Harley Earl explored many styling concepts during his time at GM, but his eternal dictum was longer, lower, wider. Bill Mitchell's Sixty Special, conceived under Earl's direct supervision, embodied all of those qualities. Its wheelbase was 3 inches (76 mm) longer than the regular Series Sixty, and a special "double-drop" frame allowed the body to be 3 inches (76 mm) lower overall, with no loss of interior headroom. Unlike the majority of its contemporaries, it had no running boards, allowing the body sides to be pushed out to the full tread width. The wider body sides rolled gently up into the side windows, creating a slightly curved beltline, an area where most cars were rigidly upright. Its visual width was emphasized further by broad "suitcase" fenders; to give it a more finished look, a metal valance was added under the back bumper to conceal the rear edge of the frame. In sharp contrast to the trends of the time, it was relatively unadorned by chrome.


The "notchback" profile set an industry trend that continues today. Although it uses the same body as the '38-'39, the '41 Sixty Special rides a slightly shorter, 126-inch (3,200-mm) wheelbase, and it is about 10 inches (25.4 mm) longer overall , with the extra length coming mostly in the nose. Note the absence of sidemounts; the front fenders of the 1941 extended backwards into the doors instead. The rubber splash guards on the rear fenders were another feature added subsequent to the original version.

In that era, many sedans had sloping tails descending in a continuous curve from the rear edge of the roof. The Sixty Special, however, had an extended, sloping rear deck, with an integral trunk, extending well past the rear fender line. This body/trunk arrangement, known as a notchback, is de rigueur for sedans today, but it was a real novelty in the 1930s. Also novel were the front-hinged doors; many four-door sedans of this era had "clap-hands" doors, with the rear doors hinged at the trailing edges.


From this angle you can see the curved beltline below the side windows and the sloping, coupe-like trunk. The soft lines of this car look a little pudgy to modern eyes, although they were quite advanced at the time.


The left tail light flips up to reveal the fuel filler -- a new trick for 1941, one that would endure for decades. Note the single back-up lamp; back-up lights cost $7.50 each in these days, and most people ordered only one, if they ordered them at all.


Sources are inconsistent about whether or not fender skirts were standard on Sixty Specials -- they're listed as a $17.50 extra on the option list, but few seem to have been sold without them. They unbolt with wing nuts to allow tire changing, a cumbersome operation.

The Sixty Special's five-window roof design was inspired by the 1934 Panhard Panoramic, which had very slim A- and B-pillars, thin chrome window reveals, and thick, rounded C-pillars, giving it a shape almost like a convertible top. The Sixty Special's roofline presaged the pillarless hardtop styling that became so popular a decade or so later.

The original 1938 Sixty Special's most dated styling element was its side-mounted spare wheels. The clay models did not have them, and they were apparently an afterthought, added to placate Cadillac's conservative general manager, Nicholas Dreystadt, and sales director, Don Ahrens. Both men were very concerned that the Sixty Special would be too radical for Cadillac's ultra-conservative clientele. It was rakish for a Cadillac, rakish for any domestic sedan, and there was considerable fear that Earl and Mitchell had gone too far.


This is known as a five-window body (four side windows and backlight), although it also has front and rear "No-Draft Ventiplanes," a feature GM had pioneered in 1933 with the Cadillac Aerodynamic Coupe, shown at the Chicago Century of Progress exposition.The design of the '41 grille, known internally as the "tombstone" grille, is generally attributed to designer Art Ross. It was apparently inspired by Art Deco buildings along Los Angeles's Wilshire Boulevard.

In retrospect, it's harder to understand their objections, because modern eyes notice mostly those feature that have become obsolete, like the divided front and rear windows (curved glass of that size did not become practical for another decade), the bulbous hood, and the separate fenders. The Sixty Special's basic shape and concept, which made Ahrens and Dreystadt so nervous, no longer look particularly unusual; time has validated them.

The Sixty Special was offered only as a four-door sedan. Several other Sixty Special body styles were contemplated, including a three-window coupe -- which really does look rakish to modern eyes -- and a convertible sedan, four of which were built for the use of GM execs. As it was, Earl was pushing his luck to get the sedan approved, and none of the other body styles saw production.

UNDER THE SKIN

Mechanically, the Sixty Special was identical to the Series Sixty. It was powered by Cadillac's 346 cu. in. (5.7 L) "monobloc" flathead V8, making 135 gross horsepower (101 kW). The V8 was linked to a three-speed manual transmission with synchronized second and third gears. The Sixty Special had an all-steel body and frame; GM had only ceased the use of composite wood/steel construction two years earlier. Like most of GM's upper-division cars of the time, it had independent front suspension with coil springs, and a live axle on semi-elliptical leaf springs. Its recirculating-ball steering system was relatively light, but slow; power steering was still 15 years in the future.


