When I first encountered the Battle Cruiser in a lot in Eugene containing some other odd cars, I thought it might have been a prop for a dystopian sci-fi movie. But now we now know the truth, and it’s even stranger than science fiction.
The story was written up in the Prescott AZ Daily Courier: In 2001, Bobby Licher, a young man from Lake Havasu City, AZ, wanted to study music at the Musicians Institute in downtown Hollywood. When the parents saw the neighborhood, they were worried for his safety. According to his Dad, Bob Licher: “It’s a rough area; street violence, gang wars, random shootings; not good.” Bob was not going to let Bobby attend, without certain precautions; like a bullet-proof armored vehicle.
The price for an armored vehicle being out of reach of the family budget, Bob, the owner of German Wrought Iron, decided to build one himself. He bought a 1979 Cadillac for $500, cut off the body, and fabricated a new bullet-proof body from scratch. The exterior is made of quarter-inch steel plate, and the windows are one-inch thick plexiglass. And there are deadbolts embedded in the doors “nobody is going to break into this thing,” according to Bob.
But a few problems arose: the Battle Cruiser now weighed some 6000 lbs, and a new front suspension had to be installed, and dual coils in the back. According to Bob: “It’s not very fast, you can get it up to 80 or 90, but in town, it’s pretty sluggish.”
So what was Bobby’s reaction to his new going-to school car? “He thought it was pretty cool,” And it seems he survived.
Here’s some photos of the Battle Cruiser being built in Lake Havasu that Bob Licher (the son) posted in the comments to an earlier version of this post. He claimed it was a 1975 Caddy, but the pictures clearly show it to be a ’77 or later version.
Bob Licher Sr. ran a small welding shop there, and this was the fruit of his labors.
Here’s a shot of it when completed, before it headed off to LA.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
I hope this beast gets a long life ahead as a movie / TV prop car, I remember te original post .
-Nate
Wonder if the designer was asked by Musk to attend Tesla design team. Also I don’t know how bad that neighborhood of LA was back then. My experience running around poor neighborhoods in NYC last 3 decades just keeps low profile and don’t attract attention. With such high profile looking vehicle, it seemly looks for trouble if the gangs decide to gang up to you. I think hiring a full time local arm body guard is probably a better option if safety is concerned. Friends of mine worked the Detroit People’s Mover Project in 1980s, his company hired two retired Detroit policemen as his safety guard while he worked on the cars on site.
Downtown Hollywood was that bad. Don’t think I can believe that compared to other areas in the Los Angeles basin. Yesterday, while in San Francisco, my 16 year old came along. God is he ever persnickety about things. Is the seat clean before he can sit in BART or a streetcar. So while on 6th and Hyde, shooting an older building saying Beer Hall above, he says this is a sketchy area. Why of course this is the edge of the Tenderloin at 2:30 in the afternoon. You should try walking around at midnight in the 90s. Ask me how I know?
This thing is a screech! I agree that it attracts the attention of criminal minds. Can you imagine Bobby pulling up to his girlfriend’s house in Los Angeles in this thing? Another take: Airforce One arrives at LAX. The President’s armored Cadillac has a problem. At the last minute, Bobby is called. “Bobby, this is The Secret Service. We need a loaner.” After the loaner is returned, Secret Service, “Bobby, whose pink panties are those in the load area??
Thomas, that thing would ensure that Bobby didn’t have a girlfriend to go see.
That’s a very cool build! I too question whether the attention it attracted wouldn’t outweigh the benefit. And man, 1/4″ plate body… I’m kind of surprised it didn’t weigh more (maybe 6000lbs is a lowball estimate). It does look fairly sound; a lot of people would just try to tack metal over the existing bodywork and just add a lot of weight while failing to make it that bulletproof. For whether this car was worth it or did the owner any good, it’s worth doing just for the cool factor. I bet everyone in Hollywood got a charge out of it, but I wonder how many realized it wasn’t just a prop car. Maybe it didn’t attract the kind of attention we assume it would?
I have to wonder if there’s a better approach. Just do what the secret service does and add bulletproof glass and materials. I doubt it’d be as effective, but not looking like something that should be patrolling the streets of Fallujah lowers the profile. Probably even more time and maybe cost-effective would be buying a car that’s already been modified. I doubt the secret service lets their vehicles to be disposed of fall into public hands, but there have to be other sources.
“Hey Dad, can we get a Cybertruck?!”
“No, we already have a Cybertruck at home…”
The Cybertruck at home:
I hate to think the optional (at extra cost) weapons package might be.
Other than that, a cool looking ride.
Security through obscurity?
Seems like Dad just wanted an excuse to build something cool.
Great idea for a project, but a secondhand ‘high protection’ car would have been more sensible. I cannot imagine there’s much demand for those and they all get shipped off to Africa or somewhere.
Mind you, a Citroën CX Haute Protection might have looked way better, but it probably wouldn’t have been as durable as that creation.
Agree about the “attention Getter” vibe here.
Also agree that adding 1/4″ steel would be heavier than 6K lbs. (Maybe just passenger protection area was 1/4″?)
Also, Driver’s side door ‘plexi’ windows do NOT look an “Inch thick”. Even if so, it looks like one could Pry those hinges off quite easily. (maybe it was just the windshield that was 1″ thick).
Seems like he didn’t like his kid very much. 😉
The donor car probably “needed” to be a 1975 model to get around California’s smog test laws. Once the cutting and building is done, who’s going to know how it started out?
Calling it a “Cybertruck” is a terrible insult. This is a work of art by comparison.