Blog:Off-Topic—Special Vehicles in GTA San Andreas

Recently I’ve been revisiting GTA San Andreas, one of my favourite games of all time. San Andreas is a game that encourages exploring, and sometimes screwing about in missions can yield far more positive results.

Before we start, let me just say that driving in San Andreas isn’t easy, the recklessness and stupidity of the NPC and the aggressiveness of your driving meant that most of the vehicles you drive will likely meet a fiery death. But there are a few vehicles that can remove other people’s bumpers without loosing its own and remain in one piece even after you pumped a few hundred pounds of lead into them. Sure there are bicycles, but we invented internal combustion for a reason. Of course, these cars aren’t just lying around for you to take. You may have to explore a bit and screw around a lot in missions in order to claim them. Here are a few examples and tips on how to get them without the use of cheats.

WARNING: When I say “Invincible” or “Indestructible”, I don’t mean “Completely Indestructible”. There are still ways to destroy an all-proof vehicle:
 * Landing the car on its roof. It will take damage as long as it’s not tip-proof, which is a quality that cannot be saved in game.
 * Driving it into the water will disable it until you push it out of the water.
 * Fitting a car bomb at 8-Ball’s Auto and blow it up.
 * Punching it while wearing a parachute on your back will damage it thanks to a bizarre glitch.
 * Entering the car while CJ’s on fire will sentence it to the usual fiery death.

WARNING: Never take your special vehicle to the following occasions:
 * Taking a lowrider to the lowrider challenge at Unity Station will remove ALL OF IT’S SPECIAL QUALITIES.
 * Taking it to a girlfriend’s house and having coffee with her. The car will lose its special property and simply become normal again.

WARNING: Never attempt to bring a special vehicle you’ve stolen to a safehouse you have yet to purchase. If you purchase the safehouse the special vehicle will despawn during the cutscene.

Invincible Tampa
The Tampa is definitely one of the less appealing cars in the game. It’s a crappy old Chevrolet Corvair with mismatching body panels, lackluster performance and crooked license plates. You can, however, obtain a Tampa that’s truly “safe at any speed” fairly early in the game. In the mission Nines and AKs, drive Big Smoke to Emmet’s backyard, and as soon as the shooting tutorial starts, walk away and push the Tampa in the backyard to the nearest garage as the vehicle is locked which prevents you from driving it. After you’ve pushed the Tampa into the garage and have the door closed, the Tampa should be unlocked and drivable. However, mission vehicles stored in garages have a tendency to disappear after the mission is completed. So drive Big Smoke’s Glendale back into your garage as well and destroy it. This will fail the mission but the bullet/damage/melee/fire/explosion proof Tampa is yours now.

WARNING: DO NOT delay the attempt to steal the Tampa to when the game instructs you to shoot the Tampa’s gas tank. By that point, the Tampa will lose its all-proof quality and become a normal car.

All-Proof PCJ-600
Before beginning the motorcycle chase in the mission OG Loc, Freddy’s PCJ-600 sports bike is almost completely indestructible until a few seconds after the chase has begun. You cannot dismount Freddy and steal his bike as A: getting to close to him will trigger the chase and B: if he gets thrown-off then the game will crash. There is a way, however, to obtain his all-proof PCJ-600.

First of all, you must NOT go after Freddy and simply stop a good distance away so as not to trigger the chase, then kill Jeff… I mean… OG Loc, but make sure that Freddy is in your view so he won’t despawn. After failing the mission, head towards Freddy, distract him and steal his bike which should retain its all-proof property.

Indestructible Admiral
In Los Sepulcros, an Admiral 4-door sedan spawns inside the cemetery as your getaway vehicle. It’s indestructible until Sweet enters it. However, the vehicle is locked and immobile. Obtaining this vehicle is a bit tricky. First, drive Sweet and your homies to the cemetery like normal, then as Sweet and the homies jump over the wall, don’t follow them, instead, walk around the south end of the cemetery and head towards where the Admiral is parked. Then fire at the Ballas attending the funeral which will cause the mission to fail. Now the Admiral is no longer glued to the ground. Push the vehicle onto the streets, jack a passing car and use it to push the Admiral to a safehouse garage.

If you want to make things easier, steal a tow truck and store it before starting the mission, and once you’ve arrived at the cemetery, fetch the tow truck, fail the mission and use it to tow the Admiral to the nearest safehouse garage. You can also use a tractor but you’ll most likely be 100 years old by the time you made it to a garage.

