How Limousines Work

The first limousines weren't even cars! Learn all about the history of limousines, how they're made and some of the most creative and expensive amenities you can find inside them in this episode with Josh and Chuck.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bright and Jerome Jerry
Did we say your last name the day? We've never
said it? Okay, She's like, keep it that way, Jerome

(00:24):
Jerry Blank, Jerry Blank. That's a real person, right. No.
She was on Strangers with TV. Yeah yeah, okay. I
was like, man, I know that name. Yeah, the name right? Yeah. Yeah.
She really cleaned herself up and went on to become
a spokesperson for Downe. Amy Saiderius Jerry Blank, Oh yeah,

(00:44):
they're one and the same. Yeah, I love Amy, Saidaris.
I like the Siderus is some people, don't, aren't they fighting? Oh?
Amy and David like a lot, David and everybody else.
I think he wrote like some New Yorker article about
his stid sister. There's sister who I think I can't
remember what happened, but she wrote like a memoir about her,

(01:07):
and I think the New Yorker. They got mad and
the rest of his family like called him out on
like the inconsistencies and errors and and facts, and maybe
they were tired of it because all he's done is
right about his family. Yeah. I guess they're like, that's it, David. Yeah,
no more, we're done, cut us in or we're gonna
cause big trouble for you. I was about to do

(01:29):
my David Sadaris and then I realized, like, I don't
do it, David Sadarison. I could, but yeah, I'm not
gonna go there. So limos. Yeah, at least some of
the saidarus Is ride around in limousines. I bet they have, uh,
and I can guarantee they have because Chuck, It turns
out the definition of a limousine is way broader you

(01:51):
would think, Yeah, it's It doesn't necessarily mean some super
stretch No, but it can sure. Basically, a limousine technically
is any car with a roomier back seat than the
average car. And if you throw in a driver, you
you there's nobody who's gonna say that's not a limo.

(02:11):
You can be like, yes it is, yea and be right. Yeah.
Like technically, if you want to get a hire a
town car to take you to the airport, technically that's
a limousine. Yeah, you know the car services in New York,
those are limos. That's right to have me in Atlanta too?
Do they have a car service here in Atlanta? Are
you kidding me? All I see are just the worst?

(02:33):
Oh yes, yeah, yeah yeah, because there's a special tag. Yeah.
Did you know that Atlanta taxi drivers are the worst
taxi drivers on the planet? Um? Have you noticed from
experience that it's pretty bad? But I just uber it
now that's different. Yeah, that's different than the taxis. Oh no,
that's what I'm saying. That's why I uber it because
they're different than the taxis. Yeah. Seriously, anybody who comes

(02:56):
to Atlanta, if you make it out of Hartsfield, look
around at the town next season, how they drive, your
mind will be scrambled. It's crazy. I think cabbies are
kind of like that everywhere with no no, like very
frequently they are the best drivers in the entire city.
They know where they're going. They don't just meander, they
don't like drift into lanes, they don't drive super slow.
I've had the opposite experience most most cabs that I've

(03:20):
been in, the driver was pretty great. Usually when I'm
in a cab in New York City, I wonder, is
this the ride where we hit somebody? Or some other car. Yes,
but you don't. And they're going really fast. In Atlanta,
they drive ten miles an hour and hit everything. They
just sideswipe everything. Slow and lousy, come to it, Lanter.

(03:43):
So anyway, we're talking limousines, man, let's get back on track. Yeah,
I should say to I hate limousines. Like I love
a good town car ride to or from an airport,
but as far as a stretch limousine, I just hate
that whole thing, just a little kind of hey, look
at me. Oh, it's just dumb. It's longer, and it's

(04:04):
got a bar. It's just I don't know. I think
the whole thing is stupid and like just part of
that whole narcissistic culture that I despise. You know, I've
got money, so I wanted to be in a longer
car with a TV in it. Well for a very
long time. If you wanted a TV in your car
or a phone, yeah, your car better be double the

(04:26):
size of the normal version of it. All right. I
just had to get on my soapbox. Like if it's
for prom and you're all going in, like I get
like a fun thing like that, but or a fur bus,
the fur bus for your niece's birthday, Like we did
that was fun? What you never done that? No? I
thought you were saying we rented it for my niece's birthday. No,

