The Beast: Obama Rolls In An Armored Cadillac Stagecoach

[Coexist]

This is one bad-ass vehicle. American made.

General Motors has once again built the First Limo, which isn't so much a car as an armored personnel carrier wrapped in Cadillac bodywork. It is code-named "Stagecoach" but given its weight, wheelbase and bunker-like level of protection, Caddy One has been nicknamed "the Beast."

The interior is standard Caddy upholstery, but check this out:

GM says the car occupies the "same footprint" as the current presidential ride, but it is a little taller and the windows a little bigger to improve visibility. Limo One is believed to weigh between seven and eight tons, and spy shots suggest it rides on a GM medium-duty truck chassis propelled by a diesel engine. The body is sheathed in military-grade armor as much as 8 inches thick on the doors (each of which weighs as much as the cabin door on a Boeing 747, Motor Authority says). The armor reportedly is a mix of dual-hardness steel, aluminum, titanium and ceramic. The windows are ballistic glass said to be 5 inches thick, and Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times says there's probably a woven Kevlar mat covering the floorboard to protect the car from blasts. The cabin is believed to feature a sealed air recirculation system to protect its occupants from chemical attacks.

Apparently, the Goodyear tires can't go flat and it can withstand a rocket blast.

Cool.

[RT Atlanta]

1. tuff!

good ol' fashioned American ingenuity right there.

[Coexist]

5. yes it is

[leftchick]

2. if only JFK had one of these

[Coexist]

9. that made me sad.

[leftchick]

17. I'm sorry

but doesn't it seem ridiculous now, his lack of protection?

[Coexist]

19. yes. so sad and so tragic.

[BR_Parkway]

3. I just saw the door when it was open - crap that's huge. I wonder how

thick the glass is in there. The man has so much to fix, whatever keeps him safe. And happy it was made by American union workers!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Cadillac has cornered the market on ugly.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. 8" armor on the doors, per MSNBC.

For perspective, portland-class heavy cruisers during WWII had an armor thickness of 5".

[bertman]

13. When the SS guy opened the door for Our President the door did not look 8 inches thick.

[Posteritatis]

14. Big car, shots from a distance, probably an angle, so the scale would look off

They're probably also balanced enough not to feel eight inches thick, which would also make them "look" thinner.

[bertman]

15. Good points. I imagine you're right. Very impressive-looking door.

[conscious evolution]

7. But does it have Wii?

[Bake]

8. Or as I call it, "The Tank in a Tux."

Bake

[Coexist]

11. cool name.

[RedCappedBandit]

10. I want one. Maybe two.

[Ron Green]

12. My fave was FDR's big Packard.

Now THAT was a car.

[XemaSab]

16. There's some badass features on there alright

The most badass: containers of the president's blood.

[Rage for Order]

18. Gotta wonder what the carbon footprint of that thing is

It has to be the equivalent of at least 4 normal cars

[Coexist]

20. for his safety, thats okay.

for Joe Asshole next door, unnecessary.

[jmowreader]

21. Blood only lasts 21 days

What do they do--rent blood from a local hospital, and turn it back in at the end of the day if they don't need to use it?

I'm not REAL happy about their giving out the thickness of the armor plating on the doors. If a truly determined enemy wanted to kill the president, this data would give them what they needed to buy a gun that would penetrate the armor in the doors. (And yes, I realize about the only thing that's going through those doors is the main gun on a tank.)

[Posteritatis]

24. The thickness is way beyond standard thug assassins

Eight inches - or five in the bottom - would laugh at just about anything anyone short of an actual military could field, especially when you consider the fact that a lot of that armor's probably more substantial than steel.

Just for comparison, the main armor belt - that is, the most thickly-protected part - of most Second World War cruisers the US launched was between two and six inches of plain steel. You heard me: the car's better-armored in places than actual capital ships from the days when those were still armored.

Weapons that would confetti-ize most of the vehicles the army's got in Iraq - short of the Abrams tanks, which are truly ridiculous in that department for the most part - probably wouldn't inconvenience that car too much. I wouldn't worry about anything short of actual national armies having the resources to threaten it.

[Touchdown]

22. No iPod hookup? No Truck Nutz? What a piece of junk!

Also; it could use some flames on the hood and some blue neon underneath.

[Coexist]

23. purple neon. big tent and all!

[mb7588a]

25. That's one helluva hoop-d.

[NickB79]

26. But has Xzibit pimped that ride and given it a 70" flatscreen TV yet?