Let’s face facts here; most of us will (hopefully) never need an armored vehicle to guarantee our safety. But there is a select group of people in the world, comprising mostly of drug dealers, arms smugglers, and highly-paid CEO types who find that it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to selecting the safest mode of transportation. That is why there are companies like Texas Armoring, which offer a variety of armor-plated SUVs and trucks.
And then there is this armor-plated Chevy Camaro SS, which Fox News recently took a look at. Thanks to some breakthroughs in armored window technology, Texas Armoring can now offer the highest level of protection to muscle car enthusiasts with a tendency to make bad deals with worse people.
For the past three years, Texas Armoring has offered T4 level of protection for the Camaro using lightweight polyethylene armor and bullet-resistant glass. This would protect occupants from most handguns and even a 12-gauge shotgun, but not from rifle-caliber rounds. But because the Camaro has frameless doors, traditional bulletproof glass can’t be used. Instead, an innovative reconfiguring of the layers of glass and polycarbonate allow for protection from assault rifles like the AK-47, providing some of the benefits of T5 protection levels.
The armored conversions have a starting cost of $45,000 in addition to the price of the Camaro, though it adds as little as 450 pounds to the car, barely impacting the performance of the SS model. Texas Armoring does, however, offering a supercharger package as well, boosting power to 550 ponies. If you opt for the armored roof, underbody protection, and other options you could easily spend $80,000 or more.
Money is a lot easier to replace than a life though…