The term “El Dorado” means “the golden one,” and it certainly earned that designation. Car Life magazine selected the 1960 Cadillac Eldorado as the “Best Buy in the Luxury Field.” Some of the features on the Eldorado included: Air suspension, cruise control, factory air conditioning, Autotronic Eye headlight dimmer, a radio with a power antenna, power door locks, fog lamps, and three rows of jewels in the rear. The convertibles also received finned rear drums, a tubular X frame and a vacuum-operated automatic-releasing parking brake standard from the factory. The 1960 Biarritz—the last model to include the wraparound glass windshield—averaged 14 miles per gallon, sat six, had a 130-inch wheelbase and weighed 5,060 pounds. A total of 1,285 were produced and they sold for $7,401 new.
Cadillac had been the first to add fins to a body in 1949 and they wanted to ensure that they continued to win the “fin wars,” even though the 1960 Eldorado’s fins were a tamer version of the massive fins on the previous year’s model. Despite sharing basic inner-door pressings with Buicks and the rest of the GM lines, these Cadillacs were distinctive and massive.
