The 1938-41 Sixty-Special was unquestionably a design tour de force, but we shouldn't forget its performance, which was -- and still is -- just as impressive. Beginning in 1937, Cadillac had settled on the 346-cid version of the monobloc V-8 for all its eight-cylinder models except LaSalle. Rated at 135 horsepower at 3400 rpm, the 346 had five more horses than the 1935 V-8 and 10 more than the one-year-only 322-cid monobloc. The Sixty-Special arrived weighing only some 230 pounds more than a comparable 1938 Series 60 sedan, so its power-to-weight ratio was less than 31 pounds per horsepower, quite good for the period.

By contrast, that year's Packard Super Eight -- which, incidentally, cost $700 more than the Special -- carried nearly 35 pounds per horsepower. The 346 continued without change until 1941, when higher compression pushed output to 150 bhp, more than enough to offset the restyled Special's slight weight gain. Thus, Cadillac's posh "compact" was a good performer as well as a styling leader, as rewarding to drive as it was pleasing to look at.

The durable monobloc V-8 would go to war, powering the U.S. Army's M-5 and M-24 tanks that would mean so much to the Allies. Hydra-Matic, an exclusive Cadillac option new for '41, also saw action in these tanks. Engineer Harry Barr would later recall that the transmission was very serviceable right from the start, and the improvements resulting from four years of military service would make the postwar versions even better.

Even as the winds of war were blowing, Cadillac was preparing to phase out the Sixty-Special, at least as Mitchell had originally conceived it. To be sure, the

The Sixty-Special became even less special in the Fifties and Sixties. Usually it was just a Series 62 or DeVille four-door with more ornate exterior trim and interior furnishings, though it did retain the exclusive 133-inch wheelbase adopted for 1942 all the way through 1958. Even the name was progressively watered down, and it disappeared completely in favor of the Fleetwood Brougham label with the advent of Cadillac's first downsized big cars for 1977. But the original Sixty-Special and its sporting, slightly raffish character would never be forgotten on Clark Avenue. As Mitchell himself suggests, its spiritual descendant is today's Seville, the enormously successful compact Cadillac, introduced in 1975.

So the Sixty-Special and its great heritage lives on, in current Cadillacs and in the many 1938-41 originals lovingly preserved by their proud owners. The undeniable influence of its design -- and the inspired hand of its designer -- can be seen in most of the better-looking automobiles produced over the last 40-odd years, and that's as it should be. As the last sentence of Cadillac's oft-quoted 1914 "Penalty of Leadership" ad reminds us: "That which deserves to live -- lives."

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