(04:46):
my niece's birthday. You weren't a part of it is
my family, and I wasn't invited. Scott invited me. This
is before I knew you, my friend. Um. Anyway, I
can see the fun of it occasionally, but just as
a means of transportation, I think it's pretty not just
got especially those huge, huge like hammer stretches. I just
wanted like to de materialize those with my eyes. I

(05:09):
wish I could shoot a laser beam and d me
and expose the people within just all all of a
sudden they're on the street with their bourbon and coke
on what happened to my super stretched summer. I wonder
how you'd have to do that, so like your your
laser be my eyes would have to just just fiberglass,
like destroy fiberglass and steel and upholstery and rubber. Yeah,

(05:34):
there you go. So uh. I think, as we've stayed in,
a limousine doesn't necessarily have to be what you hate.
It can also be just a car that's driven by
somebody where you got a roomy back seat for the
passenger and I speak trunk. But even before that, even
if you want to say, wow, it's a broad definition
the limousine. Man, let's go even further back and include

(05:55):
clothing as a limousine in the definition of limousines. That's right,
because I learned, as I imagine you did, the word
limousine comes from a town in France called Limousine. Limousine.
We'd like to introduce our new principal Skinner. Principal see
war Skinner. That's that is one of the all time greats. Um. Yes,

(06:18):
it was limousine without the E on the end. And
like you said, the original limousine wasn't a car. It
was a kind of like a little hooded raincoat that
protected you. Yeah, like little red riding hood wore a limousine. Yeah.
It was, yeah, a hooded cloak. And it was invented
in limousin France, and it became synonymous with limousine France

(06:39):
because they called it a limousine. That's right. Uh. So
as people started um building coaches that protected the uh,
the rider, the passenger from the elements, They're like, wow,
that's kind of like a hooded cloak in a really
weird way, a little bit of a stretch. Let's start
calling these limousines. Yeah, even if it was a horse carriage. Um,

(07:04):
the idea that you were not driving this carriage and
you had a nice little comfy seat that's covered in
the back, they called it a limous scene. And very frequently,
probably all the time is a better way to put it. Um,
The driver himself wasn't covered, like there was just the
passengers that were covered. Now you'll get rained on and
like it exactly. If you complain, we'll put you on

(07:26):
the rack, that's right. And this continued until the they
started building regular as I think Jonathan Strickland wrote this
what he calls horseless carriages very cheekily a k a.
The automobile. Uh. And they called those limousines. And they
started like very early on in New York City they
started someone started a limousine service, I think in the twenties. Yeah,

(07:51):
not too bad. Um. And these cars, the first early,
the earliest limousines were basically built from the ground up,
like you you built a car with the intention of
building a like a stretch, longer car, a limousine as
we understand it today. Um. And it might not be

(08:13):
like a stretch sedan. Some of the early limousines um
looked a lot like station wagons or like an old
model T station wagon, you know what I'm saying. Um.
But very quickly these companies figured out that it would
be vastly easier to take an already manufactured car and
stretch it, basically do conversion, and that became the tradition

(08:35):
for a very long time, thinks, starting in the twenties. Yeah,
and luxury cars obviously from the beginning where the prime targets,
because this is what rich people were used to having
their fannies sit upon while they were being driven around.
So Mercedes, Benz and Cadillacs and Fleetwoods and le Baron's,
we're all prime candidates. Even the famed Bentley had a

(08:58):
limousine the ore Nag that they made only twenty of.
Did you look at that? It's pretty sweet? Yeah, I
gotta admit, yeah, Vernon limousine guy, I was like, that's
kind of nice. That's a very nice car. Uh. You
ever written in a Bentley for any reason? I haven't either.
Now you can get a Chrysler that looks like a Bentley.

