"The Beast" it has eight-inch-thick doors, oxygen tanks, hidden submachine guns, tear-gas cannons, Kevlar-reinforced run-flat tyres and glass that can withstand armour-piercing bullets.
"The State Landau" apparent it now has an electric heater, not just blankets to cover the knees. Oh the top goes up for added security (from the rain).
Apparently "the Beast" grounded on a ramp in Ireland and had to be abandoned. Compare - contrast!
12 comments:
It must be awful to have to travel like that. The Popemobiles I understand are also bombproof and can accelerate at very high speed should it become necessary. I don't think they have hidden sub-machine guns though.
Q: "Pay attention, 007. This may look like an ordinary landau, but that lamp is an armour-piercing grenade launcher."
Bond: "Good, Q! Should come in handy during the rush-hour traffic hams. Is there anything else I need to know?"
Q: "Just bring it back in one piece, 007!"
Here are two other vehicles: the tiny blue Volvo on the left (almost unnoticeable) belongs to the King of Sweden, the bigger one (at the foreground) is Putin's
http://kommersant.ru/dark-gallery.aspx?id=1630898&picsid=578466&stpid=63&l=1
The most Beloved & Popular leader of the Most Powerful & Wealthiest Nation in the history of the Universe must be protected,there might be some odd-ball out there who may want to get rid of him.
Fr Blake. You are hilarious. Fr Denton
I remember being in Prague in the early 1990's and as I was walking up to the Castle on the hill five tiny cars (I think they may have been Trabants) emerged in convoy from one of the gated houses on the street from the Romanian Embassy.
I see ones of the protestors on Parliament Square had a banner which read:
"Obama: speaks likes JESUS, rules like HEROD"
Yes, that was rather amusing - a $200k+ Limo built to withstand bombs and bullets gets 'grounded' by an Irish pavement!
I suspect the next model will have some 'refinement' for dealing with such a situation...
I pass a 1960s Skoda Trabant whenever I go down Beaconsfield Villas.
This fascinatingly decrepit East German car has fantastic acceleration.
Nought to 60 in ten seconds if you push it off a cliff.
GOR, while the pavement is physically in Ireland it is in the grounds of the US embassy and therefore US territory and the responsibility of the US government!
Pray for the Irish organisers and security planners.
Someone's going get the sack!
True Fr. Seán, but I suspect it was laid by Irish labor – unless Obama had a few US mud-jackers among his 500+ entourage…
But my point was not to fault the concrete installation - rather that this eventuality was apparently never envisioned in the design of the Limo or in the care about how and where it is driven. From a security standpoint that raises some issues. The car was a ‘sitting duck’ with its back wheels off the ground and not all-wheel drive, obviously! As it turned out Obama was not in that particular ‘Beast’ – one of three used in the entourage to disguise which one he is actually in…
@ Father Coyle; nice point :)
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