1989 Cadillac Deville Base Sedan 4-door 4.5l on 2040-cars

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Meet the next president's new Beast, a giant bomb-proof limo

We don't know who will be our president in 2017, but now we have a better idea of how that person will be transported on land. The next presidential limo, officially referred to as the presidential state car, will be another Cadillac. And a big one. You're looking at a lone spy photo of a car that will be of high interest to actual spies – not to mention Secret Service agents and lots of law-enforcement types. President Obama has been riding around in a Cadillac nicknamed The Beast for a while now. (It recently made an appearance on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.) Over the Secret Service radios, it goes by Cadillac One and Limo One. While the current car looks like a stretched Cadillac DTS sedan, it's actually kind of huge and built on a Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty truck chassis. The same is likely to be true again, but this one will look a lot more like the latest Cadillac models. Through the camo we can see a front end reminiscent of the new CT6 large sedan. Imagine one of those scaled to about 5/3 of the production car and you've got the right idea. Fun fact: It will be the first presidential limo to feature Caddy's new wreathless crest logo on its grille. View 6 Photos As for features, we're in the dark and will remain so even after the new president-mover goes into service. The details are a legitimate matter of national security, but you can bet it's bulletproof, can withstand small bombs, and has some kind of onboard secondary air supply in case of a chemical or biomedical warfare attack. Oh, and it has that big red phone in back in the event things get really bad. The new one will no doubt carry the latest communications and safety technology. The new presidential limousine has been in the works for some time. The government sent out a request for proposals in 2013, and this model is expected to go into service sometime in 2017. Chances are it will make its debut at the inauguration of [INSERT CONTROVERSIAL NAME HERE] in about a year's time. Related Video:

New V6 engines are only the start at Cadillac

Cadillac debuted its new family of V6 engines Friday, but that's not all General Motors' luxury brand has in store for the coming years. The six-cylinder powerplants will certainly help Cadillac in the near term, but they're just two of the many parts of the company's future strategy. GM has invested $12 billion in Cadillac to help the brand grow over the next five years, and the company will launch eight new products between now and 2020. That all starts with the launch of the CT6 flagship later this year – a fullsize luxury sedan we'll see for the first time in New York on March 31. The CT6 will introduce several new features and technologies to the Cadillac range, and with its launch also begins the slow restructuring of Cadillac's model-naming system. The new nomenclature means CT and XT badges for cars and utilities, respectively. Cadillac says that of the eight new vehicles it plans to launch by 2020, five of them will be first-time offerings in market segments where the brand currently does not play. But it's not just about new products – new powertrains are an important part of the Cadillac story, too. After the new V6 engines – a naturally aspirated 3.6-liter and a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter engine – launch later this year in the 2016 ATS, CTS and CT6, the company says it has a strategy for V8 power – possibly a twin-turbo application – as well as future electrification. Cadillac also says it's working on adding four- and six-cylinder diesel powertrains, though it's unclear which vehicles will make use of those engines. This new six-cylinder engine family is indeed important, with Cadillac's chief engineer, David Leone, calling it the "most advanced V6 in the industry." With 335 horsepower, the 3.6-liter engine is the highest output, naturally aspirated V6 powerplant Cadillac has done – and that's SAE-certified, and on regular fuel. Beyond that, the 3.0-liter mill (pictured at right) marks the first application of GM's active fuel management system on a twin-turbocharged engine. This means that when full power isn't necessary, the TTV6 can run as a 2.0-liter V4 in order to save fuel. New transmissions are also part of the V6 engine story. GM's all-new eight-speed Hydra-Matic 8L45 gearbox will be paired to the 3.6-liter V6, and the 3.0-liter TTV6 will use the company's existing 8L90 transmission that is already found in the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups (with the 6.2-liter engine).

Cadillac developing stretched ATS-L just for China

To luxury automakers, long-wheelbase sedans are to China that crossovers and SUVs are to the US, so it isn't all that surprising any more when the latest sedan gets an extra couple of inches between the wheels to improve rear-seat comfort. According to Car News China, the next sedan to get the stretch will be the Cadillac ATS, which will increase the wheelbase by 10 centimeters (about four inches) to become the ATS-L.
Designed to go up against rivals like the BMW 335Li and the added-length Mercedes C-Class, the ATS-L will reportedly be built locally in China with an engine list that will grow as well. Currently, only the 2.0-liter turbo engine is offered in the ATS in China, but the ATS-L will get the full spectrum of ATS engines including the base 2.5-liter and the peppier 3.6-liter V6. This isn't the first time Cadillac has offered a China-specific stretched sedan either as the SLS dates back to 2006.