The Beast: the million-euro car with which Joe Biden will move around Madrid

The Cadillac limousine with which Biden will travel through Madrid during the NATO Summit is a bomb- and rocket-proof rolling fortress that measures 5.5 meters long and weighs 9,000 kilos.

In 'The Beast', the novel by Carmen Mola that won the 2021 Planeta Prize, a mysterious serial killer travels through 1834 Madrid in search of girls with no future and sows the city with dismembered corpses while a cholera epidemic devastates the city. Now another 'Beast' is going to tour Madrid, although this time what it is going to leave in its wake are closed streets and highways that are going to complicate traffic in the capital due to the NATO Summit being held between Tuesday and Thursday This week.

'The Beast' we are talking about is the impressive limousine of more than 5 meters long used by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, to get around in his national and international events. Manufactured by Cadillac (General Motors) in exchange for more than a million dollars, Biden's presidential car (and other previous presidents) is a 'bunker' on wheels that weighs several tons (it is believed to be close to 9,000 kilos). ) and that combines the design of a limousine with the chassis of a GMC truck.

The current presidential limousine entered service on January 20, 2009, so it was also used by Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Although much of the specifications of 'The Beast' are secret for security reasons, it is known that the doors are more than 20 centimeters thick and the windows reach 13 cm thick to withstand rocket fire. In fact, the windows are believed to be fixed and cannot be lowered.

The fully armored body is made of aluminium, steel and titanium. In addition, the tires are Run Flat or anti-puncture type, which allow them to continue rolling at high speed for almost 80 kilometers even if they are punctured by bullet holes. The rims are reinforced with kevlar to increase their resistance and are so solid that they could roll without rubber in extreme cases. Everything is designed so that The Beast can escape, with its illustrious passengers unscathed, from any type of terrorist attack.

The presidential limousine has capacity for three rows of seats and seven people. In the first row are the driver and an escort who is also trained to drive the vehicle in an emergency. Armored glass separates the first row of seats from the rear compartment, which is equipped with two other rows in a 3 2 configuration separated by a folding table.

In the second row there are three seats facing the opposite direction of the march in which the chief of staff of the White House and the president's trusted personnel usually travel, while the last row is reserved for the president and a companion who normally It is the first lady of the United States, Jill Biden.

The presidential limousine is powered by a 6.6-liter V8 Duramax turbodiesel that generates 400 hp and 565 Nm of torque, although due to the enormous weight of the vehicle it only reaches a top speed of 100 km/h. It is not a vehicle that needs great performance to flee in the event of an attack, since it is escorted by a retinue of dozens of cars (between 50 and 80), some of them equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers to respond in the event of an attack.