(09:18):
Was that the three hundred? I don't know I called
I think it is the three Call him Fentley's for
some reason. Um, John Varvatos had a three hundred edition?
Was that edition? He's a clothing designer, And in the
ad for his edition of the Chrysler three hundred, it's
him and Iggy Pop. Just randomly. Iggy Pop is in

(09:39):
the ad with him. I guess they were getting wasted
together that day that he had to film. Did he
have a shirt off? I probably, I can't remember. Yeah,
you don't seem with a shirt that much. Uh. He's
very proud of his wiry, muscular body. I don't blame him.
All right, I think we've wasted enough time, So let's
right after this break talk about that limo conversion because

(10:00):
to me, that's about the most interesting part of limousines.
All Right, we're back and we were talking about limo conversion.
Like you said, early on, they used to build a
limo to be a limo. Yeah, like just some guy

(10:20):
would build a car from the ground up and he
would build an extra long and that's where the early
limousines came from. Yeah. It was a company called arm
Brewster in ninety eight where they Arkansas. It was I
think they're American. I don't they are American. I don't
remember if it's in Arkansas or not, but it was.
Actually I found in a right up on the company
from seven. It says three is when they built their

(10:45):
first limousine, and that by at least ninety six they
were doing conversions. Because there's a picture of an early
stretched buick that they made, and they realized that conversions
was where it was at. Right, Let's like an existing car,
cut it in half and stick something in the middle
of those two pieces, right, because somebody else is going

(11:05):
to the trouble of building, the engine of designing, like
the dynamics of figuring out how to put the tires
where and all that. Why do all that? Like, yeah,
when you can just cut a car in half and yeah,
add more car and then bam you have a stretched limousine.
I had no idea they did it this way. No.
When I read it the first time, I was like,
surely he just made a he's made a horseless carriage joke.

(11:27):
I know this mus to be a joke as well.
Now that's how a lot of limousines are made. And
it's funny you bring up the three hundred Chrysler three D, said,
the one that looks like a Bentley. Um, because I
saw um, I guess a test of one of them
that was, like, Chrysler builds these three hundred stretch limousines. Yeah,
so if you see it Chrysler three M limousine, it

(11:50):
was built by Chrysler most likely, which is very unique
these days. Right, Yes, because for the most part, like
you're saying, the industry standard is some company will get
a hold of a Cadillac or a Lincoln town car
cut in half like you say, and then add to
it and there's a stretched limousine. Yeah. The process goes
a little something like this. Uh. They stripped that sound

(12:12):
like I was gonna sing it, and they strip all
the interior out. They protect everything that's in there obviously. Uh.
Strickland says, the use fire resistant paper on everything, which okay, sure,
why not? I guess you don't want it to catch
the fireway you're doing it. Um, you're going to mount

(12:32):
it on a set of rails that can be adjusted
to get your car off the ground. Keep it all
aligned properly, because when you're adding more car. You have
to have it super aligned, and then they cut the
thing in two pieces. Yeah, and not lengthwise, No, No,
that'd be weird. I guess you can make it a
lot wider, but you're you're looking for length and maybe

(12:53):
that's the new limousine just like UM. Apparently the industry
agrees that you typically can't go more than double the
size the original size of the car UM. Other than
after that, it's just probably not going to pass any
safety tests, which we'll talk about a minute. But once
the car is cut in half, hopefully you remember to

(13:14):
put the car on these rails that elevate it, and
that some of the rails are attached to a dolly
so you can separate the car to the length you want.
If not, you have to basically throw it away and start.
But so if you you pull one, usually the rear
back from the front, and then you go and add

(13:35):
UM rails basically the extenders that that are going to
lengthen the car. That's right. Uh, And like I said,
your car is is temporarily braced to keep it from
twisting or moving around because you want it like to
be super exact. Obviously, because if the front of your
car is a half inch to the right from the
rear of your car. That's bad. Um. You then you're

(13:59):
gonna ad what's called the floor plan or floor pan. Sorry,
and it's basically the floor of the limo, which will
later on become carpeted and upholstered and everything, but for
the time being, it's just a piece of metal that
is the floor of your new edition. Yeah, and that
is after you have done all the other boring stuff
like extending the drive line, making sure you have because

(14:21):
you know your wiring is not long enough. Nothing is
long enough, and you just have to know because you've
just cut in half. Yeah, like he's a huge gap.
You literally just have to extend all those parts. Uh,
you know, the brake line, all that boring stuff. You
have to just extend all that stuff. Yeah. I got
excited about the floor pan and you stick in your
floor pan and then you well, hold on, I want
to say something about the floor pan and the drive line.

(14:43):
So you've extended the power train, right, the thing that
that big thing that like powers the back wheels that
no one knows what it is. Yeah, but you've extended
that thing. Yeah, you just hear like powertrain warrantinam people
are always liked, that's like the steering and the axles
and the the thing that that spins around and spins
your rear accle and all that. That's your power train.

