Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham

Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
Overview
Manufacturer	General Motors
Model years	1977–1986
Assembly	Detroit, Michigan, USA
Designer	Bill Mitchell
Body and chassis
Class	Full-size luxury car
Body style	4-door sedan 2-door coupe
Layout	FR layout
Platform	C-body D-body
Related	Cadillac De Ville Buick Electra Oldsmobile 98
Powertrain
Engine	425 cu in (7.0 L) L33/L35 V8 368 cu in (6.0 L) L62 V8 350 cu in (5.7 L) LF9 Diesel V8 252 cu in (4.1 L) Buick V6 250 cu in (4.1 L) HT-4100 V8 307 cu in (5.0 L) Oldsmobile V8
Transmission	3-speed TH-400 automatic 3-speed TH-350C automatic 4-speed TH-200-4R automatic
Dimensions
Wheelbase	1977–79: 121.5 in (3,086 mm) 1980–82: 121.4 in (3,084 mm) 1983–86: 121.5 in (3,086 mm)
Length	1977–79: 221.2 in (5,618 mm) 1980–86: 221.0 in (5,613 mm)
Width	4-door: 75.3 in (1,913 mm) 2-door: 75.4 in (1,915 mm)
Height	1977: 57.2 in (1,453 mm) 1978–86 4-door: 56.7 in (1,440 mm) 2-door: 54.6 in (1,387 mm)
Curb weight	4,000–4,500 lb (1,800–2,000 kg)
Chronology
Predecessor	Cadillac Sixty Special
Successor	Cadillac Brougham

The Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was a model of luxury cars manufactured by the General Motors corporation from the 1977 through the 1986 model years.

Early history

1957 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 70 Eldorado Brougham

1959 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Brougham

1965 Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special with Brougham option package

1971 Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special Brougham

Lawrence P. Fisher was the Fisher brother most closely involved with Cadillac in its early years. In 1916 he joined the Fisher Body Company which had been formed by two of his brothers in 1908.^[1] Larry (as people knew him) was one of four of the seven Fisher brothers who brought Fisher Body Corporation under the General Motors umbrella in 1919.^[1] In May, 1925 Alfred P. Sloan, then the head of General Motors, appointed Fisher as Cadillac General Manager, an office he retained through 1934.^[1] Fisher immediately went to work adding exclusive, custom bodies to the Cadillac range. Thus he oversaw the purchase of the Fleetwood Metal Body Company by the Fisher Body Corporation in September, 1925.^[1]

The Fleetwood Body Company of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, was founded by Harry Urich in the nineteenth century.^[1] It began as a small community of craftsmen founded by Henry Fleetwood, Esq. of Penwortham, near Lancaster, England (the Fleetwood family flourished in England in the 17th and 18th centuries).^[1] The rich traditions of 300 years of coach-building that the Fleetwood Body Company applied to its work on cars secured for it a high reputation in automobile circles worldwide by the 1920s.^[1] Coachwork was built by Fleetwood for a variety of luxury makes through 1924. However, after the Fisher Body Corporation purchased the Fleetwood Body Company in 1925, Fleetwood bodies were reserved exclusively for Cadillac.^[1] By 1929 GM had purchased the remaining stock holdings of the Fisher Body Corporation and thus became sole owner of both the Fisher and Fleetwood companies.^[1][2]

Originally an enclosed carriage, drawn by a single horse, for 2–4 persons, “Brougham” owes its name to a British statesman, Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, whose second claim to fame is having given to the sea-front drive, in Nice, in the South of France, the nickname of Promenade des Anglais (the "promenade where the English stroll").^[3] Cadillac first used the name in 1916 to designate an enclosed 5-7 passenger sedan body style.^[2][3][4] In the thirties, the name was given to a formal body style with open chauffeur compartment and enclosed rear quarters, metal roof and often "razor-edged" styling.^[3] When Cadillac started offering Fleetwood bodies on some of its cars in 1925, the Brougham body style was Fleetwood bodied every year with the exception of 1926.^[2][4] After 1937 the Brougham name was not applied to any Cadillac for the remainder of the pre-WW II period.^[2][4]

