Barack Obama’s brand new presidential limousine has been given the Pimp My Ride treatment by the US secret service in time for his inauguration on January 20.

Despite campaign trail promises to transform all White House vehicles into hybrids, the President-elect has had to bow to security concerns. As he tools around Washington DC in the years to come, he will be cocooned inside a modified Cadillac that is capable of withstanding roadside bomb blasts and could survive a sustained battle involving gunfire and RPGs.

Code-named “Stagecoach”, it is more like a rolling tank with no gun barrel. According to the Detroit News, the new limousine also has ‘run-flat’ tyres, bulletproof glass and a completely sealed interior to protect the next president in the event of a chemical attack. It also has encrypted electronic communications equipment. A detail of secret service agents is currently being familiarised with the new vehicle at an undisclosed location near Washington. Shortly after Obama takes the oath of office, the agents will drive him the two miles down Pennsylvania Avenue for the inaugural parade.

The windows in his Cadillac are especially small to present less of a target and the doors are as thick as those on an airliner and packed with armour. Spy photos of the limousine, complete with bands of grey primer, have leaked, as have car enthusiasts’ reviews: “Ugly as sin,” said one on a car enthusiasts’’ website. “Can’t we make a hotter ride for our pres?” “Sheesh,” wrote another, “why don’t they just transport the President around in an Abrams tank?” One commentator suggested it could withstand a “direct hit from an asteroid.” However, General Motors’ spokeswoman Joanne Krell dismissed that, telling CNN: “And it will fix you a latte if you ask.”

“The presidential vehicle is built to precise specifications, undergoes extreme testing and development, and also incorporates many of the top aspects of Cadillac’s ‘regular’ cars, such as signature design, hand-cut-and-sewn interiors, etc,” Krell said.

The legislation creating the secret service was on President Lincoln’s desk the night he was assassinated and ever since agents have been tailing US presidents. In 1907, the agency acquired a steam car known as ‘The Incomparable White’ to follow Theodore Roosevelt’s horse-drawn carriage. For much of the century, chauffeurs from the White House drove presidents until the Secret Service took over the driving responsibilities after Roosevelt’s death in 1945. Bulletproof limousines only arrived in 1965 when Lyndon Johnson was inaugurated less than two years after the assassination of John F Kennedy, who rode through Dallas in a convertible.