There’s no doubt that the President of the United States needs a safe vehicle to be transported in. Various assassination attempts prove that case rather easily. President-in-waiting Barack Obama will be getting a brand-new armored “car” that will look like a Cadillac, but will really be based on the positively gigantic medium-duty GMC Topkick chassis. Nobody is quite sure what kind of armament the First Car will be equipped with, but let’s just assume that there is plenty, including up to five inches of glass and ceramic ballistics materials. That should make this one heavy vehicle. In fact, a couple of heavy vehicles, as General Motors is likely building multiples so that decoys can be used. With all that weight to move around, we’d expect GM to use a version of its diesel engine (running perhaps on biodiesel? No?) and Allison transmission from its line of heavy-duty trucks. Alternatively, Obama could make a green splash by using GM’s 2-Mode hybrid system. Just a thought.