For those wanting some serious stretch out room in their 1997 Cadillac, the place to go was Chicago Armor & Limousine, for their Flagship™. An extended wheelbase (from 113″ to 119.8″) was all to the benefit of real leg room. And for those with massive luggage to haul could opt for the Grand Flagship™, which also had an extended deck, just like Caddys of yore.
Here’s the proof. And all kinds of lip up and flip down do-dads too. Just the thing to keep an ADHD executive engaged.
The specs.
And another shot. This looks like the “short deck” Flagship. Did any of the Grand Flagships ever get made? Inquiring minds want to know.
The length really adds much needed visual presence to these cars, which, stylistically, were never much more than 7/8ths 93-96 Fleetwoods.
Just what an American prestige car of that era ought to look like. Properly proportioned. Extra length without the car looking like a dachshund. They corrected Cadillac’s bungle magnificently.
I’m not sure the switchover, or how the arrangement worked with the name, but S&S/Superior/Accubilt built these at some point and called them Fleetwoods, too. I don’t remember as much as I once did, but I know some years used a commercial chassis (big truck hubs and brakes, 8 lug wheels) and later ones used a regular deVille because the hearse/limo chassis rode poorly without enough load. Accubilt is a Cadillac Master Coachbilder, too. I have seen about 2004 deVille limo on a lift before and two wheels off. It’s like a commercial vehicle under there. Mom has a 2002 DHS and I once had a 1995 SLS, there are heavy parts under a regular Cadillac, but this was like Tahoe stuff.
I forgot to mention, my SLS had the same wheels as pictured, so these were not commercial chassis.
The “Fleetwood Limited” by Superior, which was offered through dealerships.
https://notoriousluxury.com/2014/03/20/coachbuilt-1999-cadillac-fleetwood-limited/
According to the link, The wheelbase is identical and OL is within .1″, I’m going to go ahead and say these are related to each other. Maybe the Chicago place sold the plans to Accubilt, who’s in Lima, OH. It does appear theirs are later than this car.
The names of the two models baffle me somewhat as Flagship usually means Top Dog and is defined as the “finest, largest or most important of a group of things”. But then there’s the Grand Flagship. I wonder how many were sold.
Surprised they based this on a FWD Deville and not a C-body BOF Fleetwood. “Chicago Armor and Limousine,” the Armor part of the business would be particularly relevant these days in that city!
i assure you as I’m typing this comment I am wearing my finest chain mail.
The BOF car’s last MY was ’96.
Conjecture on my part, but these likely were the choice of Executive black town car livery companies, perhaps some corporate as well. As such, given their initial costs, most ended up very quickly with high miles to generate revenue, then expensed and sold off to second and third tier operators until they were completely worn out. Doubtful any are still extant.
Otherwise, relatively few well-off individuals, only those with chauffeurs, for personal transport.
Calling these “Fleetwoods” makes me think they were also targeting buyers who wanted a real Fleetwood but couldn’t get one after ’96.
Fleetwood was a trim level derived from a historic coach builder, like LeBaron. If it’s called a Fleetwood, it’s a Fleetwood.
Within the last year, I know I’ve seen one of these things on Hemmings. It was a triple black car, and while not sure if it was this coach builder, it was an equivalent “grand flagship” type configuration.
If I recall, it had something like 60k+ on the clock, so wouldn’t seem to have been used commercially.
I really liked a lot of these more subtle executive stretches. While people like us might notice them, I don’t don’t think most others do, beyond their being just a Cadillac.
Cadillac sold a DTS-L in the Aughts, but I can’t remember about the last Deville, or if it was done in-house. Also, there were extended RWD STS and ATS–made and sold in China only–when a major complaint about both in the US was rear legroom.
I like big trunks and I can not lie; you other brothers can deny…
But what was “the technology of tomorrow” that enabled this increased passenger room and trunk space?
Considering some of the ghastly Cadillac conversions we’ve seen here lately, these are positively classy and understated.
A breath of fresh air.
A question for the more engineering-savvy than myself: the brochure lists “crank-triggered ignition” as a feature. Is this something that would appeal to, say, a fleet buyer? A particularly durable kind of ignition, perhaps? Or is it just advertising puffery?
I think it just refers to a distributorless ignition setup with a crank position sensor etc, and yes I suppose it infers a less maintenance intensive setup (no caps and rotors to worry about)
C-pillar plug is always classier than B-pillar plug, but harder to do.
The sad part is ’97-’99 were probably the worst years for Northstar head gasket failures.