Yahoo Autos BMW 7 Series Protection is armored to stop whatever your enemies dish out
Designed for motorists with tenacious enemies, the BMW 7 Series Protection was developed in-house with a long list of add-ons that allows it to withstand shots from armor-piecing bullets. It looks almost exactly like the regular-production sedan, and it's just as luxurious inside.
BMW notes that the armored Protection model was in the pipeline from the very beginning of the new 7's development process; the variant wasn't added to the range as an afterthought. Details about the transformation are understandably few and far between, as knowing exactly which materials were added to which part of the car would make life a whole lot easier for anyone trying to shoot the occupants.
What we know is that the Protection is built around an armored steel structure. It then receives safety glass and additional armored panels to protect the underbody; BMW designed the underbody and the roof to withstand attacks carried out with explosives. The sedan earned a VR9 protection rating, so it's capable of stopping 7.62mm armor-piercing bullets (the kind fired by the M60 machine gun, for example).
This isn't "Mad Max"; BMW can't simply weld thick steel plates to a run-of-the-mill 7 Series and call it a day. It also added a self-sealing fuel tank, made several changes to the chassis, and fitted 20-inch wheels wrapped by run-flat tires designed specifically for armored cars. And, while the Protection comes with numerous driving aids, they provide the driver warnings rather than stepping in to control the sedan.