The 1941 Series 62 was a relatively fast car, capable of 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in around 16 seconds and a top speed of about 95 mph (153 kph) with manual shift. The heavier Sixty Special with Hydra-Matic probably took around 20 seconds to reach 60 mph (97 kph), although even that wasn't bad by the standards of the day.


The grille texture is repeated in the vents along the sides of the hood, which are known to stylists as "catwalks." The "sombrero" wheel covers were a popular option, costing $4 each.

The Sixty Special's extra length and width made some 230 pounds (105 kg) heavier than a Series Sixty sedan, and at $2,085, it cost $310 more than its line mate -- a hefty premium in an era when a Chevrolet Master DeLuxe sedan cost less than $800.


Heaters were not standard in those days, even for Cadillacs. This car has the $69.50 deluxe heater. Flipping the "fresh air" switch opens the vent at the base of the windshield.


The cowl vent flips up when the interior switch is moved to the fresh air position. Most modern cars still take their ventilation air from this high-pressure area at the base of the windshield, albeit through a recessed duct, rather than a raised vent.

SALES SUCCESS

The fears of Don Ahrens and Nicholas Dreystadt that the Sixty Special's styling would alienate conservative buyers proved ill-founded; the Sixty Special quickly became Cadillac's best-selling line. Cadillac sold 3,704 in the initial 1938 model year, despite a national recession. Such sales were modest by GM standards, but quite good, considering the Sixty Special's price, and the fact that total Cadillac sales five years earlier had been only 3,173.

The basic Series Sixty was dropped for 1939 in favor of a new, price-leader Series 61, but the Sixty Special continued, with a new, pointed nose that stretched its overall length to 214.3 inches (5,442 mm).  It was now built by Fleetwood, a formerly independent coachbuilder that GM had acquired to build bodies exclusively for Cadillac, lending a bit of extra prestige. Despite a price $110 higher than the '38, sales climbed to 5,513. Starting in 1939, Fleetwood also produced a small number of divider-window sedans for chauffeur-driven customers; there were also a handful of pricey town cars with an optional leather top covering. A sunroof, dubbed "Sunshine Turret Top," was also available, although it was very rare.

As was Earl's wont, the styling features of the Sixty Special began to appear in other GM lines starting in 1940, beginning with the new "torpedo" C-body shared by the big Buicks and Oldsmobiles, as well as Cadillac's own Series 62. Predictably, once the Sixty Special became less distinctive, its share of Cadillac sales eroded. 4,600 were sold for 1940, but it was now second to the derivative, $245 cheaper Series 62.

The original Sixty Special got one final fling for 1941, which is the year of our photo car. Although the Sixty Special's wheelbase had been shortened by an inch (25 mm) in 1940, to match that of its siblings, it was a little over 3 inches (76 mm) longer than before. The archaic sidemounts were finally gone, replaced by a single spare tire that occupied a good deal of trunk space. The biggest changes, though, were up front. The separate headlight pods were gone, replaced by flush headlamps in the front fenders. (Earl had been pushing for this change for years, but GM president Bill Knudsen had repeatedly overruled him, insisting that flush headlights were impractical.) There was also a dramatic new eggcrate grille that extended laterally into the front fenders, a design that would become a Cadillac trademark.


The V emblems don't do anything other than fill the space that would otherwise be occupied by the optional fog lamps, which this car does not have.

The 1941 Cadillacs still had the 346 cu. in. (5.7 L) V8, now up to 150 horsepower (112 kW); the slow-selling V-12s and V-16s were gone for good. Under the hood was a radical new drivetrain option, the four-speed Hydra-Matic. Introduced the previous year by Oldsmobile, it was the world's first fully automatic transmission, and Cadillac became the first luxury automaker to offer such a feature. Some buyers were suspicious of it -- not without reason, as the early H-M had some teething problems -- but about 30% of 1941 Cadillacs were so equipped, at a premium of $125. By the end of the decade, it would be standard on most Cadillac models.

The Sixty Special, now up to $2,195, still looked sharp, but it had been overshadowed both by the Series 62 and the slick, new fastback Series 61 coupe. An even 4,100 Sixty Specials were built for 1941, the last year for the original body.


Contemporary Cadillac interiors had real wood and leather and lots of chrome and Bakelite trim, although you paid extra for radio and heater. The quadrant atop the steering column indicates that this car has Hydra-Matic. The 100-mph (160-kph) speedometer is only slightly optimistic -- with a well-tuned engine and a long run, 90 mph (145 kph) is certainly feasible.

For 1942, the Sixty Special was restyled, becoming a stretched Series 62 sedan, distinguished mostly by its greater length and the chrome hash marks on its front and rear fenders. Sales dropped to 1,875, although the 1942 model year ended in February 1942, about seven months earlier than normal, by order of the War Department. With its styling leadership now passed, Cadillac could easily have dropped the Sixty Special after the war, but it returned for 1946 and remained part of the Cadillac line-up until 1976. The name was revived from 1987 to 1993.