(15:05):
It's true. So you have to add to that because
you've just cut through it again. And then you add
the floor pan, which is the floor of the limousine. Um.
And do you remember that limousine fire from I think
last year, a couple of years ago, which killed the
bride to be on the San Mateo Bridge. Um. Apparently,

(15:25):
they the California Highway Patrol investigated and ruled in an accident,
but it was because the floor pan of the limousine
that had been added later was up against the drive
train and the friction created enough heat and spark that
apparently there's a crack in the floor pan and that
heat came up and caught the upholstery on fire. And
that's where the fire came from, was from this modification

(15:49):
that had taken place years before. Well, which is one
reason why, uh, Cadillac doesn't want their name on that limo,
let's say, because it has been modified by someone other
than Cadillac. Right, But Cadillac's name is still on the
limo as far as the US government is concerned. Once

(16:09):
you cut a car in half and extend it, you're
the new manufacturer. Cadillac says, well, that's great. We've got
a bunch of yahoo's running around cutting our cars in
half making them longer. But if somebody sees it on
the road, or somebody sees a photo of it with
the trunk burned out, they see the Cadillac. So Cadillac
and other companies like four it have programs to basically

(16:31):
certify train and go back and um investigate uh, the
people who are doing these conversions. Yeah, because we didn't mention.
But when you make a car uh substantially longer and heavier,
you might have to modify the brakes some You might
have to modify how it turns. You might have to
reinforce the suspension or the frame itself, because you can't

(16:55):
just make a car twelve feet longer and expect it
to behave the same way right exactly like the original
stopping power was for the twelve ft car at the
car So you do have to do some modifications. Yeah,
but those companies are super smart to have official programs.
I think because every car, even if it is UH
modified later, has to to be roadworthy, has to pass

(17:18):
the federal motor Vehicle safety standards. That's right. Cadillacs program
is called the Cadillac Master Coach Builder Program. It's pretty awesome.
Ford has something called the Qualified Vehicle Modifier Program. And
so basically they're saying, hey, if you're gonna be doing this,
and you can legally do this, we're gonna make sure
you do it right. That's right. Um, I guess what

(17:41):
time it is time to getting her lima. Not yet,
it's time for a message preak all right. So we
mentioned that the limo generally speaking, even though they've gotten
ridiculous these days, UH, shouldn't be more than twice as
long as it originally was. UH. And since you can't

(18:01):
get that much longer, what you can do is, if
you want to impress UH people and get their business
is trick it out on the interior as much as possible.
Yes with you name it, man, and they've got it. Yeah.
Plasma TVs and hot tubs and bars and sound systems

(18:22):
and like anything you can think of. It's it's a
it's littered with neon and tacky things. In my opinion,
tachis the right word. I think, Yeah, not for me.
Did you see um if you go to the Ripley's
Believe it or Not Museum in Branson? Have you been there?
I want to go to Branson some day before SnO

(18:44):
has his own place. Yeah, I'm going. Sure, Humi's gonna
take me surprise. That hasn't happened. I'm kind of We've
been going other places, but um, in Branson there's a
thirty ft pink Cadillac Stretch limousine that has a heart
shaped hot tub in the trunk area that also has

(19:08):
Josh's forty birthday written. A birthday present would be the
limo itself. I like to own it. Yeah yeah, just
drive around Atlanta, that'd be awesome. Drive around anywhere you
can drive around Branson, it'd be fine. You've got like
a hot tub in your car. Uh. I love how

(19:29):
Strickland also points out, I don't know when this was written.
Muslims also have telephones installed in case all fourteen of
your cell phones are broken. I made note of that
as well. All right, there's some other considerations if you
want to drive a limo, because you can be a
private person and drive a limo, just like hire yourself

(19:49):
out or go work for some rich person. I thought
you meant like the kind of person who keeps to
himself for herself. No, no, no, I mean you don't
have to necessarily work for a limousine company. You can
just buy your limo and say I'm I'm Chuck the
limo driver, you know, or I want to long as
you have the proper hat, that's right, You're fine and
call yourself betterment. UM licensing, it depends on what states

(20:13):
you're in. Uh, it depends wildly. Some states you can
don't need any kind of special license. Some states just
say fill out this form, probably give us fifty bucks.
Some say bring your limo and although, how would you
do that if you're not licensed, I guess tow truck. Yeah,
get your limo here and take this test in your

(20:33):
limo to make sure you can drive that behemoth blindfolded.
Blindfolded part of the test. So it all depends on
what states you live in. UM safety standards are the
same for any other car. Like we said, yeah, and
and the car that you bought to convert already before
you ever bought it went through the the safety tests.
But now that you've converted it, it has to go

(20:54):
through safety tests again, so they include things like crash tests.
And if you're interested in that, there's Limo crash tests
on YouTube. Does it show rich people inside like with
their drinks flying around? Man? But you you uh, you're
you're not down with the one percent, are you? No?

