Unique Ambulance!
In 1970 Metropolitan Ambulance embarked on creating an experimental type of ambulance - one that would have the large interior space advantage of a van ambulance combined with the engine power and smooth ride of a car ambulance. What Metropolitan did was place a 1970 Ford Econoline body onto a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado front wheel drive chassis. The Toronado's front wheel drive allowed the floor to be lowered in the patient compartment which reduced the stretcher loading height and also increased the interior floor-to-ceiling height (instead of adding a raised roof to the van, the floor was lowered).
When I visited Metropolitan in 1971 the project was well under way and I remember being told this prototype ambulance would be equipped with the most advanced medical equipment available at the time.
Carson Smith, the owner of Metropolitan, must have been an entrepreneur and a risk taker for their firm to undertake such an expensive and risky project. Because if it doesn't work out - all the money invested is wasted!