Fire-Proof and Explosion-Proof Car
Here’s another secret, you can make ANY vehicle explosion and fire proof in the mission Grey Imports. Simply drive the vehicle you picked into the red corona across the street from the freight depot. This is probably done intentionally by Rockstar so that you can use it to ram the fuel drums in the depot for some nice mayhem. To keep the vehicle, either drive it back to the garage, or simply leave it at the entrance of the depot so you can use it later to chase down Andre.

Cesar’s Savanna
Cesar Vialpando’s red Savanna is bullet-proof, explosion-proof, fire-proof, tip-proof and pop-proof (bullet-proof tires) during the race in the mission High Stakes, Low Rider. You can obtain his vehicle at the end of the mission. However, to obtain Cesar’s Savanna, you must keep close to him during the race, as Cesar is usually stuck at the rear of the pack, if you have too much of a lead at the end of the race, Cesar likely won’t make it to the finish line. After the mission is over, ram Cesar’s car or damage it in some way, this will cause Cesar to exit the car and attempt to punch Carl like an angry pedestrian. Simply fire a gun at Cesar to scare him off. Then use your own vehicle to push the Savanna into a near-by garage.

Unfortunately, only the bullet-proof, explosion-proof and fireproof qualities of the car can be saved.

Again, Don't take it to a lowrider meet!

Weapons-Proof Patriot
After playing the King in Exile cutscene, you unlock the ability to intercept Big Smoke’s cash truck on Mondays and Fridays. The side-mission involves using your vehicle to ram the cash truck’s rear to cause the cash crates it’s carrying to fall out and collect them. But there’s something far more interesting than that measly $1,800 the mission rewards you (you can earn more by running over a drug dealer), the most valuable prize in this mission is the Patriot used to transport the cash, which is bullet-proof, fire-proof, explosion-proof and melee-proof. Sadly, it ain’t damage-proof so collisions can still damage it.

Obtaining this one here is quite tricky. As the Patriot is predictably locked, drives recklessly and seldom stops for anything. It’s strongly advised to attempt to steal this Patriot during your very first attempt to intercept it, as subsequent attempts will spawn additional GSF traitors armed with Micro Uzis in the car and they can easily reduce your vehicle to smouldering wreckage. You can tell that it’s your first interception by listening/reading the dialogue and that you cannot refuse your first attempt.

To steal the Patriot, first grab a tow truck, you can find one at the Angel Pine Junkyard. Position yourself at a choke point on the Patriot’s route (which is always fixed unless glitched), when the Patriot appears ram it as usual, and continue your pursuit until all of the cash crates has been knocked out of the truck and the mission is declared over. Usually when that happens, the Patriot will stop driving and simply stop by the side of the road, and any escorts riding shotgun will exit the vehicle (sometimes the driver himself will also walk away). Now simply tow the Patriot to a safe house garage (a large garage such as the Doherty Garage or the Hashbury apartment's garage), let the garage door close on it and when it reopens, you’ll find that the driver has despawned and the Patriot unlocked, ready to be driven.

If you are greedy, like me, or simply wanted a backup in case this one is lost. You can simply use the Patriot you’ve acquired on the next interception and ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, IS FOLLOW THAT DAMN TRUCK, CJ! The GSF traitor escorts can fire all they like but it won’t do a thing. When the pursuit is over, simply use your Patriot to push the other one into a garage.

Invincible Sabre and Sadler
There are several vehicles with special qualities that can be found in the mission Tanker Commander: a bullet proof Tanker semi-truck, an all-proof Tanker trailer, an all-proof Sabre and an all-proof Sadler. Here I’ll talk about the latter two.

The Sabre is a decent steed, a powerful and handsome fastback muscle car, but it’s very prone to oversteer especially on wet roads and unpaved surfaces. So if you’re a driver like me you’ll most likely crash it A LOT. Luckily, there’s one such Sabre that can neglect all collision-damage, or any damage. Here’s how to obtain it:
 * Start the mission like normal.
 * When the game instructs you to hook up the trailer, simply reverse to where the Sabre is parked behind the gas station store, and get out.
 * Ice that psycho Catalina, and save Claude some trouble.
 * Annoyingly, the Sabre also has the Heavy trait, which makes moving it extremely difficult unless you’re Hercules or a tow truck. If you didn’t have a tow truck in handy, wait until a tractor spawns near-by and jack it. Then use it to tow the Sabre back to the nearest available safehouse garage.

