of ball - jointed front A - arms , spiral roll springs , rubber eraser - mounted prance rods and India rubber bushings to absorb wallop and isolate road noise . The rearsuspensionlikewise used coil springs .
Vacuum - boosteddrum brakesgave 221.8 hearty inch of lining area ( 233.7 in the limo ) , and powersteeringhad an 18.2:1 proportion . extra standard equipment in all series included good turn signal , windscreen washers , two - speedwipers , a vanity mirror , an oil filter , and backup lights .
The 1961 Cadillac go far in bargainer showrooms on October 3 , 1960 , in seven consistence way : hardtop coupe , convertible , long- and brusque - deck of cards six - window four - room access hardtop , four - window cantilever ceiling four - threshold hardtop , unreasoning - one-fourth Fleetwood Series 60 Special four - door hardtop , and the Fleetwood Series 75 sedan .
Neither of Cadillac ’s domesticated competitors had anything near the breadth of that range . The outrageously case - lifted Imperial was offer as Southampton two- and four - door hardtop , a convertible security , a formal LeBaron four - door hardtop , and a rare Ghia - build limousine . The dramatically redesigned Lincoln was confined to only a pair of four - room access body style : a sedan chair and a unparalleled convertible .
Cadillac model selection begin with the Series 62 . base of operations prices – without aradioor heater – start at $ 4,892 for the coupe , the only Cadillac that listed for under $ 5,000 . Also usable in the Series 62 were a convertible and four- and six - windowpane four - room access , admit a most unusual " short - pack of cards " saloon . Basically it was a six - windowpane four - doorway , but with the trunk shortened seven inches for a full distance of 215 inches .
Some Cadillac proprietor had kick about difficulty parallel parking and match previous example into their garages . The Town Sedan was intended to answer those headache , but price were the same as for the full - corporal Series 62 and gross sales were sluggish .
The next pace up was the De Ville in coupe and full - length sedan forms . The sporty Eldorado quietly cede its own serial publication designation and was turn up into the De Ville range . With the Seville coupe drop from the line , the Biarritz convertible became the lone Eldorado offering . what is more , it was no longer easy to tell a Biarritz aside from the Series 62 ragtop at a glimpse .
Next issue forth the Fleetwood Series Special formal sedan , the top of the so - predict owner - driven cars . At the very top stood the 149.8 - in - wheelbase Fieetwood 75limousineand nine - rider sedan , the former with a divider windowpane between the driver and passenger compartment . Series 75 price began at $ 9,533 for the nine - passenger saloon , a considerable jumping over the 60 Special , which listed for $ 6,233 .
stock equipment in most upmarket series included index seating area , exponent window , a remote trunk lock , and five whitewalltires . However , amenities like tinted field glass , power windows , mogul door locks , power tail , sail control , an robotic headlight dimmer , and daze lamps all be special in the Series 62 , and some of these items were optional even on De Villes and the Eldorado Biarritz .
To follow the evolution with the 1962 Cadillac , stay to the next page .
1962 Cadillac
Jordan ’s staff touched up the 1962 Cadillac to impart it more in type with previous models . By the time this face - lift was get , Mitchell had supplant Earl as General Motors ' design vice chairwoman , bring with him a new blueprint sensibility .
" We used to have photographs up on the board with all the Cadillac front from 1941 on , and Bill felt that the 1961 grill did n’t say Cadillac . It was a beautiful front , but it was like the 1939 , which was n’t a very ripe Cadillac , either . Nothing wrong except it just was n’t Cadillac . So part of our assignment was to change that . "
The radiator grille took on a more traditional feeling for 1962 , with a floating , horizontal bar across the middle . Thecaralso pioneered percipient - lens rear lamp that turned scarlet when they light up up . These 1962 lamps stood upright and their bezel were smaller than those used in 1961 . This alteration came about at the request of hearse builders who wanted more tailgate width , agree to graphic designer Jerry Brochstein .
Cadillac ’s trademark quint were shaved incrementally and lose the chrome beadwork that had edged premature adaptation . ( Fleetwood 75s carry on with 1961 tail fin , however . )
There was also a major shake - up in roof designs . The slight - pillar coupe and overhanging four - window four - door hardtop cap were replaced by a decidedly more stately top with a thick sail panel that in profile looked a little like aconvertiblewith its top up .
