Vintage Ambulances on the Beach

Today’s spacious rescue units, with their turbo diesel engines that can idle for hours as an auxiliary power plant, are remarkable achievements. But veteran EMTs can remember when nothing could beat the Cadillacs used for providing a fast, smooth ride to the hospital. As far as style and craftsmanship are concerned, the contemporary “bread box” doesn’t stand a chance. Proving the point, nearly 50 of these car-chassied beauties convened in sunny Daytona Beach, FL, last summer for the Professional Car Society’s (PCS) 28th Annual International Meet, July 27–31, 2004.

The meet got off to a memorable start when Mike Barruzza, past president of PCS (’95–’97), married fellow Pennsylvanian Victoria Breed in a poolside ceremony on Tuesday afternoon. They then took their first married ride along Daytona’s world famous drive-on beach in the patient compartment of their 1977 Superior Cadillac high-top ambulance. Four days later, it would win both Best of Show and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club award.

The oldest entrant—an all-white 1932 Nash Adams senior ambulance—epitomized classic-era elegance with its stained glass quarter windows and hickory spoke artillery wheels. Originally built by the renowned A.J. Miller Co. of Bellefontaine, OH, its exquisite restoration earned owner Robert Cosgrove of Port St. Lucie, FL, first place honors in the low-top ambulance class. Originally commissioned by a funeral home in Port Jefferson, NY, at a then-staggering cost of nearly $4,800, the wheelbase of its top-of-the-line 990 series Ambassador chassis (powered by an overhead valve “straight-eight” engine) was extended to just over 13 feet. The one-off rig subsequently served a succession of Long Island fire departments until the early 1960s.

The vehicle is equipped with a vintage emergency kit, which includes a 1940s resuscitator in the patient compartment, a hand-pumped Pyrene fire extinguisher on the driv­er’s side running-board and a cowl-mounted warning bell that rings several times with a single pull of the cord. “The radio was originally a one-way unit that was incoming-only. If you got a call, you had to pull over and use a pay phone to respond,” says Cosgrove.

There were also funeral home “combination coaches,” including an all-black high-top ambulance with white gold hand-lettering; a 1967 Superior Pontiac painted in “non-specular blue/gray” to resemble a U.S. Navy ambulance; and a 1976 Miller-Meteor Cadillac Lifeliner that earned the Medic’s Choice Award, to name only a few.

The society’s 29th Annual International Meet will take place this summer at the Hotel Denver (CO) Tech Center, August 2–6. For more information, see www.pcs2005.org.