The Cadillac Series 60 was the company's mid-priced vehicle line when it appeared in 1936. It was replaced by the Series 61

Cadillac Series 61

The Fisher-bodied Series 61 used a wheelbase. It was available as a club coupe or sedan. All Cadillacs shared the same 346 in³ L-head V8 in 1939, with power at 135 hp and rising to 150 hp for 1941.-Series 63:...

 in 1939, but the offshoot Sixty Special

Cadillac Sixty Special

The Sixty Special name has been used at Cadillac to denote a special model since the 1938 Bill Mitchell-designed Series 60 derivative. Although the 1938 model began in Cadillac's lowest price range, soon the Sixty Special name would be synonymous for some of Cadillac's most luxurious...

 continued on and off through 1993.

Note that the model names of the 1930s used the year as well. So a Series 38-60 is a 1938 Series 60.

The Series 60 was the brainchild of new Cadillac manager, Nicholas Dreystadt. Debuting in 1936, it filled a gaping price gap between the LaSalle

LaSalle

The LaSalle was an automobile product of General Motors Corporation and sold as a companion marque of Cadillac from 1927 to 1940. The two were linked by similarly themed names, both being named for French explorers — Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac and René-Robert...

s and Series 70/Fleetwood

Cadillac Series 70

The Series 70 was one of Cadillac's full-size V8-powered cars produced from the 1930s through 1970s. It replaced the 1935 355-D as the company's mainstream car just as the much less expensive Series 60 was introduced. The Series 67 was similar to the Series 75 but produced on a longer wheelbase ...

 Cadillac models. Initially it rode on a 121 in (3,073 mm) wheelbase and shared the B body

GM B platform

The B platform, or B-body, was General Motors' full-size rear-wheel drive automobile platform. It was closely related to the C-body and D-body and was used for coupés, sedans, and station wagons....

 with cars from LaSalle, Buick

Buick

Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...

, and Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...

. This went up to 124 in (3,150 mm) in 1937-38.

Knee-Action Front Wheels

The exterior featured a new Harley Earl

Harley Earl

Harley J. Earl was first Vice President of Design at General Motors. He was an industrial designer and a pioneer of modern transportation design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as design techniques...

-designed look with a tall, slender grille and split vee-shaped windshield. This body used Fisher Body

Fisher Body

Fisher Body is an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan; it is now an operating division of General Motors Company...

's new "turret top" one-piece roof and Bendix

Bendix

- People :* Bendix Hallenstein - New Zealand businessman* Henry Bendix - fictional character from Wildstorm comics* John E. Bendix - American Civil War and New York Guard general* Max Bendix - American composer, conductor, violinist* Reinhard Bendix - sociologist...

 dual-servo brakes. "Knee-action" independent suspension

Independent suspension

Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...

 in front was a welcome novelty for the time.

Engines of Series 60

Under the hood was the new (less expensive) Monobloc V8. This 322 in³ (5.3 L) engine produced 125 hp (93 kW), just 10 less than that in the larger Cadillacs. The Series 60 quickly became the company's best-selling model, making up half of all Cadillacs sold that first year.

The next year, displacement on all Monobloc Cadillacs was 346 in³ (5.7 L). This new engine produced 135 hp (101 kW), more than all V8 Cadillacs of just a few years earlier. The Series 60 was superseded by the Series 61

Cadillac Series 61

The Fisher-bodied Series 61 used a wheelbase. It was available as a club coupe or sedan. All Cadillacs shared the same 346 in³ L-head V8 in 1939, with power at 135 hp and rising to 150 hp for 1941.-Series 63:...

and disappeared after 1938.