The Sadler, on the other hand, is much easier.
 * Start the mission as normal, but when you’ve hooked up the tanker trailer, get out and start blasting at the Sabre, make sure you destroy it away from the truck or it could lead to mission failure as its explosion could take the truck cab with it.
 * Continue the mission like normal, when you’ve completed it, head to the gas station right next to RS Haul, and the Sadler will be parked there, unlocked and ready for taken.

All-Proof Merit
After you return the Merit, now loaded with weed, to the DA in the mission 555 We Tip. The Merit will become all-proof once you’ve parked it in the hotel’s parking lot. This is probably one of the trickiest cars to obtain here.

First of all, after you’ve parked the car, wait until the valet shows up to collect it, when he enters the car, kill him with a head shot which will cause his body to fall out, jack the Merit and take it back to your garage. Now you have to destroy the vehicle in order to retain its all-proof quality. Now doing that may sound contradictory, but as I have mentioned in the beginning there are ways you can.


 * 1) You can try entering the vehicle when you’re character is on fire, you can use explosives or Molotov cocktails or explosives. However, you MUST ensure that the door of the Merit is left OPEN when you attempt to incinerate yourself, otherwise the door will be locked and as it’s a mission vehicle the car cannot be repaired or unlocked by the garage while the mission is active. It’s highly advised to complete the firefighter missions before trying out this trick. Enter the Merit while Carl is still on fire will set it on fire as well, when its engine starts catching fire, exit the vehicle and watch it explode from a safe distance away in your garage.
 * 2) If the first trick fails, you can only resort to flipping the car, a forklift spawns in a warehouse in Easter Basin, close to the ship where you export vehicles. It may take multiple attempts to flip the Merit but it can be done. Once the Merit is upside down, stay in the garage and watch its destruction because if you leave the garage will simply right the vehicle once again. To survive the ensuing explosion, it’s recommended to wear body armor.

The Mothership
The Truth’s psychedelic camper van is a rare, colourful piece of garbage. It’s microscopic Flat-4 engine block is held together with a macramé hammock and that it runs on 15-year-old cooking oil. It’s slower than the hair grow on a moose’s scrotum and can only carry two passengers rather than the usual three. Collectors like me will most likely attempt to steal it at the first given opportunity.

So if we’re gonna steal an extremely rare car, why not steal it with FULL DAMAGE IMMUNITY?!

Start the mission Black Project. After escaping Area 69, instead of meeting The Truth, fly to Doherty and enter the crane located in the construction’s site behind your garage while still in your jet pack. Exit, the jet pack should be gone by now and you can control your character but cannot exit any vehicles (not the case on the mobile edition as the enter vehicle button still works). To regain the ability to enter vehicles, head to the train station and by a drink from the vending machine. Now the state is mostly empty and park vehicles hardly spawns. Grab any vehicle you can find and head back to Area 69. Once you’re inside the base, head to the Northern hangers located right next to the runway and grab a Rhino Tank. Drive the tank to the meeting point with The Truth on top of Arco del Oeste and avoid the red mission marker. Use the Rhino to push the Mothership into the hanger in Verdant Meadows. Pin the Mothership at the corner of the hanger with your tank to prevent The Truth from driving away, and finally blow yourself up. You will then respawn at the Las Venturas Hospital. Head back to Verdant Meadows and you will find an all-proof Mothership ready to be driven.

WARNING: It’s strongly recommended to store the Mothership in a save point which you don’t use often. Garages of frequently used safehouses have a tendency to not save a vehicle’s livery. This will cause the Mothership to become just a plain white Camper van.

Indestructible Maverick
The mission Misappropriation for Frank Tenpenny can either be a swift shootout or a wild goose chase. To end the mission quickly, you have to take out the dossier carrying informant before he escapes by air, which will leave his helicopter with full damage immunity. Unfortunately, the damn thing is locked so you’ll need your old friend—the tow truck. Yeah, I know, it’s stupid, but you can tow helicopters in this game, even the ones with no wheels.

To steal the helicopter, you must approach the ghost town where the FBI are stationed from the west end along the cliff, in order avoid alerting the feds. The dossier carrying informant is standing by a building right next to the choppers, kill him quickly and collect the dossier, otherwise another FBI agent will grab it instead and make run for the chopper. Now clear out all remaining FBI agents. Once the coast is clear, hook up the tow truck with the Maverick positioned on top of the rock, and carefully tow it back to the Verdant Meadows hangar, once the hanger doors closes, the Maverick will be unlocked and ready to fly. Fire some rockets into it if you want to check its invulnerability.

