The gremlins that plagued the Ambulance in Darien, got worse in Effingham, Illinois. The Transcon Medi-Vac made great time across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana but all was not well in the belly of the beast. In the middle of the night, they broke into an auto parts store and retrieved the correct parts that the Ambulance needed. As luck would have it, a couple of mechanics were there (attending the largest all-night party that Darien had ever seen). He jumped out of the driver’s seat with a stack of hundred dollar bills and offered them to anyone that could make this rolling experiment run correctly. Hal’s dream of having the fastest Ambulance on Earth was fading due to an improperly set up carburetor. Within moments of punching their time card, the Transcon Medi-Vac traveled less than 100 yards before it died. George can be seen, standing next to Brock, on a dumpster behind the Restaurant, during the driver’s meeting.Īs their departure time approached, the Transcon Medi-Vac had some serious mechanical problems and could barely run under its own power. As the hours went on, many of them realized they’d been had! Brock’s longtime friend George Lysle agreed to host the send-off from his restaurant, The Lock Stock and Barrel. Countless reporters staked out the Red Ball Garage awaiting the arrival of the entrants. In 1979, the starting line had been moved to Darien, Connecticut because the event had been leaked to the Press.
Docxtor from cannonball run driver#
This was the location where Car and Driver Magazine stored their test vehicles. The previous Cannonballs had departed from the Red Ball Garage on East 31st Street in New York City. They figured if any cops stopped them the entire story was just crazy enough to work! The original Transcon Medivac being built at Bill Mitchell’s shop Brock’s wife, Pam, was the “patient” they were transporting coast-to-coast by ground, because her condition forbade her from flying. To make things totally kosher, they had some medical supplies in the van, a gurney, a doctor named Lyle Royer (which Hal met in that same bar on the Sunset Strip). Most all of the conversion work was done by the famed Bill Mitchell at his shop in Connecticut. The guys bought all the appropriate external ambulance fittings, installed a Dick Landy-built 502” big block between the seats, and installed an overdrive transmission. Within a week, Hal ordered a brand-new 1978 B200 Dodge Sportsman in two-tone Sunrise Orange and Spinnaker White, so they didn’t have to paint the van it was built in these colors. He called Brock Yates and said, “You’ve got to do it one more time!”
Docxtor from cannonball run professional#
As a professional stuntman, he’d been in countless Ambulances if he had one that could do 100+ mph and carry plenty of fuel, he’d have the perfect vehicle. Brock, Lyle, Pam & Hal Travis Bell’s Transcon Medivac ReplicaĪ few months prior, in a bar on the Sunset Strip, Hal Needham came up with the ultimate disguise to run across the country at a high rate of speed and to go undetected.
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