zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Buying
/
For $5,900, Does This Ambulance Make My Ass Look Big?
For $5,900, Does This Ambulance Make My Ass Look Big?-April 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:08

When you drive an ambulance, people tend to get out of your way. For today’s 1974 Dodge Superior, they’ll have to clear an especially wide path, but that’s only if its price is equally phat.

The thing about Datsun’s 510 is that they tend to give you guys a bigger tingle in the privates than does a week of Chilean prison interrogation. Yesterday’s was no exception, and it took home a narrow 57% Nice Price win despite having not yet even been to finishing school.

Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Datsun 510 has a KA24DE under its hood, and a lot of those were…

I’ll bet for many of you the only car-based ambulance with which you are familiar is the one converted into ECTO-1 in the movie Ghostbusters. More likely you’re accustomed to van-based emergency transports as they have supplanted the old Caddy-wagons almost entirely.

Today, most medi response vehicles fit into three major classes- the Types I through III. Type I is a box dropped onto a heavy duty pickup truck chassis, while the Type III features a similar box that’s been grafted onto a full size van cab. The Type II is a normal van with an extended roof, and which offers the least amount of places to get out of the way when the EMT yells “CLEAR!”

One of the weirdest of the Vanbulances is the Superior 61 Widebody, of which we have a today, and which fails to fall cleanly into any of the above categories. Cut down the middle like an unfortunate extra in Hatchet III, the vans were then unceremoniously pulled a full 16” apart and the filled the gap like an eclair.

The resulting bodywork overhangs the chassis in a somewhat freakish manner requiring spelunking gear just to check tire pressures, and making the ambulances frighteningly tippy. Interestingly, the 61 in the Superior’s name is not derived from the ambulance’s width, but its height, there being 61 inches of headroom under the extended fiberglass cap. The more you know.

On this Superior that lid has both a gumball and Mickey Mouse ear sirens, and is steel reinforced to help keep the van from folding faster than Superman on laundry day. There are additional red lamps on the front fenders, and while it would be a hoot to fire everything up and run code 3 down to Taco Bell when you need an emergency Chalupa Supreme injection, it’s still probably against the law.

The driver’s station features your typical Dodge dash and doghouse, albeit with more elbow room than normal. In the rear compartment there's still all the cabinetry, the side bench, and gurney lock, all of which seem serviceable. The exterior likewise appears reasonably mar-free, including the humongous and irreplaceable single-piece windscreen which would require an extra long squeegee to keep clean.

Mechanically, it has a 360 V8 and of course, a TorqueFlite. The seller claims the tires are new and that the whole thing runs and drives great. The question is, where would you drive such a vehicle?

Well, considering its width and corresponding interior room, you could throw a hammock into it and use it both to transport your Formula Vee car to the races, and as a comfy abode while there. Alternatively, you could start a business transporting acute claustrophobia sufferers.

Whatever your choice, the world is your oyster, and this Superior 61 Fat Boy is $5,900. Considering that you likely have no point of reference for such things, what do you think about this unique van being offered at that price? Do you think that’s such a value that it should sell stat? Or, does that price make this a scambulance?

You decide!

, or go if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Buying
You Can Turn the Tables on All Those Data Mining Bastards by Buying This Old Surveillance Van
You Can Turn the Tables on All Those Data Mining Bastards by Buying This Old Surveillance Van
You know how pretty much every modern vehicle you’re likely to buy today is going to work tirelessly to extract every bit of personal data from you, and then use that data to manipulate you into buying shit? Of course you do. Aren’t you sick of that? Of course...
Apr 21, 2025
At $15,950, Could This Rare 2008 BMW 135i 6-Speed be a Manual Labor of Love?
At $15,950, Could This Rare 2008 BMW 135i 6-Speed be a Manual Labor of Love?
Today’s Bimmer is 11 years old, but has required over $10K in maintenance in the last two of those. That makes it either a money pit or future proofed. Let’s see what its price adds to the mix. There were some dents plaguing last Friday’s . The interior had...
Apr 21, 2025
The 2019 Volkswagen Jetta GLI Is Why Sport Sedans Shouldn't Die
The 2019 Volkswagen Jetta GLI Is Why Sport Sedans Shouldn't Die
We’ve been hearing about the of the sedan, and especially the manual sport sedan, for a few years now. Carmakers are from their lineups like urine-soaked hotcakes, and Ford’s, though. Even as Volkswagen’s finally cracking the U.S. market with SUVs like the new, bigger Tiguan and even bigger Atlas, it...
Apr 21, 2025
This One-Off 1960s Sports Racer Makes Taking On The World Seem Possible
This One-Off 1960s Sports Racer Makes Taking On The World Seem Possible
It’s the late 1960s, and you want a car to race in what could be some of the most competitive wheel-to-wheel in the game, European smallbore prototypes. So, you set about sourcing a tiny prototype with a 1300cc engine. You’ve got a few options, but you don’t want to follow...
Apr 21, 2025
Mazda's Cars Are Good But Its Dealers Are Still Kind of Awful
Mazda's Cars Are Good But Its Dealers Are Still Kind of Awful
Mazda has been on a roll lately—probably its best lineup since twin-turbo rotary engines were still a thing. The scrappy automaker is going for a more premium “upmarket” push rather than compete directly with giants like Honda and Toyota. For the most part the strategy is working, but a...
Apr 21, 2025
This 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Is a Six-Speed Manual Unicorn
This 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Is a Six-Speed Manual Unicorn
I see you there with your # t-shirt and your #SaveTheManuals bumper sticker on your and I appreciate you. But if you want a real manual unicorn? Then look no further than this 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 sedan. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this thing pop up...
Apr 21, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved