I love old Cadillacs, and the ’58 Fleetwood Sixty Special was one of the best. Fins, chrome, hardtop styling, and lots of stainless steel trim. So naturally, I had to share this beautiful specimen I found on the Cohort, shot by Hugo90.
While we here at CC prefer our subjects in a non-car show environment, this was just too good not to post. I love it!
But for those of you who want a ’58 Caddy found in the wild, here’s a few shots of a white ’58 our own Laurence Jones found a while back. It could use a detailing and maybe a little rust repair, but it still looks pretty good.
Our second representative from 1958 appears to be a Series 62, judging from the “Cadillac” script on the fins. Those wide whitewall tires look perfect on a car like this. A 1950s Cadillac with blackwall tires? Perish the thought!
If you’d like to see more shots of this white land yacht, Laurence took even more shots that can be found here on the Cohort. Enjoy!
Not something seen roaming wild here all old Caddys seem to be resto jobs and nearly all recent imports.
Nice, GM are you taking notes? No you don’t need to copy the styling, you need to lock your product planners and engineers and bean counters in a room with this car until they come out with the “FEELING and ATTITUDE and QUALITY” that this car represents.
They have a Cimarron pic in their offices captioned “Lest We Forget”. Let’s see if the Ciel makes production looking anything like the concept. That’d be a step in the right direction.
Wow, that Fleetwood Sixty Special brings back memories! My great uncle bought one just like the one pictured except it was gunmetal gray. He picked it up in an estate sale in about 1960 as I recall in great condition with low miles. I had never experienced a car with all the luxury features we take for granted today — a/c, power windows, locks, and front seat. Talk about riding in the lap of luxury. That car served as the wedding car on at least 3 occasions — for his daughter and for two of my aunts.
I like!! Of course, posted on You Tube is the Chrysler Corporation comparison of the 1958 cars, (atonment for the horrendous ’57 quality debacle? – not sure.). Uncle Tom McCahill narrates and they show the Imperial take a torture ramp test at 45mph along with a ’58 Cadillac. The Caddy’s rear door and trunk lid pop open. Fleetwoods, especially rock!
Help me with my memory here. What, besides the quad headlights, are the differences between the ’58 and the ’57?
I had a great-uncle who had a 1957 for a time…he lived 500 miles away and only got with us about once a year. He traded the Caddy in for a 1964 Oldsmobile, as he retired and didn’t need to impress clients.
It was a 1957; that I remember well; with the brows over dual headlights; the rubber-cones in the front set off by chrome angled outwards and down. But I seem to remember the fins…oh, the fins…exactly that size.
I do believe it had two red lights in each fin with the reverse lights elsewhere. Other than that; the lines, the reverse-angled A-post; all that seems identical between the two cars.
In my 50-year-old memory, anyway.
Well I will share a picture of one of my brother’s former next door neighbors cars. Took picture a couple of weeks ago when it was sitting in his driveway. He does drive the car regularly and I have driven the car once a number of years ago. I was too nervous to remember much knowing that it was irreplaceable. Can not remember number on line but think it was a 1958. I also remember it has had the air suspension and engine changed out.
Anyway the Fleetwood shown reminds me of one that came into the gas station I worked at in 1974. Interior shot in write up is identical. Beautiful car with all that chrome. Has a presence that few other cars have.
My feeling is that the problem with the American auto industry is that in the 80’s everyone tried to copy the Germans and we all know how that worked out. Just look at the light truck market where the USA mfg. are still king and have not deviated from the formula to much.
The hand-built, limited edition Eldorado Brougham, 57 or 58.
Wow, you were right to be nervous. That has got to be worth a fortune!
I love that first shot – it looks like it was taken at Port Gamble, with the lawn right in view of the water like that. But there are probably sixteen other Puget Sound locations that would look like that. The plate on it is from Clallam County (Port Angeles), but that wouldn’t mean much if the owner bought it off ebay to use as a year-of-manufacture plate – otoh it could always have been the car’s original plate that was saved.
There were a great many detail differences between the 1957 and 1958 Cadillacs, and I recommend an online tour via google images. Each was a handsome car in its own right but the tailfins were a bit more extreme on the ’58, a look ahead toward the upcoming 1959 version.
I followed the link, and see that the location was in Bellingham, quite a ways up the coast.
We’re getting close to the annual Klamath Kruise, so a lot of the local old iron comes out to play. I saw a finny wheelshark going the other way. Unfortunately, no camera, and I was unable to follow it. T’was probably more a garage queen/project car than a CC, but at least it was on the street.
I’ll have to check images to see if I can identify it. My mind keeps saying DeSoto, but I’m not sure. (Note: from Bing Images it looks like it was a 57 DeSoto in medium gray. Not necessarily original paint, but possibly an older restoration.) I’ll try to get the camera in the car. Making lots of trips into town these days.
That’s not a Caddy. That’s 70s Elvis.
This is a Cadillac.
I had a 66 Deville convertible, sold it in 1984. It’s the only car I wish I still had.
Yep, the Fleetwood has always been the quintessential Cadillac to me.
a caddilac from the time when caddilac actualy meant something ,not like that revolting caddilac suv heap..i hear rolls royce are planning an suv…..good god
This car makes me think someone should do an illustrated history of the Dagmar…
You mean like this… 😛
Yes, back when Cadillacs went hand-in-hand with pop culture icons of the day.
I’m not sure that any vehicle today can make such a claim, certainly not to the point of having one of its features names after a well-known personality.
But then again, the shaggy covering I see on the dashboards of certain Nissan Cubes remind me of Justin Bieber… 🙂
Ha! Guess that’s pretty much the whole story right there.
I’d like to see the numbers, showing the plastic-to-metal ratio of the 1958 and a 2012 model…or perhaps even better, a 1976 model.
I know this is gonna infuriate some of you guys.
I have a Hot Rod magazine from many years back in my stash somewhere. In it, someone got ahold of a rare Eldorado Brougham just like the one in the picture, and completely modernized the underpinnings. According to the article, the car got a custom-built chromoly tube frame and was powered by a turbocharged Northstar engine or something crazy like that. It looked stock from the outside though.
Paul Newman drove a ’58 Cadillac convertible in HUD (1963). According to production notes, it was pink (the film is in b&w). But mostly, it’s covered in dust -and he drives it rough, the way he treats his women (in this film, anyway).
Here’s a survivor: 1958 Series 62 “Short Deck” sedan (only 13,335 produced out of total Cadillac production of about 120,000); 133K, manual windows and seats but with the “Autronic Eye” (which still works), original black paint.
Was sold new at A.W. Golden’s dealership in Reading, PA. I wrote to Golden in 1995 and they mailed me the original car invoice which they still had in their files! I’m planning to meet soon with a descendant of the original owner–he’s looking forward to seeing the car for the first time since the 1980s!