Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Automotif CCLXXIII...


A 1989 or 1990 Cadillac Fleetwood coupe in Medium Garnet Red Metallic. You can narrow down the year because they restyled the Fleetwood in '89 and bumped the engine displacement to 4.9 liters in 1991; this one has a "4.5 Litre" badge on the decklid.


The 1989 version of the 273 cubic inch Caddy V-8 had a throttle-body fuel injector and was rated at 155 horsepower. For 1990 it got port fuel injection and a new intake manifold to go with it, which boosted output to 180bhp.

The "Fleetwood" name itself was actually that of a coachbuilder, Fleetwood Metal Body, in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania that had been bought by Fisher Body, with the latter being absorbed into General Motors.

Fleetwood Metal Body was moved to Detroit in '31, and originally only made the bodies for the highest-end Cadillac models, like this V-16 powered '32 Fleetwood Madame X.


It wasn't until Cadillac introduced the front wheel drive C-body DeVille that "Fleetwood" became a model of its own, basically a more upmarket version of the DeVille. It's kind of a downer that the "Fleetwood" name went from gracing only the most upscale Caddies to sharing a platform with the Buick Park Avenue and Olds 98.

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