Change is coming to the streets of Washington, D.C.
No, this isn't a story about the inauguration of the 44th President. This is a story
about a car – the President's car.
Built by General Motors, the 2009 Cadillac Presidential
Limousine (picture at left) replaces the DTS model that the U.S. government issued to George W.
Bush in 2004. GM won't provide many details about the new vehicle's security
features, of course, but the 2009 edition is the latest in a long line
of presidential limos from the Detroit
automaker.
Presidents and Cadillacs: Change and Continuity
According to Engineering
News, President Woodrow Wilson was possibly the first commander-in-chief to
ride in a Caddy, while touring Boston during a World War I victory parade in 1919. Calvin Coolidge was issued a Cadillac
town car in 1928, and two Caddy convertibles were delivered to Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1938.
In 1956, new cars called the Queen Mary II and Queen Elizabeth II replaced the vehicles that had served Presidents
Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower through war and peace. The new Cadillac convertibles were
smaller than the Queen Mary I and the
Queen Elizabeth I, but were well-armed,
fully-armored, and equipped with two-way radios.
The second-generation Queens remained in
service until 1968, but open-air presidential motorcades had already become a
part of the past. In November of 1963, President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated while riding in an open car in Dallas, Texas.
A little over a year later, in January of 1965, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B.
Johnson, traveled the route of his own inauguration parade in a bulletproof
limousine.
During the 1980s, President Ronald W, Reagan traveled in
a Cadillac Fleetwood that was both bug-proof and bulletproof. President William J. Clinton also enjoyed a
Fleetwood, but with a Brougham-Presidential series designation. Unlike previous
models that, typically, were Cadillac cars modified by outside companies, the
1993 Presidential Brougham was 100% GM designed, developed, and manufactured.
In continuing this tradition, Cadillac delivered a first
limousine to President George W. Bush in 2001. Three years later, the president
began riding in a the new DTS model.
The 2009 Presidential
Limousine
Presidents have their share of critics, and there's little in life of the
world's most powerful person that remains out of public view. So it comes as no
surprise that even the President's car is fair game. In a recent story for the
Christian Science Monitor called "Obama's new limo – ugly but it can fend off
asteroids", Jimmy Orr gives the 2009 presidential limousine its first dirt
bath. "You know that Cadillac commercial that says, 'When you turn your car on,
does it return the favor?'" writes Orr. "Well, you might have to be a masochist
then to enjoy Barack Obama's new caddy."
But the First Limousine doesn't need to do be a beauty queen. In fact, it's
better to have a vehicle that's a pit bull – with or without the lipstick. Dubbed
"The Beast" by the U.S. Secret Service, the Obama-mobile is reportedly plated
with armor five inches thick. The windows are bulletproof, the tires are
run-flat, and the interior is so tight that it's immune to chemical attack.
But will he be able to hear Hail to the Chief?
Resources:
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/cadillac-unveils-obamas-new-presidential-limousine-2009-01-15
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2009/01/19/
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/01/15/obamas-new-limo-ugly-but-it-can-fend-off-asteroids/
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