(21:15):
I just think a crash test dummy and an evening
gown might look funny. That's a funny you say that
because one of the ones, Um, I guess it's some
Is it Australian Fifth Gear? Maybe it seemed like it
was pretty cheeky. They were clearly drunk in the on
the show, but it was like, um, it was a
Limo crash test and uh they put their clothes their

(21:39):
evening gown and talks on crash test dummies. So I mean, yeah,
you have to look up Fifth Gear Limo. Um, I
guess Limo crash test is what would bring it up.
And yeah, they're clearly drunk because they spend the first
like three minutes drinking and then mooning people out of
the limo. And I'm like, what where is this thing from?

(22:02):
And I saw it was Australia oh, those wacky Aussies.
But it's pretty cool crash test because they have some
great cameras set up in like they don't put seatbelts
on the on the dummies, they're just flying around. Yeah,
it's pretty neat crash test. I do need to see
that because that's exactly what I was describing. And there's
another crash test too, it's way more boring. It's just
basically a series of still photos, which I guess you

(22:25):
can make the case like that's what all videos are.
But sure, this is like really slow still photos. And hey, listen,
I don't want to We always say do what you
want to do. I'm not gonna poopoo. If you want
to go out and hire a limo and with your
friends and drive around, get drunk and go to a
bunch of bars, it's fine, you know, it's just not
don't expect me to get in the car. Although I

(22:47):
would say the Wine Country limo is not a bad idea,
oh sure. Yeah. In fact, I think people in Wine
Country aren't too happy about them, you know, oh, because
it's like party bus kind of thing. Yeah. Basically, well,
hey man, if you like have wine tastings every five
ft what do you expect. Everybody there seems very cool

(23:09):
because you don't want to drink and drive. We went
when it was it was the off season, so I'll
butt everybody was a little like more mellow because there
weren't a bunch of tourists around. Oh yeah, no, but
you're right. The people that live in wine country northern California,
they're a nice laid back a lot they are fairly
laid back. I think it's a good way to put it.
You have the best job in the world. Um, we

(23:31):
have the best job in the world. That's right. If
we only made wine. Um gas got something going in
the toilet some pruno. Gas mileage is a big consideration
because you're not going to get good gas mileage at all,
and you may as a company or an individual, I
have to pay an extra gas guzzler tax on each
vehicle in your fleet. On top of that, it's basically

(23:53):
like you know how you pay a lot of money
for gas, Well, now you have to pay even more
money because your thing uses up so much gas. Although
strictly mentions a m thirty two ft stretch Hummer Limo
that a guy named Sean Murphy, he misspelled his own name.
On the cool Fuel road trip he used, he drove

(24:16):
hummer limousine that ran on um a bunch of different
alternative fuels like biodiesel, methane, ethanol, vegetable oil, sugar. It
could also use geothermal, solar and wind energy. And he
got the limo up to seventy five, which sounds illegal
to me. Yeah, he's just not be driving a thirty
two ft anything. Agree. Uh. If you are interested in

(24:40):
owning your own limousine to be your own private little driver,
it depends on what kind of you get. Of course,
you ma can get one like a Lincoln Stretch for
thirty to forty grand, or you may pay three thousand
if you want that super stretched hummer with a hot tub.
I have the impression that that the thirty grand Lincoln Stretched,
like the hub caps come off when you take corners

(25:01):
and stuff like that. Yeah, and I also bet that
the one of twenty Bentley's yeah, go for way more
than three k each. Do you ever see someone driving
around in an old limo. It's clear it's just their car.
It's like a nine. That's pretty sweet. It is sweet,
but at the same time, it's like that's a really

