Gregg D. Merksamer
PCS Life Member / PCS Publicity Chairman / PCS Ele
Time to revue a decade's worth of white house beasts!
It's obvious to me there's still a bit of confusion as to which White House "Beast" is which, so I'm attaching General Motors photos from my archive that should give you all a solid, side-by-side visual comparison ...
The current generation of extra heavily-armored Presidential limos, visually defined by those extremely wide pillars flanking the windshield, debuted at Bush 43's first inaugural in 2001. Judging from available photos and TV footage showing the doors being held open for the President, the windows on these cars are six inches thick or therabouts, roughly double what was employed on Bill Clinton's 1993 generation Fleetwoods. Basic styling details are derived from the 2000 Cadillac DeVille that stayed current through the 2005 model year, though the wheel openings are much bigger and fillers were added in such places as under the headlights and between the taillights and trunk opening to account for the body's taller, wider dimensions versus stock DeVille sedans.
Bush 43's second inaugural parade in January, 2005 saw all of the 2001 style Presidential limousines updated with more-angular front and rear ends, "stacked" headlights, a grille-mounted Cadillac shield (versus the previous hood ornament) and a rear license plate housing relocated from the trunk lid to the bumper, all of which were inspired by the 2006-2011 model Cadillac DTS debuted in "civilian" form at the Chicago Auto Show a few weeks later. In common with the raised roofline and unsually-wide windshield pillars, aluminum wheels shod with high-profile, heavy-duty whitewall tires were a visual carryover. This is actually the generation of Presidential limo most often filmed or photographed in action during Obama's first term, as it evidently took a while for General Motors to finish decoy/backup duplicates to the 2009 style "Beast" debuted at his first inauguration.
The current generation "Beast," as I've just noted, officially entered service during Obama's first inauguration in January, 2009, and at least four were employed at the 2013 inaugural parade out of the nine units General Motors reportedly constructed. In distinct contrast to the whitewall tires, aluminum wheels and DeVille-DTS styling cues used on the Bush 43 limos, the "Obamabeasts" have blackwall tires, chrome-plated wheelcovers and Escalade-like headlamp clusters and side mirrors. The roofline retains the wide A-pillars and six-inch or thereabouts transparent side armor used since 2001, but the look has been made a little sleeker by adding a bright upper drip molding to unite the window openings. It should not surprise any of you to hear that I use the second image from the bottom as my desktop computer's screen saver!
It's obvious to me there's still a bit of confusion as to which White House "Beast" is which, so I'm attaching General Motors photos from my archive that should give you all a solid, side-by-side visual comparison ...
The current generation of extra heavily-armored Presidential limos, visually defined by those extremely wide pillars flanking the windshield, debuted at Bush 43's first inaugural in 2001. Judging from available photos and TV footage showing the doors being held open for the President, the windows on these cars are six inches thick or therabouts, roughly double what was employed on Bill Clinton's 1993 generation Fleetwoods. Basic styling details are derived from the 2000 Cadillac DeVille that stayed current through the 2005 model year, though the wheel openings are much bigger and fillers were added in such places as under the headlights and between the taillights and trunk opening to account for the body's taller, wider dimensions versus stock DeVille sedans.
Bush 43's second inaugural parade in January, 2005 saw all of the 2001 style Presidential limousines updated with more-angular front and rear ends, "stacked" headlights, a grille-mounted Cadillac shield (versus the previous hood ornament) and a rear license plate housing relocated from the trunk lid to the bumper, all of which were inspired by the 2006-2011 model Cadillac DTS debuted in "civilian" form at the Chicago Auto Show a few weeks later. In common with the raised roofline and unsually-wide windshield pillars, aluminum wheels shod with high-profile, heavy-duty whitewall tires were a visual carryover. This is actually the generation of Presidential limo most often filmed or photographed in action during Obama's first term, as it evidently took a while for General Motors to finish decoy/backup duplicates to the 2009 style "Beast" debuted at his first inauguration.
The current generation "Beast," as I've just noted, officially entered service during Obama's first inauguration in January, 2009, and at least four were employed at the 2013 inaugural parade out of the nine units General Motors reportedly constructed. In distinct contrast to the whitewall tires, aluminum wheels and DeVille-DTS styling cues used on the Bush 43 limos, the "Obamabeasts" have blackwall tires, chrome-plated wheelcovers and Escalade-like headlamp clusters and side mirrors. The roofline retains the wide A-pillars and six-inch or thereabouts transparent side armor used since 2001, but the look has been made a little sleeker by adding a bright upper drip molding to unite the window openings. It should not surprise any of you to hear that I use the second image from the bottom as my desktop computer's screen saver!
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)that they take old ones and use them for ballistics testing and research to make forthcoming vehicles more able to withstand attacks of varrying nature.