1961 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special: Serene machine

Believe it or not, I’m easily distracted by bright, shiny objects. Especially when said object is rolling on four wheels. That can throw a wrench in how I plan my next column. For instance, I’ve been meaning to write about a gorgeous ’67 Ford LTD coupe for about three months now. I’ve started to, but I only got a couple paragraphs into it. There’s also a navy blue ’71 Vega Panel Wagon I took pictures of about 10 years ago at a cruise-in over Labor Day weekend; I still haven’t typed a word about it.

Similarly, I’ve been wanting to write up the star-crossed Cadillac Cimarron for at least five or six years. Believe it or not, I found a very nice one right here in my town back in 2015. One of these days, you’ll see it too.

And so it was on a recent weekend I had been planning for which car to write about, and I had narrowed it down to two or three choices from my photo files. And that all went out the window when I spied my ’61 Cadillac brochure while going through a desk drawer and was reminded of this absolutely fantastic 1961 Fleetwood Sixty Special.

This gorgeous conveyance was spied last June at the Cadillac LaSalle Club Grand National held in Lombard, Illinois (greater Chicagoland for you non-Midwesterners). I attended with my friend Jayson Coombes and local Cadillac pals Jim Smith, Ron Schweitzer, Lauren Schweitzer Cody, and Andrew Bobis, along with Jim Jordan from Oklahoma City, who arrived in a friend’s green 1957 Sixty Special. That’s another one I should write up. But wait, I can’t get distracted again today! Onward …

It got off to a rocky start that morning as I woke up to thunderstorms and pouring rain, but I called Jayson at his hotel and we decided we were driving up anyway. No turning back now! And luckily the rain mostly stopped by the time we arrived. Though about an hour later the storm started up again.

As is my luck in life, I was at the extreme far end of the show field, as far from the hotel as possible. After a mad dash for indoors, Jayson and I met up again with Jim, Nick Manole, Bill Buckingham, and Brian Wood, and we yakked about cars for a while until the rain stopped. Fortunately, this time it stopped for good and the sun came out.

So we all broke up and exited the hotel en masse to check out the various Broughamage on display. The exhibitors were all frantically drying off and polishing their cars. And so it was about an hour (and several hundred more pictures taken) later that Jayson and I were gawking at a marvelous pastel yellow ’61 Cadillac convertible when I saw this Fontana Rose 1961 Fleetwood approaching the show field. And as luck would have it, the lucky owner parked right next to the convertible we were standing by. I was ready with the camera, believe you me!

The 1959 Cadillacs get the lion’s share of attention, led by the flamboyantly unapologetic Eldorado Biarritz (possibly the gaudiest, most awesome Cadillac ever—but I really love the 1961–62 Cadillacs. And unlike the ’59s, you don’t see them as often.

As I’ve discussed in the past, the ’59 Cadillac was “Peak Fin.” Starting in 1960, the fins were just a little shorter, without the bullet-shaped taillights. The 1961 Cadillacs were totally redone, and again, the fins got just a little more discreet—though you still couldn’t miss them!

The 1961 Fleetwood Sixty Special, Model 61-60M and Body/Style 6039M in the Cadillac catalog, was now the finest “owner driven” Cadillac available at $6233 ($63,240 today) before options, the previous $13,000+ Eldorado Brougham four-door being discontinued after 1960. Of course, the Fleetwood Seventy-Fives were even more than the Sixty Special, but those were usually chauffeured. Prices on the limos was north of nine grand in 1961.

A total of 138,379 Cadillacs were built for the model year, and 15,500 of them were Fleetwood Sixty Specials. The Sixty Special had a curb weight of 4770 pounds and “achieved new luxury, spaciousness, and good taste, combined in a supreme expression of the stylist’s craft,” according to the 1961 Cadillac brochure.

The easiest way to spot a Fleetwood Sixty Special from other ’61 Cadillacs was the wide, formal C-pillar. Other Cadillac sedans had either the “six-window” roof with a very slim C-pillar or “four-window” roof with a distinctive wraparound rear window, as seen on the Series 62s and de Villes.

Inside, the interior was naturally fancier than the lesser (but still luxurious!) Cadillac models. Again referring to my brochure, “Interior fabrics include fine-textured Cambridge cloth in blue, sandalwood, or green with matching Florentine leather bolster trim; black Cambridge cloth with white Florentine leather bolster trim; gray, fawn, turquoise, or rose Crestwood cloth with matching bolsters; or gray or fawn broadcloth throughout.”

Our featured car has the Rose Crestwood cloth to match its Fontana Rose paint; it was simply wonderful. There were so many great cars at this show that I kept having to reassess which one was my favorite. And even now, I waffle back and forth among perhaps six or eight cars.

It was just a terrific show; the showgoers and car owners were all great; and both Jayson and I took way more pictures than strictly necessary.

No wait. I take that back. Taking a couple of thousand pictures of Cadillacs was strictly necessary, at least for me.

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