Production of the Series 62 Town Sedan was transferred from the six - windowpane body to this new four - windowpane style and the De Ville got a companion " short deck " gondola – dub the Park Avenue – but it , too , remand in sale .
The most notable mechanical improvements for 1962 involved the addition of a two-fold - racing circuit bracken master cylinder and the inclusion of radio and heater as stock equipment in the Series 62 . Nonetheless , the class proved a good one for the division ; Cadillac assemble 160,840 car for the theoretical account year to break a production record that had stood for six years – and better 1961 output by more than 22,000 whole .
After see to it that the grille had been roll out up , Mitchell next reverse his attending to the skeg , which he felt made the rearward ending look too much like a rocketship . For the 1963 Cadillac , Mitchell secernate Jordan , " countenance ’s get off those skeg . "
Yet Jordan and his crowd initially kept coming up with low fins . Finally , harmonise to Holls , " Bill said , ' Goddammit , get off those skegs ! You know , three times and you ’re fired . ' He was n’t really brainsick ; he was just guiding the studio . " Jordan stupefy the message , and the 1963 Cadillac not only lost the skegs but go back to a more solid , more graceful 1959 - 1960 tactile property .
For more on the 1963 Cadillac , see the next varlet .
1963 Cadillac
Jerry Brochstein , who go far in the Cadillac studio apartment in 1959 , recall that the 1961Lincolnshook everyone up and made Cadillac designer imagine about simplify the body sides for the 1963 Cadillac , " … to get aside from those corrugate surface . "
Brochstein says that on one of Jordan ’s flights back to Detroit after jaw his parents in California , the studio apartment chief sketch what essentially became the 1963 Cadillac on an air illness base . He brought the very study into the studio , where it served as the construct pull out for the productioncar .
" The 1963 Cadillac had more of the substance , the solidness , and presence of the 1959 - 1960 output models , " contend Jordan . " We never wanted to make it as heavy in appearance as those earlier cars . We were after a leaner - looking Cadillac ; lighter . You ’ll discover that in 1963 and 1964 , we went back to that smooth , more solid shape , and the more royal , snooty front . I think the 1963 was the good of those cars . "
The two 1963 Cadillac two - doorway heavy - tops had observably longer rearward decks as a solution of the adoption of shorter roof canvas panel . " We started working on the 1963 models by first doing the Coupe de Ville . Well , I had an melodic theme one day when I ensure this young four - threshold hardtop they were working on atChevrolet , " explains Chuck Jordan .
" I aver to myself , ' Hey , why not put the Chevrolet four - door hardtop roof on the Coupe de Ville … mount it physically on the Cadillac lower and see , because of the Cadillac ’s redundant length , if the Chevy sedan chair roof does n’t make a good Cadillac coupe . ' And boy , that was it . That was it . We could n’t open another upper , but with that shorter four - door Chevrolet cap , nobody ever caught us . And it attend large . "
The more thickset roofline gave coupes a seven - column inch increase in rear pack of cards duration , despite a one - inch gain in dead body length for all Cadillacs ( except the unretentive - deck of cards four - door , which remained at 215 inches ) .
Fins were reduced about an column inch in height . A simple flimsy chrome slip run front to back on the sides of Series 62s , De Villes , and Series 75s . With the skeg gone , weighty rocker panel trim bands were extended from behind the front wheel openings to the back bumper on the 60 Special and Eldorado convertible . They also both follow chrome block - varsity letter recognition forward of the front doors and wreath - encircled Cadillac crown on their rear fenders .
Perhaps it was no surprisal , then , that the Eldorado had its best year since 1959 – when it add up in coupe andconvertibleform . The short - pack of cards Series 62 Town Sedan was discontinued , leaving the De Ville - based Park Avenue to soldier on by itself . But after just 1,575 were made for the year , it , too , was consigned to history .
A unexampled dashboard blueprint placed the fuel and temperature standard of measurement to the right of the carryover stripspeedometer , and perpetrate the clock and tuner nearer to the driver than they had been antecedently . Cadillac made a tiltsteeringcolumn useable in 1963 , but the most important mechanically skillful conflict was an engine not derived from that of the 1949 Cadillac .
Cadillac engine driver knew that anything bigger than 390 cid would be campaign the old V-8 ’s displacement limit . They also discern that car would become bigger , heavier , and more power - hungry , especially Cadillacs .
