You might wonder how Car and Driver came to possess a Ford E-350 Ambulance, dressed up to look like the one from The Cannonball Run. It started with the premise of a future story that would require a cheap diesel, which led us to Craigslist and a 1998 model with just over 300,000 miles on the odometer. The interior is stripped of all medical equipment, and the bare metal walls retain the residue of some adhesive that many consider to be a gruesome shade of red. More important, though, is that it runs.
The Before Shot
$1800 and a short trip through Northern Ohio meth-country later, the Ambivalence was parked at the C/D headquarters. Some time after that, the original story premise fell apart (it’s a long tale in itself, and not our fault). That’s the first part of the Ambivalence’s story.
For the second part, we went to Avery Dennison. Eager to show off what can be done with automotive wraps, the folks at Avery graciously offered to fully cover the E-350 in a design of our choosing. As a child, repeated viewings of the Burt Reynolds/Dom DeLuise classic on the family Betamax player left an indelible mark on my psyche. Now in possession of an ambulance and employed at Car and Driver, the only option was to replicate the livery of the famous Dodge van that competed in the 1979 Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash and was re-used for the movie.
Avery Dennison grafted the Transcon Medi-Vac design onto the Ford body with a few intentional changes. You might notice that our modern version has the word “Ambivalence” (hence the official nickname) emblazoned all over, along with a few “not for emergency use” disclaimers. It’s an attempt to avoid any lawsuits from the angry-and-humorless demographic for impersonating an actual ambulance, since it’s a lot easier to get sued today than it was in 1979.
We dropped off the E-350 at Avery Dennison’s Cleveland headquarters to undergo its transformation, which took about two days. (If you’re looking to get your own full- or partial-vehicle wrap you can find an installer at http://www.sgia.org/pdaa/.) A base white layer goes on first, made from a digitally printable, pressure-sensitive vinyl. The orange opaque vinyl was laid on top of that layer, as are all the other graphics. Any non-orange color is actually printed on white vinyl—even the giant gray stripe that runs the length of the van. Each layer also has a matte laminate on top for durability and to give a paint-like appearance. The key feature to vinyl graphics is that they can be fully removed without damage to the factory paint and, unlike airbrushed unicorns, won’t affect resale value. If I have any say in the matter, the graphics on the Ambivalence will never be removed, but it’s nice to know that the option exists.
Our future plans for the Ambivalence are up in the air, but we definitely sense a coast-to-coast road trip in the future. In the meantime I’ll keep you informed about our mechanical updates along with any other improvements that come along.
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