The Brougham name would eventually reappear on the 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham show car^[5] which preceded the 4-door Eldorado Brougham hardtops of the 1957 to 1960 model years.^[4][5] In 1957 the Cadillac Series 70 Eldorado Brougham joined the Sixty Special and the Series 75 as the only Cadillac models with Fleetwood bodies although Fleetwood script or crests did not appear anywhere on the exterior of the car,^[6][7] and so this would also mark the first time in 20 years that that a Fleetwood bodied car was paired with the Brougham name. Ironically, when production of the Eldorado Brougham was shifted in 1959 from the Cadillac Fleetwood plant in Detroit to Pininfarina in Turin, Italy, only then did it acquire Fleetwood wheel discs^[8] and doorsill moldings,^[9] presumably because the design work^[9] and final touches^[6] were still being done by Fleetwood. Production of the Eldorado Brougham ceased in 1961.

After a five year absence the Brougham name once again reappeared as an option package on the 1965 Cadillac Sixty Special.^[4][5] The following year the Brougham moved up to becoming a subseries of the Fleetwood Sixty Special.^[4][5] This continued through 1970.^[4][5] Starting in 1971 the Sixty Special was only available as the well equipped Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham.^[4][5]

When the Sixty Special Series was retired in 1977, the Fleetwood Brougham took its place as Cadillac's most luxurious owner-driven large sedan model through 1986.^[4][10]

1977–1986

In 1977 GM significantly down-sized their full sized cars. The De Ville and Fleetwood Brougham rode on the same 121.5" wheelbase and were powered by the 425 cubic inch (7.0L) V8. This engine was basically a de-bored version of the 472/500 (7.9 L/8.2 L) V8 of previous years. Compared with the 1976 Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham, the Fleetwood Brougham had a wheelbase 11.5" shorter and weighed nearly 900 lb (400 kg) less.

Size comparison between 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham and 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham

The Fleetwood Brougham was considered the top of the line Cadillac, but without its exclusive longer wheelbase, was now virtually identical to the lesser Sedan de Ville. Other than the name, there were only subtle exterior differences between a Fleetwood Brougham and Sedan de Ville. The interior of the Fleetwood was more plush and offered more features as standard.

In 1980 the De Ville and Fleetwood Brougham were given a new body style with a squarer look and more formal roof line. The basic dashboard design was retained. Also new for 1980 was a two-door Fleetwood Brougham, which was based upon the Coupe de Ville but featured an exclusive formal landau vinyl roof.

The 425 cu in (7.0 L) engine, a reduced bore 472, was further debored for 1980-1981 to 368 cubic inches or 6.0 liters. For 1981, the 368 was provided with a modulated displacement system designed by Eaton Corporation, controlled by a digital computer, which locked off intake and exhaust valves to two or four of the eight cylinders, thus running effectively as a V6 or V4 under light load conditions where in third gear, and over 35 mph (56 km/h). This engine was called the "V8-6-4", and its electronics and sensors proved troublesome and, except for limousines, this engine was dropped after 1981. The engine's controls and sensors were a stretch for the computer power of the era.

Both the 425 and 368 are small-bore versions of the durable 472 (which was introduced in late 1967 for the '68 model year). The larger 500 had the 472's bore but a longer stroke. This engine family was the last Cadillac cast-iron engine, and the last 'big-block'.

All subsequent engines were from Buick (the short-lived 252 cu in / 4.1 liter V6), Oldsmobile (the 350 diesel and 307 gasoline V8), and of course Cadillac itself, with its troublesome "HT-4100" small block V8, an alloy unit with cast iron cylinder liners.

In 1985 Cadillac introduced a brand new, front-wheel drive platform. Cadillac put the De Ville and introduced the Cadillac Fleetwood on this platform. This car featured two "firsts"; It had the first transverse mounted V8 ever (the HT4100) and it was the first car to have a high mounted stop-lamp that was mandated for the 1986 model year.

The rear wheel drive 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham continued on nearly unchanged from the 1984 model. 1985 was the final model year for the Fleetwood Brougham coupe. In 1986 the HT-4100 V8 was replaced with an Oldsmobile sourced 307 cubic inch (5.0 L) V8.

For 1987 the Fleetwood Brougham was replaced by the Cadillac Brougham.

Engines

References