Sunday, October 1, 2023

Bronco Cryptozoology #20: Stroppe Ambulance Bronco

 Cryptozoology is the study of mythical creatures that may or may not exist.

This applies to Broncos how? Well, there is a lot of mystery and myths surrounding certain Bronco models and specialty-built Broncos.

So, this new segment at the blog will focus on these prototypes, one of a kind, special editions and the most historical Broncos ever built.

To keep the posts short, we will include only a brief story of each

We will try to separate fact from fiction and possibly come up with more questions than answers.

At first, I was going to compile this into one post, but it got waaay too long.

A classic Bronco as an ambulance? Anyone who has tried to sleep in the bed of a classic Bronco will tell you it ain't very big back there.

The truth is several Broncos were built as life saving vehicles.

In 1976 a cross country balloon expedition was being planned, a man named Karl Thomas wanted to set the cross country record for a balloon, traveling west to east with the wind.

Ford decided to sponsor the event, naming it the "Limited Edition Sail". Ford helped with money, hype and some chase/repair/emergency vehicles. 

A Southern California company named Recreational Vehicles Incorporated (RVI) were tasked with setting up some 1977 F-100 trucks, an Econoline van or two and some Broncos, one of which would serve as an ambulance. 

RVI's specialty was custom vans, they didn't know much about the off-road world, so they went to the man who did: Bill Stroppe.

Stroppe and his team built one of the Broncos into the infamous Balloon Chaser Ambulance.



















Before the balloon buffoonery, Stroppe also built some ambulances for the lifeguards at Long Beach (the city in which his shop resided). According to Andrew Norton at Baja Broncos Unlimited they made two of these in 1970 and one in 1974. 

 







Andrew Norton was able to rescue one of the 1970 lifeguard ambulances and is in the process of restoring it.







Stroppe also put together some ambulances to act as emergency chase vehicles for the races in Baja. This rare photo is from Todd Zuercher's book A History of Ford's Legendary 4x4 Ford Bronco





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