(25:22):
poor choice, especially if like you're you're on a tight budget,
right with streets? How much money do you spend on gas? Yeah,
you know that's true. Should I shout to him out
the window? Should we talk about presidential limousines a little bit,
because I think those are kind of interesting. Um. They

(25:43):
call it the Secret seven and this great uh was
it popular mechanics article um in nine the Sunshine Special,
And up until this point, I think standard automobiles had
been used to drive presidents around and shuttle them. At nine,
this is we need something for the Secret Service. And

(26:04):
we have a president uh in a wheelchair that his
name is Roosevelt, and he has certain considerations right, plus
at least one attempt has been made on his life already,
so we might want to think about adding a little
more security to these cars. And that's exactly what they did.
It was armored. The body was armored, was built by
uh coach builders in Buffalo, New York. Had oversize hinged doors,

(26:27):
I guess to account for that enormous wheelchair that they
had back then, and um, lots of armor plating and
even bulletproof glass, um, which is kind of impressive. It
looks like al Capone's car. If you ask me, it's
pretty sweet. Uh. Then there's the Lincoln Cosmopolitan. Yeah, but

(26:48):
this is awesome. It was a Truman Presidential Um limousine, UM,
and it was basically for every with every new limousine
that came along, UM, there were new innovations that became
heavier and more armor plated and just safer. And this
one came with a bubble top UM because it was

(27:11):
a convertible. But Truman realized that like if he had
the top up when it was super safe, no one
could see him. So he had the bubble top instilled,
kind of like the Pokemobile. Yeah, that's what I was
gonna say. Is that what it's like? I think? So
all right? Um? And that one UM was retired to
the Henry Ford Museum, as was the Sunshine Special in Dearborn, Michigan.

(27:35):
So if you've ever been there, you've probably seen a
few of these on display. Kennedy's famous car that he
was in in November twenty, nineteen sixty when he was
assassinated was a nineteen sixty one Lincoln Continental convertible obviously,
but it was still safe. Um, not with the top

(27:56):
down obviously, but they had certain safety features built in. Um.
They had a rear seat that was well this was
in a safety feature, but that had a rear seat
that could be raised and lowered to give people a
better view. They had a metal hoop behind the driver,
behind the driver's seat so when the president's standing up
they can hold onto something. But it was armored after

(28:20):
his assassination with a permanent bulletproof hardtop, and then left
in the fleet, which really surprised me. I would have
thought they would have completely retired that car or just
giving it to a museum or destroyed it or something.
But yeah, leaving in the fleet. That's Penny pension. Yeah,
and that is in the Henry Ford Museum now as well.

(28:43):
The Lincoln Continental that President Ford and Reagan, the same
car that they were both shuttled into after assassination attempts famously.
This this, this is the limousine that reminds me of
like Old Times Square in New York, like where like
get case was set, you know like this. I never
saw that. It's worth seeing at least once just to

(29:06):
say you saw a basket case Old City Times Square. Yeah,
I got ad just to taste of that. When I
first started going to New York and the in the
nineties there were there were still some peep shows and
stuff around, and it was just starting to be like
Disney five. As I said, I missed it entirely. I
did miss much. But man alive. You can go to

(29:29):
Red Lobster there now. I know. It's funny how people
pine like remember when it was crappy and those crime
and drugs. I mean, I can understand being like, yes,
this corporate stuff is just dumb or whatever, but people
are very nostalgic for for old crappy times. Square Yeah. Uh.
The nineteen eight three Cadillac Fleetwood was used in the

(29:52):
early nineteen eighties, and that one one of those, there
was a pair of them, was used in the movie
In the Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood. Yeah, pretty neat.
Remember he played the the guy who didn't get to
Kennedy in time when he was assassinated, haunted him. Oh
was that his backstory? Yeah? And John Malkovitch was like
a total weirdo. He was, right, who used a wooden gun.

