Jay Leno gets to drive a ton of cool cars. This time he got to sit behind the wheel of an armored Chevy Suburban. Usually these SUVs are reserved for top political officers, like the president and security services. 

Jay Leno drives a Secret Service armored Chevy Suburban 

Jay Leno’s garage has had some pretty cool vehicles in it. The latest SUVs he got to play with were borrowed from the United States Diplomatic Security Service. 

Civilians aren’t allowed near them. Drivers can only get behind the wheel of this government vehicle after passing eight months of training. 

They brought Leno a 2019 Suburban Legacy model that was modified by a third party and a 2024 Chevrolet Suburban that was armored by GM Defense. 

Each Chevy Suburban has to pass four inspections to be sure there are no security risks before they can start going on missions. 

Jalie Cabus, the Assistant Director for Training the Diplomatic Security Service was on site to answer questions. She shared that an armored Chevy Suburban recently kept everyone onboard safe as four bullets were fired into the rear. 

Because no one was injured, the incident didn’t make the news. The bullet proof or ballistic resistant glass didn’t even break. 

Jay Leno shared that the SUV felt a bit heavy but otherwise normal. He wouldn’t be able to guess that the extra protection and equipment increases the weight from 6,016 lbs to about 11,000 lbs. 

The suspension has been modified to handle the extra weight. It also has larger control arms, a sway bat, and coil springs from the Chevrolet Silverado. According to Auto Evolution, each security SUV is powered by the 6.2-liter engine with 429 hp or the Duramax 3.0-liter straight-six engine with 300 hp. Each model is AWD.