Кадиллак Флитвуд: Тарихы мен модельдері

the Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special and Brougham

The Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham is a luxury car manufactured by Cadillac from 1977 through 1986. In 1987, the Fleetwood Brougham name was shortened to simply Brougham, with production continuing through 1992 with only minor updates. Cadillac used the "Fleetwood" name as a prefix between 1934 and 1976 on several of its most expensive models, always designating an elevated level of luxury. Between 1958 and 1961, Cadillac used the "Brougham" sub designation for its exclusive four door Eldorado models. In 1965, the "Brougham" name was first affixed to "Fleetwood" on the Fleetwood Sixty Special as an upgraded option package, which included a vinyl roof and special "Brougham" script lettering on the sides, but it was not a separate model. In 1966, the Fleetwood Brougham was added as a separate model, accompanying the Fleetwood 60 Special, which continued through 1970. In 1971, with the Fleetwood Brougham outselling the Fleetwood 60 Special by a large margin, the two models were consolidated into a single model, the Fleetwood 60 Special Brougham, and would continue with this name through 1976. The car's name was shortened to Fleetwood Brougham with the 1977 downsizing across the GM car line. The "d'Elegance" and "Talisman" sub models were also sometimes used to designate upgraded option packages.

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. 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. In May 1925, Alfred P. Sloan, then the head of General Motors, appointed Fisher as Cadillac General Manager, an office he retained through 1934. 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. The Fleetwood Body Company of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, was founded by Harry Urich in the nineteenth century. 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). 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. 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. 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. Originally an enclosed carriage, drawn by a single horse, for 2–4 persons, “Brougham” owes its name to British statesman, Henry Brougham. Cadillac first used the name in 1916 to designate an enclosed 5 7 passenger sedan body style. 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. 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. After 1937 the Brougham name was not applied to any Cadillac for the remainder of the pre WW II period. 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, and so this would also mark the first time in 20 years that a Fleetwood bodied car was paired with the Brougham name. 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 and doorsill moldings, presumably because the design work and final touches

For 1987, Cadillac revised its model nomenclature for its premium sedan lines. To reduce market confusion over the smaller front wheel drive Fleetwood (introduced in 1985), the D body Fleetwood Brougham was renamed the Cadillac Brougham. Produced since 1977 with only incremental changes since its 1980 update, the Brougham was offered through 1992. For 1993, the D body Cadillac was restyled and rebranded as the Cadillac Fleetwood; the Brougham name also returned, becoming a trim package.