State Limousine Obsession - The most unique limos in the world

Limousines focus on the business of being driven around and not actually driving, but admittedly I've become obsessed with some of these luxo-barges as they are some of the most rare and unique vehicles in the world.

This unique-ness stems from needs of national security. After all, these land-yachts are largely created as one-offs for heads of state, so it's understandable that many nations around the world only want the best and brightest of their own working on them and not entrust the safety of their most important figures to a foreign company. 

As such, many of these cars are shrouded in closely guarded (and largely hand-built) secrets.

See why they're so interesting? These five are arguably the most interesting though, as they are not just run-of-the mill armoured 7 Series or Benz S-Class Pullmans. No, these are fully bespoke national icons of their host nation.

Toyota Century Royal (Emperor of Japan, 2006)

What? A Toyota? Well yeah, but definitely not just any Toyota, the Century packs the only production Toyota V12 in existence (1GZ-FE) and only four of this 'Royal' variant exist. Incidentally, it is the only Japanese-manufactured V12. Due to the exorbitant cost of roughly AU$660,000, a fifth order was never fulfilled. 

The Century is longer than a Rolls Royce Phantom at over 6.15 meters. The interior is wool rather than leather and sports rice-paper headlining to reflect a Japanese board room, naturally. 

HongQi L5 (Paramount Leader of the Communist Party, 2014)

Well, here's a truly unusual car. When you think of Chinese cars, often average build quality and derivative, unoriginal designs come to mind. The L5 is neither of those things by quite a measure. It sports a quite fetching retro-modern design, replicating the look of the previous CA770 Chinese state car.

The L5 is built by Chinese domestic super-exclusive marque HongQi, when they're not busy bagde-engineering Lexus models. It's the official car of the Communist Party Paramount Leader and while it's not quite known how many exist, at a cost of almost AU$1 million, it's safe to say not many. We wish more Chinese cars looked like this, though. Power is delivered through a Daimler-derived 6.0-litre V12.

ZIL-41047 (2010, Prime Minister of Russia)

While we're talking communism, here's another very red (but actually black) car. Just like HongQi, ZIL (full name: Avtomobilnoe Moskovskoe Obshchestvo - Zavod Imeni Likachova... I think we'll stick with ZIL.) is a very national marque. Don't mind that it has the styling of an old Cadillac or Mercedes then, this is as Russian as it gets.

Apparently not Russian enough for 'hero-of-the-people' Vladimir Putin who isn't a fan of the old 7.7-litre V8 ZIL, looking to replace it with the 'Kortezh' totally-not-a-Rolls-Royce limo. Of course, design is being undertaken locally at the Russian Automobile Research Institute with Porsche rumoured to be consulting on the project.

Bentley State Limousine (2002, Queen Elizabeth II)

Okay so British manufacturer Bentley might technically just be really fancy Volkswagen now, but that hasn't stopped them from providing the official car of British royalty, who are secretly fancy Germans anyway, right? No model numbers or chassis codes here. This car is simply called the 'Bently State Limousine'. It is the rarest Bentley model ever made with only two in existence, making it even more rare than the coveted state car legend, the Rolls Royce Phantom IV (of which 18 were built).

Power? Delivered via a re-touched version of the Bentley Arnage R's twin-turbo 6.5-litre V8. It shares a chassis with the Arnage too, but has been completely hand-built, from the doors specifically designed for the Queen's dimensions, to the gratuitous Hield Lambswool Sateen seats. It's said that this car is worth in excess of AU$17 million.

US Presidential State Car (2017, POTUS)

Only America would dub their state car 'The Beast' but here it is. It might look like a Cadillac limo, but is actually the height and width of an SUV. The Beast reportedly costs in excess of AU$2 million and weighs a whopping 10 tonnes. That massive weight has to do with the overkill security features necessitated by being the leader a country where every man and his dog has a gun.

The engine for this upcoming model is unknown as of yet, but it's likely that it will maintain a similar unit to its predecessor which packed a 6.6-litre turbo diesel V8. Of course, it will be bullet-proof, bomb-proof and, with its own oxygen supply, gas-proof.

If you were a head of state, which one of these would you want to be in? Tell us about it in the comments.