The official car of the president of the United States of America is virtually a tank masquerading as a car! What does the limo say about America when its president has to ride around hidden away in an armoured vehicle that guzzles half of the world’s oil supply?

Obama must be squirming at the guzzler he has to travel in, feels AutoCar (March ’09), for this man in his inaugural address has declared, “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories’ since ‘each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.’ Moreover, after taking office, he has ordered new Federal rules directing automakers to start making more fuel-efficient cars as required by law.
So Barack Obama must be a very embarrassed man every time he has to travel in his car. But there’s nothing the world’s most powerful man can do about it. Ever since John Kennedy got shot riding an open-top Lincoln Continental in Dallas, American presidents have had to give security utmost preference.

So what’s so special about the presidential limo? Actually no one knows. Everything about this car is top secret, classified. The presidential limo is a vessel of secrets, but here’s what’s available in the public domain.

First of all, the Presidents’ car is not actually a car. It’s a vehicle built on a modified medium-truck GM chassis. The limo is based on a number of GM platforms and shares components with several different vehicles. The exterior includes parts from several Cadillac models, such as headlights from an Escalade, and the grille and taillights from an STS. Secondly, the presidents’ car is not one car. Obama’s car is actually one of a fleet of identical and interchangeable vehicles built by General Motors. 

The presidential limo is covered in military-grade, possibly ‘reactive’ armour, to repulse armour-piercing ordnance. The armour reportedly is a mix of dual-hardness steel, aluminum, titanium and ceramic, which may be as much as eight inches thick on the doors. It is said that each door weighs as much as the cabin door of a Boeing. The windows are ballistic glass, supposedly five inches thick. The drier’s window is the only one that opens, and that’s about just three inches, so that he can talk to secret service agents. There’s probably a woven Kevlar mat covering the floorboard to protect the car from blasts. The tyres too are special. They are Kevlar reinforced, shred and puncture-resistant tyres with steel rims underneath so that the car can be piloted at high speeds even if the tyres are blasted away.

The cabin is believed to feature a sealed air recirculation system to protect its occupants from chemical attacks. The car carries its own oxygen supply, fire-fighting equipment and even bottles of the president’s blood in case he needs an emergency transfusion.

Obviously fuel economy and performance have to be sacrificed. So the presidential limo reportedly just about makes it to the 100kph mark and returns about three or four kilometers to every litre of diesel.

The good news for Obama is that the limo is equipped with all communication facilities – phone, satellite, Internet. So he can, sitting in his car, get in touch with anyone in the world. But he can’t talk to the man across the road!

So whether he likes it or not Barack Obama is stuck with the Cadillac for the next four years. After serving the president, the limos will be put into service of the Vice-President and visiting world leaders. After about 10 years, the limos will be destroyed. After September 11, 2001, the Secret Service adopted a policy to destroy presidential limos after they are taken out of service in order to protect their secrets. So the collection of presidential cars at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan USA is now frozen.
Barack Obama has come into office with the promise of a more peaceful and bountiful world ends AutoCar (March ’09). If he can live up to his promises, he will not only win himself a second term but also free himself from the embarrassment of his presidential limo. And the president of the United States can move around freely in a car that’s not a heavy tank, and one that can run on a more eco-friendly alternate source of energy. That will be a real symbol of change…