Daytona Speedway ambulances

be nice to see the rig in person. it will really surprise you what is in on of those home made rigs. but gone is the word on them.
 
Right you are Terry. The car was originally dark blue and was used somewhere in North or South Carolina, by the county coroner's office. When the Speedway bought it had a Model 17 Beacon Ray with a flat bottom skirt mounted on the sloped part of the roof. I got tired of seeing the light hit about five feet in front of the hood, so I took an angled skirt that I had and swapped skirts and straightened up the light so the beam was parallel to the chassis. There was a Model 28 siren mounted under the hood. It had the Superior pedestal bullet lights at the front corners of the roof. I don't know what became of it.
 
Ken Elliott said:
Right you are Terry. The car was originally dark blue and was used somewhere in North or South Carolina, by the county coroner's office. When the Speedway bought it had a Model 17 Beacon Ray with a flat bottom skirt mounted on the sloped part of the roof. I got tired of seeing the light hit about five feet in front of the hood, so I took an angled skirt that I had and swapped skirts and straightened up the light so the beam was parallel to the chassis. There was a Model 28 siren mounted under the hood. It had the Superior pedestal bullet lights at the front corners of the roof. I don't know what became of it.
Click to expand...

Ken, if that rig was white (or a very pale yellow), I have a copy of it in my hand right now, after doing some digging. In fact, you may be the person who gave me the photo back in the photo-trading days in the '70's and '80's. On the back of the photo is hand written "1962 Daytona Speedway." Too bad I can't share it on here.
 
Terry Lange said:
Ken, if that rig was white (or a very pale yellow), I have a copy of it in my hand right now, after doing some digging. In fact, you may be the person who gave me the photo back in the photo-trading days in the '70's and '80's. On the back of the photo is hand written "1962 Daytona Speedway." Too bad I can't share it on here.
Click to expand...

Why can't you share this pic here ? :confused:
 
Ken Elliott said:
Thank you, Pascal, for opening the Daytona Ambulances thread. I provided ambulances to the Daytona International Speedway for 19 years, from 1978 to 1997. The Speedway owned a 1963 Superior Pontiac lowtop which was white over green and I'm not sure of its' history. They also rented panel vans from King rent-a-car as well as using privately owned station wagons with the cot secured to a sheet of plywood. I used all pro-cars until 1985, when I switched over to Type II vans. The pro-cars that I used were: 1971 M/M Cadillac Lifeliner, 1973 M/M Cadillac Criterion (yes, the one off prototype Criterion), 1974 M/M Caddy Criterion, 1975 M/M Caddy Lifeliner, and a 1975 M/M Caddy Criterion. The salt air on the East coast pretty much destroyed the Criterions. Funeral homes around Daytona provided the ambulances to the Speedway over the years. Baggett and Summers F.H. in Port Orange was one that I know of. On the morning of the "500" all the ambulances would stage at Baggett and Summers and we had police escorts to the Speedway, this procedure went on until about 1980 when the traffic around the Speedway got so heavy that we just reported directly to the track. I've included a few of the pictures of my units. Hope you find more that I haven't seen.
Click to expand...

Wow about the prototype '73 Criterion!!! I thought it went directly from M-M to Capital City Ambulance in Des Moines...guess not!!!
 
Here is a clearer shot of the '62 Superior Pontiac that Pascal displayed in post #91. Photo credit to Ken Elliott.
 

Attachments

  • Daytona 62 Pontiac0002.jpg
    Daytona 62 Pontiac0002.jpg
    90.2 KB · Views: 179
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top