(30:15):
I don't remember a lot about that movie for some reason.
It's a lot of detail, Josh. Then there's the Bush era. Yeah,
Cadillac Deville, which is I mean, I associate that with
Bush down I'm looking at it. Yeah, it was a
g m oh, I'm sorry. It was a Cadillac Devil,
of course. But it was built on the frame of
a GM SUV. Supposedly smart. Yeah. Um, five inch thick

(30:39):
armor doors, bulletproof glass so thick it blocks out parts
of the light spectrum apparently, so everything looks blue and
maybe from the inside and you go insane. Uh. And
it was rumored to feature a what they called a
self contained passenger compartment with its own secure air supply.
So I guess just like a chamber to hide someone

(31:01):
in inside there. Crazy. And then lastly, check the most
recent one. Um came out in two thousand nine, and
it's a Cadillac too. Um. And it came out I
guess just in time for Obama's inauguration. Yeah, and this
one they started to be a lot more secretive about, um,
like how they're made. Yeah, exactly makes sense, Um, but

(31:24):
they have pretty good speculation that you know, it's armor
plated underneath all around. Um, they think it's diesel powered,
but they don't know for sure. And uh, good luck.
Like this thing is like a tank on wheels. Good
luck penetrating that Cadillac. You know. So there's one other

(31:45):
thing I want to point out if you are into limos,
especially extreme limos. There's another popular mechanics UM article called
stretched out Tin extreme limos that you sent like Lamborghinis
and stuff. Yeah, Lamborghini's monster truck and I looked it up.
Apparently there's a lot of monster Chuck limos also found online.
DeLorean limo. Oh wow, yeah, I'd like to see that. Yeah,

(32:09):
it's worth looking at um. There's a semi limo. Yeah.
That one is basically like a large apartment on wheels,
like you can have a party for fifty people. There's
multiple bars. Did you see inside It looks like an
apple Bee's on wheels. Is a fern bar. Yeah, there's
a lot of like um polished brass railings and like

(32:29):
the carpeting and the poulster. It looks like an apple Bee's.
It's very strange. Well, you can't account for good taste.
It looks pretty sweet though, I'm sure that anybody who
there's through like three three different lounges in there. Three
and then a Mexican company converted us I think a
seven forty seven O seven twenty seven into um a

(32:52):
Limo took the wings off. There are TV shows out
there that you can view all these things, uh stream
everything you Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. There's also TV
shows about the people who repo them. Yeah to right.
So if you want to know more about lema As,
you can start by typing that word in the search
far how stuff works dot com. And since I said

(33:13):
that it's time for a listener mail, I'm gonna call
this funny homeless story, if there is such a thing.
Uh this um April has been working in New York City,
but I gather that she is in Atlanta and she's
just there for work for a period of time. Dear
Josh and Chuck, I missed the Old Times Square. She's

(33:35):
she did say that, No, I'm kidding. Um. She talks
about how she listens to us on the train there
in our commune, New York City, and she feels really
bad for homeless people, but especially when she sees a
homeless person with a dog. Um. She says, after passing
several homeless people in New York people dog combos this weekend,

(33:55):
my grand plan is to stop at a pet store
get some dog food and treats and have cash available
for the next homeless pair so I could help out
and hopefully you have a conversation with him to make
them feel human for a little bit. This is April.
You're awesome, by the way. Um. I bought my supplies,
and two blocks from the store, I see a homeless
man with a husky, and I think perfect. One of

(34:17):
my dogs is a husky, so I'm partial to them.
After having a five minute conversation with Michael petting his dog,
giving him dog food and some money for a nice meal,
I get ready to leave, and as I'm about to
walk away, he said, thanks for the dog food, but
it's not my dog. I'm just watching it for someone
in the building. Awkward. I ultimately asked if the dog
had a home and food. He said yes, so I

(34:39):
asked if I could take the dog food back so
I could give it to a dog in need. Uh.
He agreed and hopefully he was able to get a
nice meal himself and appreciated my conversation and didn't think
I was too crazy. I then went on to walk
thirty blocks to my hotel with a relatively heavy bag
of dog food without seeing another homeless pet. Good thing
because it didn't have any more ash with a person,

(35:01):
and it probably would have been weird to give a
person dog food but nothing to help him or her.
Um Me and my bag of food will be walking
around various New York City neighborhoods this weekend though, because
now it is my mission to help someone out. It's
been a good little reminder for me to be thankful
for what I have, especially as we approach winter up here.
And that is from April Cummings. That's very nice of

(35:22):
your April, very cool. I hope you find a homeless
dog in person that you can help out. Yeah, if
you want to share a story about you how you're
making the world a better place, we want to hear
about it. You can tweet it to us at s
y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook
dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send
us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works

(35:43):
dot com, and as always, joined us at our home
on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
stuff Works dot com.