If you want to hire a car service, the limousine is professional, classy, and the ultimate statement of luxury. Many business people get a limousine rental when they need car service to the airport or between business meetings. Celebrities use a limousine service to go to and from events. Newly-married couples find a limo company when they need car service from the ceremony to the party, and a limousine car service is one of the most popular choices on prom night. But there is one limousine completely different from all the others: the President’s limo. Here are some amazing facts about the president’s limousine.
It’s Made From Chopped Up Parts
The builder of the Beast, as the President’s limousine is called, chooses the best parts anywhere. The headlamps are from an Escalade. The body is a Cadillac, but the frame it sits on is from something more like a U-Haul. The headlamps are from a discontinued model of car.
Ready For Any Emergency
No matter who is President, the Secret Service has to be ready for anyone who might want to hurt him. This could be a traitor from within or an enemy from without, so the President’s limo carries oxygen, a supply of the President’s blood in case he is injured, shotguns for close-up defense, an array of firefighting equipment, and various other items that can only be speculated about.
Even the President Doesn’t Know How to Open the Door
Only the Secret Service knows the secret of how to open one of the car doors on the Beast. In fact, the car has no keys and no key holes. Because Presidents change regularly, and because there is no guarantee a President from one party might not feel rancor towards a President from another party, even the Presidents are not told how the door opens.
The Driver Is As Well-Trained As a Pilot
When you hire a car service or sedan service with a rental SUV or limousine, you can expect your driver to be trained well and to be a safe driver. But no car service driver is as competent as the person who drives the President. The President’s driver has to be able to rescue the President out of any sticky situation, and this means having some seriously mad driving skills and practicing them constantly.
The Car Is Full of Special Protective Measures
The interior is sealed completely from the outside to be safe from any chemical attack. None of the windows roll down except the driver’s window, and that only goes down three inches. The tires are Kevlar-reinforced so that they can run even when flat, and the bulletproof plating is believed to be approximately seven inches thick. The doors weigh as much as the doors on a Boeing 757. The fuel tank is surrounded with a special foam that keeps it from exploding.
The President and His Guests
Inside, the President’s limousine is not that much different from what you would get in a limousine rental. Its cloth and leather are beautiful and handstitched. The president’s chief security officer always travels in the front passenger seat whenever the president is aboard, and the president can invite guests to sit with him in the car. Most of the time, these guests are diplomatic associates.
The Kennedy Assassination
The first model of the President’s limo was designed after John Kennedy was assassinated. The first Presidential limo of this type was called the X 100 and was used by Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. Since then there have been two iterations of this special armored car, and multiple copies to make it impossible for an assassin to know exactly which vehicle the president is riding in.
There are more than 130,000 limousines being used for car service throughout the United States, and though all of them are elegant, none of them are like the President’s. You can’t take a ride in the Beast, but you can enjoy a limousine car service any time by arranging with your local car hire company.
