For the most part, 1990s Cadillacs can be summed up in one word, for better or for worse: Northstar. They were front-wheel-drive old-school American luxury barges that valued comfort and presence above all else. If they ran good, they were decent sleds, but once that Northstar got bitchy, most owners panicked, and if the engine’s temper didn’t scare them off, the repair bill sure as hell did. But there was one truly old-school Caddy left on the lots: the 1993-1996 D-body Fleetwood. Basically a worked-over B-body, the Fleetwood was large by anybody’s standard, with a look previewed by the Cadillac Voyage and Solitare concept cars of the late 1980s and a crushing 4,700 pound curb weight.
Why are we even paying attention to this golden sled, you might be asking yourself…doesn’t BangShift already have one slow, gold four-door to bother with? Why would we be hunting down this early-bird special? Lohnes started to ask those kinds of questions as I showed him the photos. See if you start to notice a theme here…
Ok, a set of 3.73 gears and a limited slip differential are prudent upgrades. Maybe this Fleetwood tows? It could certainly handle it. Looks like an Auburn unit, doesn’t it?
Um…maybe the original units were damaged somehow? Is that why UMI control arms are going in?
…that doesn’t look like “prudent upgrading” to us. That also doesn’t look like the stock driveshaft, either.
…and we are right about the mods. According to the seller, that is a 425 horsepower 383 stroker LT-1 built by Golen Engines. But that isn’t all….look inside.
The stock column shifter might remain, but your eyes do not deceive you: that is the shifter for a ZF six-speed yanked from a Corvette sticking up next to that big leather sofa of a front seat.
Racecar, it is not. But if you’re looking for the most fun car that you could drive to church on Sunday without causing issues with the members of the congregation, or if you want the ultimate fly-under-the-radar highway stormer, look no further. Who would suspect the twenty-year-old gold Cadillac was the source of the barking gears? This Caddy is living up to it’s namesake nicely: with these upgrades, it’s certainly fleet.
Craigslist Link: 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood
Even with all the upgrades, I didn’t see that ZF six speed coming.
I think I’m in love…
I tried to buy this car 10yrs ago but the bank obviously didn’t see the value in the upgrades (it had a stock LT1 then) and I couldn’t afford it.
Owner says it’s tough on clutches but an LT4 dual mass clutch made it easier stoplight to stoplight.
Add a turbo or an Edelbrock supercharger and you could have some real fun messing with people’s heads!
I like the CTS wheels on them. The 383/6spd combo is a winner in my book!
Now this is cool…when was the last manual trans.in a Cadillac? 🙂
You can still get a standard transmission in some models today.
Senior lapse my leader. 🙂
But at the time this one was built, the last Cadillac with a stick shift had been the Cimmaron. 🙂 They revived the three pedal option for the CTS.
I know that you should never buy someone else’s project, but I like this.
I hot rodded a first-year of production panther (79 LTD), so I’m obviously a bit nuts, anyhow.