Presidential state car (United States) — BrandWiki

Presidential state car (United States)

The United States presidential state car (nicknamed "the Beast", "Cadillac One", "First Car"; code named "Stagecoach") is the official state car of the president of the United States.

United States presidents embraced automotive technology in the early 20th century with President William Howard Taft's purchase of four cars and the conversion of the White House stables into a garage. Presidents rode in stock, unmodified cars until President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration bought the Sunshine Special, the first presidential state car to be built to United States Secret Service standards. Until the assassination of John F. Kennedy, presidential state cars frequently allowed the president to ride uncovered and exposed to the public. President Kennedy's assassination began a progression of increasingly armored and sealed cars; the 2009–2018 state car had 5 in bulletproof glass and was hermetically sealed with its own environmental system. Since 2018 the presidential state car has been a custom-built Cadillac.

Decommissioned presidential state cars are destroyed by the Secret Service for training and to protect their secrets. Late 20th-century and 21st-century presidential motorcades have consisted of 24–45 vehicles other than the presidential state car, including those for security, healthcare, the press, and route-clearing, among others.

The first president to ride in a car was President William McKinley, who briefly rode in a Stanley Motor Carriage Company

Kennedy Lincoln Continental<span class="anchor" id="Kennedy X-100 (1961–1977)">

President John F. Kennedy's 1961 Lincoln Continental was originally a stock car, built in Wixom, Michigan, and retailing for US$7347 1961. The federal government leased it from the Ford Motor Company for US$500 1961 annually, and then commissioned Hess and Eisenhardt to modify it for presidential use—with a pricetag of US$200000 1961. The convertible was painted "Presidential Blue Metallic", with silver metal flakes embedded within it; it was given the Secret Service code names of SS-100-X and X-100.

The dark-blue car included a "heavy-duty heater and air conditioner, a pair of radiotelephones, a fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit, and a siren." The stock car was stretched 3.5 ft to accommodate a foldable center row of forward-facing jump seats. The exterior featured retractable standing platforms and handles for Secret Service agents, and flashing red lights recessed into the bumper. Unique to the X-100 were three removable roofs (made of fabric, lightweight metal, and transparent plastic) and a hydraulic lift that could raise the rear cushion 10+1/2 in off the floor. Both of these feature sets were designed to make the president more visible to the public, but they also increased the president's vulnerability—a factor in the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.

After the assassination, the "Death Car" (as named by the Associated Press), was rebuilt in an operation named "The Quick Fix". Hess and Eisenhardt, the Secret Service, the United States Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center, PPG Industries, and Ford engineers all collaborated to strip the limousine and make substantial improvements. In an effort to prevent "ghoulish collectors" from obtaining discarded car parts, they were destroyed. For an estimated cost of $500,000, the car was painted black; received improved telecommunications gear; its fuel tank was protected against explosion by a "porous foam matrix" that minimized spillage in the event of a puncture; and the passenger compartment was protected by 1600 lbs of armor. The three removable roofs were replaced by a fixed glass enclosure that cost more than $125,000; the glass enclosure was made of 13 different pieces of bulletproof glass ranging in thickness from 1 to 1+13/16 in, and was then the largest piece of curved bulletproof glass ever made. Titanium armor was added to the body of the car, the standard windows were made bullet-resistant with sandwiched layers of glass and polycarbonate vinyl, and prototype aluminum run-flat tires were added. To compensate for the 25 percent increase in weight—to 9800 lbs—the upgraded car received a hand-built 350 hp V8 engine, providing 17 percent more power.

In 1967, the car 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. As of March 2021, it was publicly exhibited at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

The license plates (DC plates, "GG-300") were removed from the X-100 when the vehicle was upgraded after the Kennedy shooting. When they were auctioned in 2015, they sold for US$100000 2015.

1972 Lincoln Continental

A modified, 22 ft, 13000 lb 1972 Lincoln Continental was delivered to the White House in 1974. A construction photo shows heavy duty ford truck components including 8 lug steel rims and a full floating rear axle such as a same year f250 would utilize. The six-passenger limousine was leased from the Ford Motor Company for US$5000 1974 per year. The fully loaded automobile had a 460 in3, 214 hp V8 engine; external microphones to allow occupants to hear outside noises; full armor plate; bulletproof glass; and racks for the Secret Service to store submachine guns.

The car was used by presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. By 1974, the car was typically transported by the United States Air Force in a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter cargo plane at an hourly jet fuel cost of 1800 USgal. Because security concerns legally mandated its use by the president, political parties were not required to reimburse the government for its use during political campaigns. It was the vehicle in which Ford was shot at by Sara Jane Moore in 1975. During the March 1981 attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, the car was hit by the last two of six gunshots, which respectively damaged the bulletproof window of the right rear passenger's door, and ricocheted off the back-right quarter panel before striking the president. The car then transported Reagan to George Washington University Hospital.

