There is just something different about owning your own ambulance and Murray Wards could not agree more.
At the beginning of this year, Mr Wards brought a Ford F100 off Trade Me.
However, this F100 came with one distinct feature: it was an ambulance from the 1970s.
Mr Wards said the quirkiness of the ambulance drew him to buy it.
‘‘I was looking for something that was different,’’ he said.
It even had a V8 motor, he said.
People suggested he convert the vehicle into a campervan. But Mr Wards was strongly opposed to that idea.
For the time being the ambulance sat in his garage, but he had plans to take it to car shows and on day trips, he said.
He was still figuring out options to restore it. Two F100 ambulances were built, he said.
One was based in Gore, while the other was near Hawarden in North Canterbury.
He bought the North Canterbury one and did not know what happened to the one in Gore.
He had considered displaying his vehicle at Motoring Mad in Mataura later this month.
‘‘It’ll probably be next year. It’s not quite ready for that, but definitely in the future.’’
His son, Cody, is an organiser of the show.
‘‘I’ll still be working on convincing [Dad] to take it,’’ Cody Wards said.
The theme for the show is emergency vehicles.