So the segmentation ’s master engineer , Charles F. Arnold , determine to develop a newfangled V-8 , one that was lighter , stiffer , more long-lived , easier to fabricate , and easy to influence on . It turned out to be one of the quietest re - engineering caper on criminal record . Few Cadillac partisans were aware that the 1963 engine was tout ensemble dissimilar from the late V-8 .
That was because , for one thing , the 1963 Cadillac engine displaced the same 390 cubic inch as its forerunner . It even used the same bore and stroke : 4 × 3.875 inches . Horsepowerand torque stay the same , too : 325 bhp at 4,800 rpm and 430 Syrian pound - feet at 3100 , respectively . Compression obligate at a ratio of 10.5:1 .
So why did Cadillac go to a new locomotive that was so similar in so many way to the one it replaced ?
First and foremost , the Modern V-8 had a lot more growing potential . The 1963 powerplant contained enough kernel to go out to 500 cubic inch , which it would for 1970 . Another reason had to do with denseness and the rapid fade of under - strong-armer space due to an expanding accessory lean . The new block stood an inch low-down , 1.25 inches shorter , and four in narrower . It prove to be uncompromising – and lighter than its predecessor by about 50 pounds .
A young ArmaSteel cast crankshaft could handle greater loads , specially with its primary - bearing width going from 2.63 to 3 inches . Accessory drive became more compact and accessible , and the front covers used more alloy for less weightiness . The only components carried over from the premature railway locomotive were the heads , connecting rod cell , valves and rocking chair arms .
The software package of new styling and engineering science add up to another disk year for yield with 163,174 1963 Cadillacs act off the lines . production be active up to 165,959 for 1964 , the final go - troll for the 1961 design genesis .
To learn more about the 1964 Cadillac , extend to the next page .
1964 Cadillac
The big news for the 1964 Cadillac was under the lens hood . Bore was increased to 4.13 inches and stroke grow to 4 inches , add up up to 429 Criminal Investigation Command . Horsepowerwent to 340 at 4,600 rpm and torque uprise by 50 lb - feet to 480 at 3,000 rpm .
This resulted in a pronounced betterment in carrying into action , not that Cadillacs had been sluggish before . The 1964 Cadillac boasted a top speed of 122 mph , with 0 - to-60 miles per hour in 8.5 seconds and the quarter mile coming up in 16.8 seconds at 85 mph .
Cadillac possessor treasure effortless performance , and thisengineprovided it with secrecy and reliableness . Fuel economy , however , spend from around 13 mpg in 1963 to 10 mpg in the 1964 theoretical account .
Series 62 and Fleetwood 75 models carry on with the Hydra - Maticautomatic transmission , but De Villes and 60 special were fitted with a unexampled Turbo Hydra - Matic autobox . The three - stop number building block made utilisation of atorque converter .
Cadillac ’s big public convenience origination for 1964 was Comfort Control , the industry ’s first fully reflexive , thermal resistor - type climate control system . Comfort Control allowed the driver to choose a temperature setting and forget about ever align it again . Summer or wintertime , the interior temperature and humidity remained the same ( in possibility , at least ) . Also usable for the first time were Twilight Sentinel automatic headlights .
With technology in the public eye , styling stood pat for 1964 . Cadillacs gather a half inch in distance as the perpendicular taillight bezel in the bumper came in for a slight outward bend dexter at the plaza . Up front , 1963 ’s small circular parking lights were substitute by larger gore integrated into the scummy grille .
The most notable alteration total on the renamed Fleetwood Eldorado . cowcatcher skirts were edit in favor of a brilliantly - rimmed open - wheel look that result in the most distinctive El Dorado in several days ; production edged up to 1,870 units . Also , the Series 62 suffer its convertible as the entry - level Cadillac ragtop get a promotion to the De Ville ranks .
The good twenty-four hours were scarcely over for Cadillac . sales event rise steadily every year through 1970 and the dramatic front - wheel - drive Eldorado coupe ’s launching in 1967 reaffirm the partition ’s part as a style leader .
The brand name continued to overshadow the American luxuriousness arena and did n’t begin to tolerate the effect of overseas competition for another ten . These tumid , esteemed automobiles – the Cadillacs of 1961 through 1964 – did their part to maintain the standard of the humankind in looking , feel , and report .
