Cadillac
Cadillac Presidential state car
The United States presidential state car (nicknamed "the Beast", "Cadillac One", "First Car"; code named "Stagecoach") is the official state car of the president of the United States. United States presidents embraced automotive technology in the early 20th century with President William Howard Taft's purchase of four cars and the conversion of the White House stables into a garage. Presidents rode in stock, unmodified cars until President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration bought the Sunshine Special, the first presidential state car to be built to United States Secret Service standards. Until the assassination of John F. Kennedy, presidential state cars frequently allowed the president to ride uncovered and exposed to the public. President Kennedy's assassination began a progression of increasingly armored and sealed cars; the 2009–2018 state car had five-inch (130 mm) bulletproof glass and was hermetically sealed with its own environmental system. Since 2018 the presidential state car has been a custom-built Cadillac. Decommissioned presidential state cars are destroyed by the Secret Service for training and to protect their secrets. Late 20th-century and 21st-century presidential motorcades have consisted of 24–45 vehicles other than the presidential state car, including those for security, healthcare, the press, and route-clearing, among others. The first president to ride in a car was President William McKinley, who briefly rode in a Stanley Motor Carriage Company steam car on July 13, 1901. According to the United States Secret Service, it was customary for them to follow the presidential horse-drawn carriage on foot. Iin 1907 they bought a White Motor Company Model G 30 hp steam car, supposedly so they could follow President Theodore Roosevelt's carriage. Seeking to protect his image as a "rough-riding horseman", Roosevelt usually avoided using it, but sometimes he did (see photograph).
Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Generations & variants
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Sources
- Wikidata / Wikipedia profiles — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/cars/Q2745015CC0 / CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_state_carCC BY-SA 4.0 · Intro text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1374684091 · retrieved 2026-10-01
- Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.