The Secret Service Is Testing the Chevy Corvette and Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

The genre of “Oh no, the President has been kidnapped!” movies is sort of dead. But back when it was popular, and Channing Tatum was patriotically kicking ass on screen, there were often chase scenes that required Secret Service agents to commandeer a civilian or police vehicle in a different country. As it turns out, such vehicular action is actually a real possibility, and therefore requires real training, which General Motors is willing to help out with. And, an important part of that training is teaching young agents to drive any kind of automobile—even one with a stick.

GM donated a fleet of performance vehicles to the Secret Service’s James J. Rowley Training Center (RTC) in Laurel, Maryland, and among them were four Cadillac sport sedans: two CT4s and two CT5s. Of those, a pair had manual transmissions—indicating they’re Blackwing models—even though there would almost certainly never be an official Secret Service vehicle with a stick. Nevertheless, agents often travel overseas to protect their VIPs, and manual cars are commonplace outside the States. So, they can’t afford to be stopped by three pedals and a stick.

“Not everyone is able to operate a manual shift,” said RTC driving instructor Mark Armstrong. “Having that platform here will enable us to give instruction on how to drive manual vehicles for overseas trips.”

Even sedans can be foreign to many agents. These days, police vehicles tend to be SUVs, since they can carry more people and gear. But in other countries, government sedans are still commonplace, and agents need to be familiar with them. “Most companies aren’t making four-door sedans anymore that are police-capable,” said Constantine Gerukos, another RTC instructor.

But GM didn’t send only those Caddy sedans; it provided a range of different vehicles, so that agents could broaden the scope of their training and learn about different platforms and how they might be of use in the future. So, the roster includes a Cadillac Escalade, a Chevy Colorado ZR2, a police package Chevy Tahoe, a Chevy Suburban, and two Corvettes (one was an E-Ray). The big SUVs are the likeliest to join the active duty fleet, but that doesn’t mean the other vehicles couldn’t one day see action outside the training course.

“I think it is cool to try out all these different platforms to figure out what is going to fit, and what we can use,” Gerukos said. “The times are changing, and so is the rest of the world. So, we have to do the same thing.”

Is that really true, or did the Secret Service just want to blow some of its training budget on fun track days?

“Experience with different types of vehicles can help instructors teach students how to adapt their driving techniques based on the vehicle they are operating,” said Scott Simons, the Special Agent in Charge of RTC. “Because each vehicle handles differently in any given situation, exposure to new cars will challenge instructors and give them an opportunity to develop more realistic training scenarios.”

These more unusual vehicles are also sure to surprise students, who are likely counting on Escalades and Yukons to play the suspect vehicles in training scenarios.

“The students wouldn’t be expecting it,” instructor Brandon Bohonek said of the sports cars and sedans. “We won’t have these vehicles in view. So, they won’t know it is out there. They may be expecting a (police) SUV, and all of a sudden, one of these vehicles rolls up. We try to make it as realistic as possible out here, which is not always easy to do.”

At the end of the day, unlikely though it might be to see a Secret Service agent jump into a manual Blackwing to rescue a President’s daughter, it’s not impossible. Plus, you know this all made for a fun day of training.

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