After the 1981 shooting, the car was returned to Ford and was modified. Most sources state that it received a new interior, front sheet metal, and 1979 Lincoln grille, however visual inspection shows the magnitude of modification was much greater. External accoutrements specific to the 1972 model were replaced with the accoutrements of the 1979 model during the overhaul, the final production year of the fifth generation Lincoln Continental(1970-1979). This includes the complete front clip; bumper, header panel with grille and headlight doors, front fenders, front marker lenses, and hood, as well as the deletion of the rear wheel skirts in lieu of bolt on fender flares, and finally the taillight and rear bumper assembly. As originally built the 1972 limousine received a custom formal roofline as opposed to the production slope backed roof; it closely resembles the revised roofline of the production 1979 model. With the Ford performed bolt-off bolt-on modification the vehicle is effectively a clone in appearance of a 1979 model, the final year of which parts interchange.

The 1972 car left service in 1992 with 40617 mi on its odometer. After maintenance and care in 2008, The Henry Ford measured the car at 259 in long, 79.6 in wide, 61.1 in tall, at 10440 lb, with a wheelbase of 161 in.

2009–2018 custom Cadillac

The 2009–2018 presidential state car went into service on January 20, 2009, and drove President Obama the 2 mi down Pennsylvania Avenue from his first inauguration to the inaugural parade. A Cadillac, the presidential state car was not based on any single model of car, though it had the "dual-textured grille and the dinner plate-sized Cadillac coat-of-arms badge" emblematic of the Cadillac CTS and the Cadillac Escalade. The headlights and taillights were identical to those used on other Cadillac production models. Anton Goodwin of CNET's Road/Show blog noted that speculation was that the presidential state car was based on the GMC Topkick platform.

In 2009, Goodwin assumed the car would feature either a gasoline-powered 8.1 L V8 General Motors Vortec engine or a diesel-powered Duramax 6.6 L turbo V8 engine. Autoweek magazine asserted in 2013 that the car ran on a gasoline-fueled engine.

This presidential state car was also believed to be much heavier than its predecessor as it is equipped with Goodyear Regional RHS tires that are usually reserved for medium- and heavy-duty trucks; speculated weights range from 15000 to 20000 lbs. Due to the weight of the car, it could only reach about 60 mph, and only achieved 3.7 to 8 mpgus. The limousine was reported to cost between US$300000 and US$1500000 (equivalent to about $– in ). The presidential state car was maintained by the United States Secret Service.

The car had more 5 in bulletproof glass than the previous model. It also had run-flat tires and an interior that was completely sealed to protect the occupants in the event of a chemical attack. The 2009 presidential state car model had night vision optics, a tear gas cannon, onboard oxygen tanks, an armored fuel tank filled with foam to prevent explosion, and pump-action shotguns. Whether it was or was not armed with rocket-propelled grenades, the car featured 8 in doors.

General Motors spokeswoman Joanne K. Krell said of the 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." The curator of The Henry Ford told The Dallas Morning News that President Obama's state car was "a tank with a Cadillac badge."

In 2013, the presidential state car was outfitted with standard Washington, D.C. license plates that read "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" in reference to the district's lack of representation in the United States Congress. The switch 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 he headed down Pennsylvania Avenue for his second inauguration.

Current state car

Development

When first commissioned by the Secret Service in 2014, General Motors (GM) was awarded three contracts for the new limousine. Each state car was expected to cost US$1–1.5 million, and by January 2016, GM had been paid US$15800765 2016 for its work on the new model.

After prototypes of the new model were seen driven on public roads wrapped in monochromatic multi-scale camouflage, Cadillac confirmed to Fox News that "We've completed our task and we've handed over the vehicle to the customer". The Secret Service confirmed that the program to replace the presidential car was "on track and on schedule" and should be in service by late summer 2018. Fox News' Gary Gastelu opined that the camouflaged prototype looked similar to the Cadillac CT6.

Realization

Still nicknamed "the Beast", as established with the 2001–2009 model, the current model debuted with a trip by President Trump to New York City on September 24, 2018. Road & Track reported that "the design appears to be a simple evolution of the old model with more current Cadillac design cues, like an Escalade sedan." Road & Track described the state car as "massive and tall", and weighing 15000 –.

NBC News reported a weight of 20,000 pounds and the capacity to seat seven, and speculated that the limousine was intended to evoke the aesthetic of the Cadillac XT6. Car and Driver said that the car was built on the GMC TopKick platform, weighs as much as 15,000 pounds, has the headlamps from the Cadillac Escalade, and the grille emblematic of the Cadillac Escala concept car. The car is approximately 6 ft tall.

In addition to defensive measures designed to protect the president, this state car has stores of blood in the president's type for medical emergencies. The car is hermetically sealed against chemical attacks, and features run-flat tires, night-vision devices, smoke screens, and oil slicks as defensive measures against attackers. NBC reported that the car features armor made of aluminum, ceramic, and steel; the exterior walls have a thickness of 8 in, the windows are multi-layered and 5 in thick, and each door—believed to be 1 ft thick and weigh as much as those on a Boeing 757—can electrify its handles to deter entry.

As of May 2019, the current model was used alongside the previous model.

Cadillac Escalade

In January 2026, Donald Trump used a new armored presidential Cadillac Escalade when he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It is unclear if this new vehicle is intended to replace the "Beast" sedans, or if it is designed for specific duty such as presidential trips abroad. It has been noted that custom Secret Service vehicles typically have an 8-year service life, and the current "Beasts" will hit that service life in 2026.