Cadillac introduced the Sixty Special for the 1938 model year as a distinctive, more luxurious four-door sedan derived from the Series 60. Designed to stand apart from Cadillac’s mainstream sedans, it quickly established a reputation as an owner-driven prestige car with formal styling, a longer wheelbase, and a more upscale character than the volume models around it. Over time, the nameplate became one of Cadillac’s best-known traditional luxury sedans, moving through successive postwar generations and evolving from the original Series 60 Special identity into the later Fleetwood Sixty Special era.
Through the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, the car was repeatedly reworked in step with Cadillac’s design language, but it remained focused on refined four-door luxury rather than sport or performance. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the model continued as a full-size premium sedan, eventually taking on the Sixty Special Brougham designation as Cadillac’s large rear-wheel-drive luxury cars were consolidated. The original production run ended in the mid-1970s.
Cadillac later revived the nameplate for the 1987 model year on a front-wheel-drive luxury sedan based on the company’s C-body family. That return preserved the Sixty Special’s role as a flagship-style four-door, but with a different engineering layout and a more contemporary interpretation of Cadillac luxury. The revived model remained in production through 1993, after which the nameplate was discontinued again. For enthusiasts, the Sixty Special is significant as one of Cadillac’s longest-running and most recognizable senior sedan names, spanning two clearly separate production eras.