“People are worried about random acts of violence,” Burton says, mentioning he had just spoken on the phone with a prospective private client in Chicago. “They’re the attorneys, they are the doctors, the business executives. They’re worried about their families or their wives being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
It’s a generalized “unsettled” feeling that has sparked the rise, he adds. “People just want peace of mind as they drive around.”
How It’s Done
Most vehicles that have undergone bulletproof treatment endure an invasive process. The outfitter first removes all nonessential components in order to lessen the weight of what will inevitably become a very heavy apparatus. That means pulling out some trim and wiring, carpeting and seats. Then, the sides and pillars of the vehicle are sliced open and stuffed or welded with armored panels, most often made from ballistic-grade steel. A lighter-weight composite material can include special resins, ballistic nylon, and/or Kevlar, such as that found in bulletproof vests.
Along the bottom and sides of the car, special firewalls can be added. A crumple-zone bumper can be added, too, which enables the vehicle to burst through blockades or out of rubble without damaging the radiator and other internal mechanics.
Elsewhere, wheels are made to run while flat by installing polymer donuts where the inner tubes use to be—those will run at 60 mph or so for roughly 50 miles before wearing out. Windows are replaced with “transparent armor,” a one- or two-inch-thick sandwich of plastic poly and leaded glass. The thicker the width, the more security it provides: Two inches get you protection against a single shot from a big-game hunting rifle. Often, the heavier glass requires more-than-routine maintenance: “We have a lifetime warranty on the work we do—but for the glass, we have a 24-month warranty,” Burton says. (The motors burn out the fuses that make the windows go up and down.)
One man in Mexico who asked to remain unnamed for safety reasons had his life saved by just such a windshield: An attacker fired a gun directly at his Mercedes in broad daylight—the damage was merely a cracked window and the cost of replacing it. (“Insurance doesn’t cover the windows,” he says.) Rogerico Pagliari, who lives in Brazil, says the windows of his bulletproof Volvo S70 have never been shot at—but that doesn’t mean they don’t work. “Once, I got in an ambush, and it gave me the confidence enough to gas instead of stopping.”
A Sometimes Low-Key Status Symbol
Sometimes, the goal during manufacture is to make the vehicle look extremely low-key, with no obvious signs that it has been altered for enhanced protection. Unnoticed means unbothered, the thinking goes. Attention creates a target.
“We once had a client request we armor a Ford Taurus Limited,” Kosub says. “You’re talking about a $40,000 car with $100,000 worth of armoring on it. But that’s the type of thing that most of our clients who are serious about security really want—something under the radar.”
Other times, the treatment is heralded as a status symbol, complete with flashing lights, bull horns, and sirens. The level of ostentation often depends on the country. What is accepted in Venezuela may not be so applauded in Honduras.
“In Honduras, you need a permit to have an armored vehicle,” says Carlos Flores, the president of Roco 4x4, which supplies components and armors vehicles under a Blindajes Inteligentes, or Smart Armor, division in Honduras. Flores said the nature of the vehicles there has changed as the drug cartels have lost power and the economy has bloomed: Where people once needed high levels of security against military-grade attacks—options that might include smoke screens and systems to electro-shock intruders—now they’re buying more understated options that protect against basic handgun attacks.