Washington: In a recent interview, the 45th president of the US told reporters, “I like to drive. I can’t drive anymore.”
This won’t change soon. Trump is only 100 days in, after all, and President Obama still hasn’t driven a car since leaving office in January. (Even former First Lady Hillary Clinton hasn’t driven since 1996.) Instead, Trump rides around in a Cadillac limousine nicknamed “The Beast.” But when the leader of the free world says he misses the road, you know he must have had some great things to drive. Here’s what we know about Trump’s toys:
A 2007 Ferrari F430 F1 Coupe
This is the red-hot car that didn’t meet its reserve price at an Auctions America sale in Florida earlier this year. Hours after it missed the sale, the auction confirmed that the car exchanged hands after it left the podium for a final price of $270,000. (Initial estimates had the car going for a low $250,000.) Although the best (and non-automatic transmission) Ferrari F430s sell for more, Trump’s did set a record for the most a Ferrari F430 Coupe with an automatic transmission has ever taken at auction, according to Hagerty.
The V8 car is special because Trump purchased it new in 2007 and owned it for four years, adding only 3,800 kilometres miles, for total mileage of less than 9,600 kilometres. Plus, its 490-horsepower engine has a top speed of nearly 320km/h and is certainly the only supercar to have been owned by a sitting president.
A 1988 Cadillac Trump Golden Series Limousine
Trump’s Cadillac limousine fetched $68,261 at Bonhams earlier this year in England. The total was four to seven times the average value of an American limo from the same era, according to Hagerty’s Jonathan Klinger, which is typical for a presidential vehicle.
The limo came about like this: In the mid-80s, Cadillac agreed to make Trump a series of special limousines. It planned two prototypes: a Trump Executive Series and this Trump Golden Series, both built by Dillinger Coach Works. The Trump Cadillacs made their debut in Las Vegas in January 1987, and in January 1988, Cadillac and Dillinger presented the Golden Series car to Trump. But the actual planned-for series? It never materialised.
A 1997 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster
This V12, 529-horsepower roadster went for $460,000 in September last year on eBay. That was 75 per cent higher than today’s current average price for Diablos, according to Hagerty, likely bolstered by the uniqueness of the car and its owner.
The model, which was made from 1990 to 2001, is special because it was the first Lamborghini that could reach speeds above 320km/h. Trump’s “Le Mans Blue” Diablo roadster came with an electronic carbon fibre top with a manual transmission, special unique badging, and fewer than 24,000km. The model was produced in extremely limited numbers: The final production run included 30 cars for the 2000 model.
A 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud
The Silver Cloud was one of the early major vintage cars young Trump purchased. Photos of him with it, perched proudly on it in front of a palm-lined drive, are all over the internet.
The highly collectible V8 Silver Cloud was the signature car Rolls-Royce made from 1955 to 1966 — it was the car in the production chronology between the Silver Dawn and the Silver Shadow.
RM Sotheby’s sold a drop-top version of one for more than $1.3 million at its Amelia Island auction in March, though a coupe took far less — $264,000 — in 2015.
A 2015 Rolls-Royce Phantom
This was one of the last cars Trump got to drive regularly before assuming presidential office. The $500,000 sedan is currently Rolls’s biggest ride, with a massive V12, 453-horsepower engine and a butter-smooth, six-speed transmission.
Virtually all of the cars are heavily bespoken on purchase, and Trump’s black one was likely no different. The standard models offer seating for four or five, with thick lamb’s wool carpeting, a cocoon-quiet cabin, and umbrellas inserted in the heavy, standard-issue, wood-panelled doors.
Orange County Chopper
Well, this isn’t a car, is it? But it’s a famous Trump vehicle nonetheless. Trump commissioned this bike from Orange County Choppers as part of their Discovery Channel show American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior.
The bike is replete with 24-karat gold custom parts and is branded along the bottom with Trump’s name. There’s no evidence Trump has actually ridden this bike — wiser minds would think otherwise — but it is undoubtedly something worth bragging about.
Maybe: A 1993 Cadillac Allanté
Cadillac hasn’t exactly disavowed the story Trump told in his book, The Art of the Deal, about the company sending him a “a beautiful gold Cadillac Allanté as a gift,” but it hasn’t really confirmed it, either. Anyway, if the Donald did get this car, there’s no doubt he enjoyed it. The Allanté from the early 1990s had big, 4-litre 295-horsepower V8 engines, four-speed transmissions, and a zero-to-60 [miles] sprint time of 6.4 seconds. Plus, they were technologically advanced for the time, with LCD instrument clusters on the dashboard, premium sound, and a removable aluminium hardtop. Fewer than 5,000 were made that year.
A Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
This 617-horsepower coupe was the subject of one of those photos not usually taken of persons who go on to become president: an April 2006 Vogue spread that propped a pregnant, near-naked Melania Trump in stiletto heels on the stairs of Trump’s plane, while Trump sits fully clothed, grinning in the McLaren with his back turned to her. The effect is that of a landowner displaying his finest property. (Though the former model Melania comfortably on board.)
The car itself is impressive: Made by a partnership of Mercedes with McLaren from 2003 to 2010, its supercharged V8 engine could push it to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds, with a top speed near 300km/h. Total production was limited to fewer than 3,500 units.
— Bloomberg
