Friday 3 March 2017

Inside Trump's New Car, The 'Beast'





It is known as Cadillac One and 'The Beast' or, as President Trump now calls it, his personal limousine service.

These pictures show the brand new incarnation of the President's official vehicle undergoing final testing before it is delivered to the White House.

The sedan is longer than two large SUVs and, for the moment, remains in white and black camouflage designed to make it more difficult to identify new features aboard the vehicle.

The final version will be painted black and silver just like the current version, once it is given the final approval.

General Motors, which reportedly made the vehicle, had hoped for it to be ready for Mr Trump's inauguration in January but it will now be deployed later this month.

The £1.2 million car is part of a fleet of 12 which cost around £15 million and is arguably the safest vehicle in the world, as befits the President of the United States.

The Beast weighs eight tonnes and has eight-inch thick steel doors that weigh the same as those on a Boeing 757 - and are sealed to withstand biological and chemical attacks.

The front windscreen can withstand armour piercing bullets or a .44 magnum and the bodywork is military grade and five inches thick.

The reinforced undercarriage with withstand going over a roadside bomb and the fuel tank is explosive resistant.

Only the driver's side window can open in case he needs to pay a toll - and in the boot are cases of the President's blood for an emergency transfusion.

Among the other features are shotguns on board in case an attack breaks out, Kevlar tyres that run even if they are flat and an oxygen system in the trunk in case of a chemical attack.

A number of guns are hidden in the front grille of the vehicle which can be used to fire on an attacker.

One of the few times The Beast has broken down was in 2013 when a driver put the wrong fuel into it while on a trip to Israel.

The embarrassing blunder left the Secret Service scrambling to find a vehicle that could take President Obama around Tel Aviv.He was not on board at the time.

Mr Obama's staff had anticipated every eventuality with The Beast and had bought generators and backup equipment - but they did not count on such a basic human error.

Another incident was on a 2011 trip to Ireland when The Beast got stuck on a speed bump outside the US Embassy in Dublin.

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