Armor All: We Drive a Grenade-Proof Cadillac Escalade

Bryan Leighton has a heavy-duty problem. He and his family have downsized to a slightly smaller house, which, unfortunately, meant a slightly smaller garage. So something has to go. The candidate: His ultra-armored 2024 Cadillac Escalade ESV, with barely 1000 miles on the clock, and most of that logged during the armoring and trim process.

He’s put the Escalade on Hagerty Marketplace Classifieds at an asking price of $184,000. But he’s in no big hurry. Low-ballers should look elsewhere.

So how did the mild-mannered Leighton, 42, who lives in a Tampa suburb, end up with an armored Escalade? Leighton spent 20 years in finance, “Hedge fund, money management, that sort of thing,” often picking up some high-profile customers from the airport or at their hotel. Some came from kidnap-prone Mexico and countries in the Mideast. For much of his career, he met them in an armored vehicle. “Our clients liked that stuff. They like it when you pick them up in a nice car, but when you pick them up in a nice car that’s armored, it takes things to a different level.” Passengers likely reasoned that Leighton pays attention to details, and values them enough to spend money to enhance their personal safety.

He had multiple armored vehicles before he ordered the Escalade from Exec Armor in Ontario, Canada, a company he’d done business with before. And then he sold his share of his company, so all of a sudden he’s semi-retired and really doesn’t need an armored vehicle. He figures the family Land Rover or Mercedes-Benz are secure enough, with the Leightons living in a gated community and all.

So the Escalade is on the block. It is absolutely like-new, and is available immediately, as opposed to the usual two- or three-month wait if you order such a vehicle from an armorer, an inordinate number of which seem to be based north of the border.

Leighton checked most all the option boxes on his four-wheel-drive Escalade, which has been de-chromed and wrapped by a Miami company in flawless satin gray. It is, in a word, gorgeous, if such an adjective can be applied to a 227-inch-long monster SUV. It is not the 682-horsepower Escalade-V; Leighton figured that the standard 420-horse, 6.2-liter V-8 was enough, what with its 460 lb-ft of torque. This despite the fact that the steel armoring, ballistic windows and run-flat tires, which have bolted-together inserts inside them to give the Escalade a better chance to escape should the tires be flattened. All told, the mods probably add close to a ton to the already 5993-pound ESV.

So how does it drive? Heavy. Very heavy, but still short of ponderous. You don’t really notice the extra heft until you turn, or just change lanes: The armored Escalade sort of waddles around corners, but even with the run-flats and wheel inserts, it smooths out potholes and is a profoundly comfy highway cruiser. It’s still lighter than the Range Rover Sentinel that Land Rover used to build for the British royal family; it topped out at nearly 10,000 lbs. Of course, “The Beast,” which is what our presidential Cadillac limousines are called, weigh far more. Media estimates range from 15,000 to 20,000 pounds, which seems a bit exaggerated to us.

The Escalade is built to B6 specifications, which means it’s a “fortress,” Leighton says. There is a widely accepted European armor rating system that ranges from B1 to B10 that many auto armorers use. B1 will protect you from .22 Long Rifle rounds, while B10 should keep you safe in anything short of a nuclear attack. B6 is the highest level of armament a civilian can get without a special permit that typically goes only to law enforcement, licensed security agencies, and the military. And the President, of course.

B4 is a common level of armament, protecting the occupants from rounds fired by pistols up to and including Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum, as well as lesser bullets such as a .38 Special and 9mm. B6 raises the stakes, up to an AK-47 and other assault rifles, as well as a DM51 hand grenade, which Weaponsystems.net says is “the standard grenade of the German military and in widespread service with all branches.”

B6 is also rated to protect against a DM31 anti-vehicle land mine which Bulgarianmilitary.com (yes, really) says is also of German origin, and is being used by Ukraine as an anti-tank defense. Once triggered, it bounces up in the air, and then explodes. The main difference between B6 and B7: The latter offers better protection against high-powered armor-piercing ammunition.

So B6 is pretty serious stuff. One outfitter advises that they will not build a B6 vehicle on a unibody chassis, opting instead for beefier body-on-frame vehicles like the Escalade. Since many armored vehicles are piloted by a professional driver—and Leighton says his company used a driver from time to time—still another outfitter recommends that those drivers should attend a school that specializes in the emergency operation of ultra-heavy vehicles. If you’re thinking of a Dukes of Hazzard 180-degree, emergency-brake turn, you’d be correct. And yes, it would be nice to practice that before you’re ever called upon to do it.

“They beef up the suspension, different airbags, stronger springs. On the highway, you know you are driving a tank,” Leighton says. “It’s smooth and comfortable, but around town, you can feel the weight. You drive it carefully.”

It’s anonymous outside, but inside, there’s no mistaking that you are in an armored vehicle. The ultra-thick, double-pane “multi-layered ballistic glass” side windows are the first tipoff; closing the door, which is so heavy that needs reinforced hinges and basically shuts itself, is another. Exec Armor armors the battery and computer, the fuel tank is armored and sealed, and the company adds “customized tailpipe protection.”

The ballistic plates all overlap, the floor is armored “to protect against grenade blasts,” and the entire roof is armored, likely keeping in mind possible drone strikes. Open the rear hatch and there’s another armored door right there, with massive hinges that look like they belong in a medieval castle.

That said, Exec Armor appears to do some remarkable leather upholstery-matching and stitching; passengers in the front, middle and rearmost rows will still have a luxury experience.

Two weeks ago, Leighton took his Escalade to the Cars ‘n’ Coffee meetup at a golf course just up the road, and the Escalade was a hit. He lowered the side windows so you could see the thick glass—they only go down about six inches, meaning when we drove back into his gated neighborhood, I had to pull past the card reader, open the door and hop out of the Escalade to access it. “The purest armor companies will never give you a window that goes all the way down,” Leighton says. “You kind of get used to it.”

At that Cars ‘n’ Coffee, Leighton says people were walking right past a McLaren to get to that satin gray Escalade. “I left the lights in the grille flashing, flipped on the [very loud] PA system. It’s a fun truck.”

Leighton paused, and said, “This is the last one we ordered before I sold my business, and I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to keep it.’ But after a while, well, we don’t really go anywhere. It’s nice to have, but it’s a hundred-plus thousand dollars just sitting there. It’s time to sell it. But I’ll miss it when it’s gone.”