Full-Metal Traffic Jam (armored car alert)

When all those limos pull up to the red carpet at the Oscars this month, some will be outfitted more elaborately than the stars. Beneath their shiny exteriors is the hottest new automotive accessory—bulletproof armor. Just ask David Seelinger, president of Secure Car Worldwide. He’s struggling to keep up with calls from VIPs eager to pay $2,000 a day to ride in his steel-plated limos.

CEOS ARE ARMORING themselves against terrorism, movie stars are getting death threats and rappers fear assassination. To keep up with demand, Seelinger has more than tripled his armored fleet to 10 cars. “This is absolutely a sign of the times,” he says.
With homeland insecurity rising, the car business is going ballistic. Ford is introducing the $140,000 Lincoln Town Car BPS—for Ballistic Protection Series—which can stop an AK-47 and block a grenade. Later this year GM will roll out an armored Cadillac Deville capable of deflecting bullets from a .44 magnum. At last week’s Geneva Motor Show, BMW introduced the 760Li High Security, which can be hermetically sealed in a gas attack and supply its occupants with germ-free oxygen. Car-armor customizers are now putting full-metal jackets on Cadillac Escalades and Hummer H2s—at prices ranging from $30,000 to $350,000 above sticker price. Armored-car makers, whose big customers traditionally have been in developing countries, say the United States is now one of the fastest-growing markets. At Scaletta Moloney in Chicago, one of the world’s top armoring specialists, U.S. sales have shot up 40 percent since Orange alerts entered the lexicon. “People have awoken to the fact that it can happen here,” says CEO Joe Scaletta.

Big cash in this bizness. Ford's the first to really make good on it in the U.S., while independents have been sucking money from Euro and third world elites for a long time. An old timer Cadillac Export Division chief told me that he used to track the political fortunes of various international clients by the frequency of their requests for new bullt-proof windshields...

Discovery Channel will run a show on armored cars this April. They came to me for info on the President's limousine. There wasn't much I could tell them, other than that the Secret Service prefers we don't know. One story I let out was of the SS agent who got his fingers caught in the door of Cadillac One. Ouch. The man fainted (without his fingers, I suspect) and hasn't been seen around since. Otherwise, I told them about running motorcades, a tricky business. One story was of the VP of Japan who was sitting in the rear-facing seat of a limousine. The driver was slow to exit the hotel entrance, and finding the motorcade getting ahead of him he hit the gas. Rule no. 1 in motorcades is never get separated from the caravan. The sudden acceleration threw the Japanese VP into the laps of the riders in the ront-facing seat.

Folks might remember the press photo of a limousine that was practically cut in half at thge Pentagon by an undergound barrier that was thrown up as the limousine passed. What happened is that the driver got behind in the motorcade and the guard didn't even guess if he belonged with the others or not. It nearly cut the limousine in half. It was a Japanese military delegation, I believe.

The press stories said the barrier came up "suddenly." Not so. The driver blew it, and the gaurd did his job. ( Story here)

Armor is usually for show. Security comes of either showing it off or not. Those who choose the less-discrete option generally do so for show. Nevertheless, sometimes the show is a defense unto itself. Sadly, many folks around the world need armor these days. I wrote about it in my book Stretching It: The Story of the Limousine

We try to defuse the James Bond myth," says Scarletta marketing VP Dan Trainor. That means no rocket launchers, oil slicks or gun ports.

Damned!

Nevermind. Buy elsewhere for your armored Cherokee or Blazer with gunports for Ingram M10 or Uzi SMGs, a gunner's roof hatch, and blast shields for two rearward-facing Claymores for discouraging pursuers, all options from ISG of San Antonio, just like the State Depertment antiterrorist security teams do.

And the Kevlar/Nomex composite *soft armor they use is much lower in weight than steel, hardened aluminum or ceramic, and puts considerably less strain on the vehicle's suspension and opower train.

-archy-/-

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