THE HISTORY OF THE US PRESIDENTIAL LIMO

…The anatomy of the latest Presidential Limo

 

 

In its day, the JFK presidential limo was the most sophisticated presidential state car ever built.

 

While watching the presidential parade, I thought that we’ve had it up to our noses on hearing about our new president, so let’s get into something different.

 

Being a long-time car buff, after seeing the latest presidential limo’s up close and personal during the inauguration, I decided that I'd bet a lot of my readers would like to learn what goes into the latest commander-in-chief’s cars, and what they cost the American tax payer.

 

According to the latest facts, the latest presidential state cars just went into service this January 20, and they drove both the new president and President Obama the 2 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue from the inauguration to the inaugural parade.

 

The White House maintains approximately twelve copies of the current state car which is a GM Cadillac.  The presidential state car is not based on any single Cadillac model, though it has the grille and the over-sized Cadillac coat-of-arms badge that are emblematic of the Cadillac CTS and the Cadillac Escalade.

 

They don’t put much out to the public about the car’s specs for obvious reasons, but it is understood that the president’s car features a gasoline-powered Vortec 8.1-litre (490 cu in) V8 engine.

 

The current presidential state car is estimated to be much heavier than its predecessor because it sports Goodyear RHS tires that are usually reserved for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.  The vehicle’s weight is speculated to range from 15,000 to 20,000 pounds

 

Due to its excess weight, the car can only reach about 60 mph and achieves 3.7 to 8 miles per US gallon. The current model of limousine costs taxpayers somewhere around $1 to $1.5 million. The presidential state car is maintained by the United States Secret Service.

 

For some other specs, the doors of the presidential state car have no keyholes.  You cannot open the doors from the inside and the way to open the passenger doors is a secret known only to the Secret Service.

 

The new windows have 5-inch-thick bulletproof glass, which is much thicker than previous models, and only the driver's window opens in order to pay tolls.

 

The car has run-flat tires, and an interior which is 100% sealed to protect the occupants in the event of a chemical attack. The current presidential car boasts rocket-propelled grenades, night vision optics, a tear gas cannon, on-board oxygen tanks, an armored fuel tank filled with foam to prevent explosion, pump-action shotguns, plus 2 US pints of blood in the president's blood type.

 

The current presidential state car can also fire "multi-spectrum infrared smoke grenades as a counter-measure to a rocket-propelled grenade attack or anti-tank missiles."

 

The car features 8-inch thick doors and General Motors spokesperson said of the new presidential state car, "The presidential vehicle is built to precise and special specifications, undergoes extreme testing and development, and also incorporates many of the top aspects of Cadillac's 'regular' cars -- such as signature design, hand-cut-and-sewn interiors, etc."

 

CNN interviewed Mr. Joe Funk, a former United States Secret Service agent and the driver of Bill Clinton's presidential state car during his tenure.  Mr. Funk described the following about the car: “While the president is wholly cut off from the outside world by the armor and bulletproof glass of the vehicle, he has at his fingertips communication capabilities including phones, satellite communications, and the Internet.”

 

In 2013, the presidential state car was outfitted with the standard Washington, D.C. license plates which now famously say "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" in reference to the district's lack of voting representation in the United States Congress. This came after the D.C. city council petitioned President Obama to use the plates on his motorcade which would be seen by millions of people as the president headed down Pennsylvania Avenue for his second inauguration.  However, the car’s front plates used to have different numbers.  Now they all have the same number 1 so you don’t know which one the president is riding in.

 

Construction contracts for the latest model of presidential state car were issued in 2013. Public records show that General Motors (GM) was awarded three contracts for the new limousine. Photographs of the 2017 model show that the vehicle has the same basic grille and headlamp design as contemporary Cadillac models. Each state car costs the stated $1–1.5 million, and as of January 2016, GM had been paid $15,800,765 for its work on the new model. The new version of the executive limousine debuted this week at the inauguration of Donald Trump.

…The first official presidential State car

 

History of the US Presidential Limo:

 

After the introduction of the automobile in the 1890s, no sitting president rode in an automobile until President William McKinley briefly rode in a Stanley Motor Carriage Company steam car on July 13, 1901.  So the first presidential state car was like the above restored “Stanley Steamer”.

 

According to the US Secret Service, it was customary for them to follow the presidential horse-and-buggy on foot.  But the Secret Service then purchased a 1907 White Motor Company steam car to follow President Theodore Roosevelt's horse-drawn carriage. The president refused to ride in a “horseless carriage” due to his "image as a rough-rider".