MISTERL ASCENDANT

About a month before the 1941 models went on sale, Harley Earl became a vice president of General Motors. Although the elevated title did not significantly alter his actual duties, it was a sign of his growing influence and power within the corporation. At Chrysler, dominated by engineers, or at Ford, where old Henry was deeply suspicious of styling, such a move would have been virtually unthinkable. Alfred Sloan, however, realized early on, that much of GM's market dominance relied on what a later generation would call "selling the sizzle" -- sizzle that Earl and his designers provided.

Bill Mitchell became the head of the Cadillac styling studio in 1938. In 1947, he briefly departed GM to run Harley Earl's outside styling firm, the Harley Earl Corporation (HEC). (Allowing Earl to have his own separate company was one of the unique privileges Sloan allowed him, the main proviso being that HEC not directly compete with any GM division or subsidiary.) Mitchell returned to the GM fold in 1953 as director of design. On his return, Earl told Mitchell that he would be GM's next VP of design.

Late in his career, Harley Earl started to lose his touch, most evidenced by the bloated, chrome-encrusted '58 models, which proved to be a sales disaster. While Earl was in Europe during the design of the '59 models, Bill Mitchell led a 'palace coup' that radically redesigned the cars along cleaner, if no less glitzy lines. Such a move must have been painful for Mitchell, whose loyalty to Earl was considerable. Perhaps realizing he was beaten, Earl eventually accepted the new approach and helped to refine the styling of the '59s, but the direction was now Mitchell's, not Earl's. When Earl reached GM's mandatory retirement age in 1958, he was gone. He died in 1969, at the age of 75.

On December 1, 1958, Mitchell was promoted to vice president, becoming head of the department now known simply as Design; the Art & Colour title had been retired back in 1937. Although he had broken with his mentor aesthetically, Mitchell's respect for Earl was undimmed, and he possessed a similar sense of style and showmanship. According to his former employees, Mitchell expected them to look as good as the cars they drew, and he was known to send a man home to change if he disapproved of his sartorial choices. Mitchell was also Earl's match in pugnacity, profanity, and temper. By most accounts, he was a bigot, a womanizer, and a heavy drinker who was prone to fits of temper even when cold sober. Unlike Earl, Mitchell didn't have Alfred Sloan as a patron -- Sloan had retired in 1956 -- and his confrontational attitude led to many clashes with both division leaders and upper management. Even so, during his 19-year reign, Mitchell presided over classic designs like the 1963 Buick Riviera and Corvette Sting Ray, the 1965 Chevrolet Corvair, the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, and the original 1967 Camaro. Like Earl, Mitchell did not design any of these cars himself, but he set the direction and the tone.

Mitchell retired in 1977, and after he was gone, GM styling slipped into the doldrums. Ironically, one of the last designs and most controversial designs Mitchell supervised was Wayne Kady's 1980-1985 "bustleback" Cadillac Seville, a deliberate throwback to the early-thirties styling cues that Mitchell's Sixty Special had made obsolete. Mitchell died in 1988.


The 1980-1985 Seville's bustleback tail was designed to evoke the add-on accessory trunks that faded away in the late 1930s, in part because of the Sixty Special.

If Earl and Mitchell each had a well-deserved reputation for being temperamental, to some extent they were no more difficult than they had to be within the corporate culture of GM. They were artists in a business dominated by engineers and finance men, most of whom were inherently suspicious of aesthetics. It took an enlightened executive like Alfred P. Sloan to see the value they could provide and give them the room to work. Since Mitchell's departure 30 years ago, GM's inherent conservatism has reasserted itself forcefully. GM has fielded some good-looking cars and a number of great-looking ones, but few, if any, of its designs have had the kind of unity of concept that Mitchell or "Misterl" would have demanded, something that eventually cost the corporation dearly.

# # #

Our sources for this article included Dave Holl and Michael Lamm, A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design (Stockton, CA: Lamm-Morada Publishing Co. Inc., 1997); Chapter 8 of David Halberstam's The Fifties (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994, pp. 116-130); Nick Georgano and Nicky Wright, Art of the American Automobile: The Greatest Stylists and Their Work (New York: SMITHMARK Publishers, 1995); "Bill Mitchell, General Motors Head of Design," originally published in Automotive News circa 1976 (author and date unknown, Corvette Action Center, http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/history/mitchell.html, accessed 23 July 2007); and "The Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell," (David R. Crippen, August 1984, Automotive Design Oral History, The Benson Ford Research Center, http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Mitchell/mitchellinterview.htm, accessed 23 July 2007). Prices and production numbers came from John Barach's Cadillac History website (date unknown, Motor Era, http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm, accessed 23 July 2007).

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• 2010-05-18 19:56:41 | Mark  - Excellent as always

  A fascinating read as always.

  GM has been without spark since the departure of DeLorean, the death of John Beltz, and the retirement of Mitchell.

  I'm not sure there has ever been a longer, sadder corporate decline.

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