Parking 'The Beast' at Downing Street

An interesting little video of the Secret Service trying to park the Executive Limousine. You get to see all around the limousine as he tries to turn and park it.

BBC news link...

The driver should have run over the guy trying to direct him. He probably could have gotten it parked a lot faster that way.

Here is the car arriving. I guess that they were turning the car around for his departure in the above link...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbN_NNmLe2Q[/ame]

Pity I can't get the BBC link to play for some reason on my laptop. Anyway, I think it's especially interesting to note that two identical Presidential limos made the trip to Downing Street. The Secret Service always deploys at least two in the motorcade, one for transporting the President and the other for decoy and backup purposes (type "motorcade" as a search term in YouTube and hunt for footage of when one of these limos actually conked out in Rome, necessitating Bush 43's transfer to the second car). If the destination is a particularly dodgy one, the USSS might field even more decoys. I could count FIVE armored limos in film footage of Bill Clinton's threat-filled trip to Pakistan in March, 2000.

Gregg D. Merksamer said:

... I think it's especially interesting to note that two identical Presidential limos made the trip to Downing Street. The Secret Service always deploys at least two in the motorcade, one for transporting the President and the other for decoy and backup purposes (type "motorcade" as a search term in YouTube and hunt for footage of when one of these limos actually conked out in Rome, necessitating Bush 43's transfer to the second car). If the destination is a particularly dodgy one, the USSS might field even more decoys. I could count FIVE armored limos in film footage of Bill Clinton's threat-filled trip to Pakistan in March, 2000.

Click to expand...

Is there an official count as to how many presidental limousines there are? Is there a US fleet of a couple and also a European fleet? I had known that there are always at least two in the motorcades... one for the actual transport and one for backup. I hadn't even thought until this post that there might be a whole other fleet on the other side of the Atlantic.

Number of Presidential Limos

I am not sure anyone could find out the exact number and where they are (Secret Service stuff), but my observation over the years on the west coast is that two and generally transported by air along with 4 or so armored suburbans with the advance team. There are also additional ones on standby in major cities like LA, Denver, etc. For example when the So-Cal Chapter had one of their American Heros Meets a few years ago one of the identical (same year) ones that Bush used was there at a Secret Service recruiting booth with the President no where in site, although I think Lou and "W" are on a first name basis! MM

Without repeating the whole story that I did comment on in a previous posting: My Towing company did have the Secret service contract here in Phoenix. A Tow unit with 2 operators was always on duty when the Big Guy was in town.

One of the Caddy's had an ailment during a trip and it was repaired at a local dealership under immediate need while closely watched by the Secret Service.

Due to the number of stops the Prez seems to make during a day or two while out and about I seriously doubt there's two at each stop...instead they're swapped out to the next stop and so on.

I could have sworn I read somewhere that they built 30 of the presidential cars, but I'll be dipped if I know where I read that.

Visit to BWI Airport today

Well, we had a little visit today from the US Secret Service at my firehouse at work (BWI Airport in Baltimore). Seems like the Veep (not Rick Duffy, that Joe Biden fellow) was flying in to BWI for a stop in the area, so the Veep's rides were at the firehouse for a few hours. So I got a good look.

They had two Suburbans here, both dark blue, as well as a third for escort. The 'burbs had a single row of seats between where the second and third row of seats would be on a normal 'burb. And they were brand new, the guys said this was their first detail, had very low mileage, even the tires looked new. Photo attached. Check out the custom wheels and the little flag-holders in the front fenders (above the wheels).

I noticed that the two Suburbans both had the same DC license plate numbers! You can do that in DC if you're the Feds. Interestingly, I looked again at the video of the "Beast" in London earlier this week. Guess what? Same tag!

Photos were taken with permission. Oh, and the Veep did arrive in typical style in Air Force 2, photo of that one, too. It's always interesting working at an airport.

(And no, I didn't get to meet or see Biden. Alas, the only VP I get to see is Rick. Whoopdee doo! )

That Downing Street car isn't the inaugural car either, it has whitewalls and the car-style grille on the front. There must be a bunch running around. I wonder if the Bush-era cars were just rebodied to resemble the current body style and the car in England isn't just one of Bush's cars...the new one(s) is(are) in DC.

If you read the history of the '61 Lincoln X100 "Kennedy limousine" on various websites, you'll see that this car underwent several modifications over its lifetime. I was confused at the photos over the years of what appeared to be '66/'67/'69 model limos serving LBJ/Nixon/Ford until I read somewhere that the '61 got new sheet metal as part of its modifications. Considering the huge cost of these cars, it makes sense that rebuilding/updating is more practical than an entire new car every three or four years ("practical" DOES seem an oxymoron where the government is concerned though ) With that in mind, I think the original '00 FWD style limo has been updated with '06 sheetmetal. The blackwall-tired beast is all new. I suspect there are 2-4 of these and the previous '00 models. Perhaps a few of them are designated to be flown by the Secret Service to wherever the President goes and needs one, while the newest cars are kept in the DC area. 30 of each model seems unrealistic. Having a few brand new ones and several of the next newest and on down the line makes for an adequate inventory to meet travel needs.Whoops, I obviously don't know how to work the italics button-I intended to just italicize "style" after '00. I know that these cars are all RWD on a modified truck chassis!

Additional shield

Additional USSS Car Trivia.... If you look closely at the newest SS Burbs and the Pres-VP Cadillac's there is an additional electrical operated window shield that comes up on the inside of the outside window (Operated by the Driver). (*) When Obama first got in to the Cadillac during the inaguration it was up and later put down a block or so latter when he figured out that he waving in to a steel plate.....even new Presidents take a little "getting used to your new car" training....if you skip reading the owner's manual! MM

the sky was full

I heard today on the news that when he flew into the conference in France last week in a helicopter they had 30 of them up flying as decoys