 

But President William Howard Taft changed it all at the White House, when he converted the stables to a car garage and purchased a four-car fleet on a $12,000 budget.  (That’s equivalent of $320,000 in 2016.)  The new cars were two "luxurious" Pierce-Arrow cars, a Baker Motor Vehicle electric car, and a $4,000, 1911 White Motor Company steam car”.  President Taft became a fan of the steam car when he discovered he could conceal himself from press photographers with a "carefully timed burst of steam”.

 

President Woodrow Wilson was such a fan of the Pierce-Arrow cars that his administration had purchased, that he bought one of them from the government for $3,000 when he left office in 1921. (That’s the equivalent to $40,000 in 2016) 

 

President Warren G. Harding was the first president to use a car to drive to his inauguration, and he was the first president who was qualified to even drive a car.

 

President Herbert Hoover had his own 1930's Cadillac V-16.

 

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt bought a Ford Phaeton coupe and had it equipped with hand controls due to the polio in his legs.  This was in direct contradiction to the Secret Service directive prohibiting sitting presidents from getting behind the wheel of a car.

 

In December 1939, President Roosevelt received a 1939 Lincoln Motor Company V12 convertible called “The Sunshine Special”.

 

The Sunshine Special was so named because the top was frequently open, but it became the president's best-known automobile, and it was the very first automobile to be built to Secret Service specifications,

 

It was also the first to be leased rather than purchased. It was built on the chassis of the Lincoln K-series, and the Sunshine Special has a 160-inch wheelbase, which offered room for 10 passengers.  Its rear doors were hinged backwards for easy entry.  It also had a heavy-duty suspension, two side-mounted spare tires, and standing platforms attached to the exterior to accommodate Secret Service agents.

 

The Sunshine Special underwent two sets of modifications. Firstly in 1941 the car's top was lowered 3 inches just because it made it more attractive and modern looking.

 

Then, in 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the car underwent the addition of heavy armor, 1-inch thick bulletproof glass, metal-clad flat-proof inner tubes, a radio transceiver, a siren, red warning lights, and a compartment for submachine guns.  After the second set of modifications, the car weighed 9,300 pounds and was 6 feet longer.

 

In 1950, under President Harry S. Truman, the legend has it that Truman held a grudge with General Motors because they would not give him use of their cars during his run for the 1948 presidential election.  Because of that, Truman chose Lincoln for the presidential state car.

 

The White House leased ten Lincoln Cosmopolitans. The cars were modified by the coachbuilder: Henney Motor Company  and the designers provided extra security features.  They also added extra headroom to accommodate the tall silk hats popular at the time.  They were all painted black, which started the trend that many presidential limo’s since are usually black.

 

Nine of the Lincoln's had enclosed bodies, while the tenth was an armored convertible especially for President Truman. The tenth Cosmopolitan was 20 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, and weighed 6,500 pounds, that’s 1,700 pounds heavier than a stock Cosmopolitan.

 

All ten cars were outfitted with 152-horsepower V8 engines "with heavy-duty Hydra-Matic transmissions." In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had the Cosmopolitan convertible fitted with a Plexiglas roof that became known as the "Bubble-top"; it remained in presidential service until 1965.

…The JFK Limo

 

The Assignation of President Kennedy

 

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy accepted a modified, 1961 Lincoln Continental that cost almost $200,000, (That would be about $1.5 million today.)  The Secret Service assigned the code name of X-100.  It was the most sophisticated presidential state car yet built.

 

The car included a "heavy-duty heater and air conditioner, a pair of radiotelephones, a fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit, and a siren." The dark blue exterior featured improved, retractable standing platforms and handles for Secret Service agents, and flashing red lights recessed into the bumper.

 

Unique to the X-100 were three sets of removable roofs (a standard soft top, a lightweight metal one, and a transparent plastic one) and a hydraulic lift that raised the rear cushion 11 inches off the floor. Both of these feature sets were designed to make the president more visible to the public.  Unfortunately, they were also contributors in the eventual assassination of the president.  

 

After the Kennedy assassination, the X-100 was redesigned for $500,000. The redesigned X-100 was painted black and featured "improved telecommunications gear, a more powerful engine and flat-proof tires made of rubber-coated aluminum."

 

The fuel tank was protected against explosion by a "porous foam matrix" that minimized spillage in the event of a puncture. The passenger compartment was protected by 1,600 pounds of armor, and the three removable roofs were replaced by a fixed glass enclosure that cost more than $125,000. The glass enclosure was made of thirteen different pieces of bulletproof glass and was then the largest piece of curved bulletproof glass ever made.

