Why Is FDR's Sunshine Special Still There

Why is FDR's Sunshine Special still there – in the same Dearborn museum it entered in 1950? On December 8, 1941, legend says Franklin D. Roosevelt rode to Congress in Al Capone's bulletproof Cadillac, because his own parade car had no armour at all. So which car really took him to the "Day of Infamy" speech? Why does a 1939 Lincoln wear a 1942 face? And why was the first car ever built for a US president never sold? We follow the 1939 Lincoln Model K "Sunshine Special" from Brunn & Company in Buffalo and the White House garage, through polio, the 1933 Miami shooting and Pearl Harbor, the 1942 armour job (bullet-resistant glass, 200-pound doors, more than 9,300 lb in total), a secret wartime tour through Ford's Willow Run bomber plant, the myths of Casablanca and Yalta, Truman's 1947 journey home by ship – and finally to the Presidential Vehicles hall of the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. 🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the next machine we track down 🔔 📖 Chapters: 0:00 December 8, 1941 – the Capone legend 1:56 Horses, steam and the first garage 4:03 A man who couldn't stand 5:51 Miami, 1933 7:34 Built for one man 10:30 The end of a line 11:12 Sunday, 7 December 11:56 The Capone legend 13:50 Armour plate and a new face 16:23 Inside the Arsenal of Democracy 17:58 Did it go to war? 20:08 Warm Springs, April 1945 21:05 The next passenger 22:49 Why it's still there 25:37 Myth check 📚 Sources: 🏛️ The Henry Ford – collections, artifact records and history articles (thehenryford.org) 🏛️ White House Historical Association (whitehousehistory.org) 🏛️ FDR Presidential Library & Museum (fdrlibrary.org, fdrlibrary.marist.edu, fdr.artifacts.archives.gov, fdr.blogs.archives.gov) 🏛️ National Archives (archives.gov) · National Park Service (nps.gov) · Library of Congress (loc.gov) 🏛️ Harry S. Truman Library (trumanlibrary.gov) · National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (nationalmuseum.af.mil) 🏛️ U.S. Secret Service history (secretservice.gov) 📰 MotorCities National Heritage Area (motorcities.org) · Coachbuilt (coachbuilt.com) 📰 New Georgia Encyclopedia (georgiaencyclopedia.org) · Explore Georgia (exploregeorgia.org) 📰 History.com (history.com) · HistoryLink (historylink.org) · Ypsilanti District Library (ypsilibrary.org) 📰 Truth or Fiction (truthorfiction.com) · My Al Capone Museum (myalcaponemuseum.com) · Howard Blum (howardblum.com) 📰 RM Sotheby's, Arizona 2012 (rmsothebys.com) · The New Cadillac Database (newcadillacdatabase.org) 📰 Ford Authority (fordauthority.com) · Hagerty (hagerty.com) · We Are The Mighty (wearethemighty.com) 📰 FSU Postcard Archive (fsucardarchive.create.fsu.edu) 📰 Wikipedia: Sunshine Special (automobile), Presidential state car (United States), Brunn & Company, Lincoln K series, Attempted assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Little White House 📷 Image credits: see pinned comment. Photos and clips from Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress (FSA/OWI), the National Archives, Pexels, Mixkit and other free sources under their respective licences (CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, public domain). 🎵 Music: "Classical vibes 1–4" (Grigoriy Nuzhny), "Classical 2", "Classical 4", "Classical 10" (Jonny S.), "Irenko" (Alejandro Magaña), "Skyline", "Miss You", "Possible Dreams" (Eugenio Mininni) – Mixkit (mixkit.co), Mixkit Stock Music Free License 🤖 Disclosure: This video was produced with AI assistance (AI narration voice). All photos and clips are real, free-licensed or public-domain material. This channel is not affiliated with Ford Motor Company, The Henry Ford or the FDR Presidential Library. #SunshineSpecial #FranklinRoosevelt #PresidentialCar