It’s always good to know “a guy.” He provides you access to things you wouldn’t be able to get on your own, whether it’s Cuban cigars, a spot on the waiting list for a highly desirable Rolex, or an authentic piece of memorabilia from a Sean Connery James Bond movie. If you’re a car enthusiast, the ultimate guy to know is Jay Leno. Whatever he doesn’t already own, he can get access to. Recently on Jay Leno’s Garage, he welcomed perhaps the most important car in the country: the presidential limousine.
Of course, it came with chaperones in suits: Steve Abel, a Protective Armored Specialist, and Jay Nasworthy, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, both of whom serve in the Presidential Protective Division. They were understandably tight-lipped about the specifics of the car and wouldn’t allow the interior to be shown for security reasons, proving that there are limits to even Leno’s access. However, what they were able to divulge was interesting.
We’re now in the third generation of the modern GM presidential limousine. After a development process of several years that involves the Secret Service sending over criteria to GM, each new car lives for eight years and is then decommissioned (aka destroyed – how’s that for a retirement party?). The current iteration of the limo was “built to resemble a Cadillac” and even incorporates some stock parts to cut costs. The super-thick tires are typically seen on buses or trucks and provide run-flat functionality. There’s no official word on the Ballistic Protection Level so we’ll just have to take Nasworthy’s word for it when he says the vehicle has “robust capabilities.”
Fortunately, he can disclose harmless details about the interior, such as the inlay around one of the presidential seals is made from the wood harvested from a horse chestnut tree George Washington planted in Virginia. And as you’d expect in a Cadillac, there are heated, cooled, and massaging seats in the back.
Nasworthy also makes it clear that “The Beast” is a nickname for the president’s limousine in pop culture, not the Secret Service. He refers to it as a “parade limousine” because it has extended windows that allow crowds to see the president as he passes by.
If the presidential motorcade drives past you at an event, you may not see the exact car shown in this video. As a form of insurance against things inevitably going wrong (such as water-logged gas), the Secret Service always flies at least two cars with the president wherever he goes. When one of those cars is on the ground, it’s trailed by a chase vehicle with support personnel who can install spare parts or add necessary fluids to keep the vehicle moving away from potential threats.
Even the limo has its own special means of transportation. At the end of the video, it rolls up the ramp of a Boeing C-17 to be flown off to its next destination.