 

In 1967, the X-100 was modified again with an upgraded air conditioning system, an openable rear-door window, and structural enhancement to the rear deck. Despite successive presidential state cars being built and delivered to the White House, the X-100 continued to be occasionally used by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter until it was retired from service in early 1977. It is now publicly exhibited at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

 

A modified, 22-foot long, 13,000-pound 1972 Lincoln Continental was delivered to the White House in 1974. The six-passenger limousine was leased from the Ford Motor Company for $5,000 per year and it featured a 460-cubic-inch, 214-horsepower V8 engine. The fully loaded automobile also had external microphones to allow occupants to hear outside noises, full armor plate, bulletproof glass, and racks for the Secret Service to store submachine guns. This presidential state car was the vehicle in which President Gerald Ford was shot at by Sara Jane Moore  and which transported President Ronald Reagan to the hospital after the attempt on his life in 1981.

 

The next presidential state car was a 1983 GM Cadillac that was delivered on January 30, 1984. This Cadillac Fleetwood was 17 inches longer and 3 inches taller than the stock Fleetwood. It featured armor and bulletproof glass and was described as "distinctively styled, with a raised roof and a large rear greenhouse." To deal with the added weight of the armor, the car had oversized wheels and tires, heavy-duty brakes, and an automatic leveling system.

 

The 1989 presidential state car that was delivered to the White House was a modified 1989 Lincoln Town Car that was 22 feet long and more than 5 feet tall.

 

President Bill Clinton used a 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood as his presidential state car. It is currently on display at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas where it sits with all its doors closed to the public. Museum curator Christine Mouw noted that they can "dust the outside of the car, but if we needed to get inside it, we would have to contact the regional Secret Service office".

 

In 2001, for the first inauguration of George W. Bush, Cadillac no longer produced a car suitable for conversion into a presidential limousine. Furthermore, the additional armor and amenities that were added to the state car by the Secret Service taxed previous presidential limousines beyond their limits, resulting in failing transmissions and short-lived brakes.

 

The George W. Bush state car was instead designed from the ground-up by the "R&D arm of General Motors in Detroit" to meet Secret Service specifications.

 

President George W. Bush's Cadillac Deville was actually based on the chassis of General Motors' line of full-size sport utility vehicles such as the “Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade."  This "Deville" featured 5-inch armored doors, and "bulletproof glass so thick it blocks out parts of the light spectrum."

 

Components of the car were sealed passenger compartments with their own air supply, run-flat tires, and a 454-cubic-inch engine. Accessories include "an integrated 10-disc CD changer, a foldaway desktop and reclining rear seats with massaging, adaptive cushions." This presidential state car was estimated to weigh approximately 14,000 pounds. Bush's presidential state car was nicknamed "The Beast", a name that persisted through the presidency of Barack Obama.

 

When traveling, President Bush took along two of the armored limousines (flown by either C-5 or C-17), one for use and one for backup. This proved fortuitous during a 2007 trip to Rome where one of the presidential state cars stalled for five minutes on a Roman street.  The car started back up, but was replaced with the backup limousine.  Sometimes, President Bush would use US vehicles already present at his destination such as embassy motor pool cars or military assets, rather than transporting the presidential state car. The president never used non-American-governmental vehicles when overseas.

 

In the late 20th-century, it was customary for the United States Secret Service to participate in the destruction of the presidential state car after it had run its course. The federal agents use bullets and explosive rounds for two purposes. The first is to demonstrate the automobile's effectiveness against such weaponry, while the second is to shred the vehicle and destroy the secrets of its manufacture, armoring, and defensive abilities.

 

Motorcades involving the presidential state car are detailed, involved operations. Motorcades under President George W. Bush involved up to two dozen cars; under President Barack Obama they constituted thirty to forty-five other vehicles.  Heaven knows what President Trump will required for the protection of the least popular elected president.

 

The Obama presidential motorcade included many other vehicles than the official presidential state car. Involved are police cars to lead the motorcade and clear the streets; sport utility vehicles to carry the United States Secret Service detail, electronic countermeasures, key staff, a counter-assault team, "hazardous-materials-mitigation" personnel and equipment, and White House Communications Agency personnel. Also included in the motorcade are press vans, an ambulance, and more.

 

The presidential state car is still maintained by the United States Secret Service, while other support vehicles in the president's motorcade are maintained by the White House Military Office. Due to difficulty in organizing motorcades, helicopters like Marine One are today's preferred presidential transportation method.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017