NAMED MODELSpecial · Utility & HeavyUnited Kingdom
British Gas Mast-Equipped V8 Van.
V8 petrol Series III 109 hard top van built for the British Gas Board with a pump-up telescopic mast on the rear body, given to Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue in the mid 1980s and repainted vivid canary yellow with a blue beacon and spot lamps before passing on to the Dartmoor Rescue Group.
BASE VEHICLESeries III 109″BUILT BYLand Rover (Series III 109-inch hard top, V8)IN SERVICE1979–85OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTIONSmall batchLAYOUT4 wheels · 109″
The record
Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue's transport history records that during the mid 1980s the British Gas Board provided the team with a Land Rover V8 petrol van which had a pump-up mast mounted on the rear — the mast having served the gas board for lighting and radio work at incidents. The vehicle's original British Gas Board paint scheme was changed to a vivid canary yellow, and the team's photograph shows it on a snowy callout with a blue beacon and two chrome spot lamps across the roof front, the white mast tube standing above the rear body and a red stripe along the waist. The team eventually passed the vehicle on to the Dartmoor Rescue Group. Fleet or registration details beyond the partial plate in the photograph are not recorded; the base vehicle is a Series III 109-inch hard top, the standard body for the gas board's V8 vans of the period.
The registry's model is a Series III 109 hard top in canary yellow with a classic dome beacon and spot lamps on the roof, the rear-body mast, red waist stripe, BRITISH GAS BOARD lettering on the hard top and dark steel wheels; in the game it carries the blue-light boost.
Specification
MANUFACTURERLand Rover (Series III 109-inch hard top, V8)
MODIFIER / COACHBUILDERBritish Gas Board (pump-up mast); repainted by Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue
MANUFACTUREDSeries III V8 109 (Stage 1) era; with ASSAR from the mid 1980s
MASTPump-up telescopic mast mounted on the rear body
LIGHTINGClassic blue dome beacon and two roof spot lamps (search and rescue fit)
LIVERYCanary yellow over the original British Gas Board scheme; red waist stripe
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINESeries III
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE109″
CATEGORYSpecial · Utility & Heavy
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Imagery
No published image yetA rendering impression or a free-licence photograph will appear here once one is published — the sources below link to photographs elsewhere
Where it was
GB United Kingdom1980–1995 · British Gas, then ASSAR from the mid-1980s
BuiltLand Rover, Lode Lane, SolihullUnited Kingdom · 1979–198552.43, -1.78
