Penny failed her MOT on 28 May 2010 and has been decommissioned by HFR.  She has now moved into private owernership as part of a vintage emergency vehicle collection.

Penny is a Hanlon ‘Hi-Line’ dual purpose ambulance built in Northern Ireland on a 1982 Bedford CF280 chassis.   The bodywork is a double skin of glass reinforced plastic (GRP), with internal timber and metal stiffeners bonded between the skins. 

She has a 2279cc petrol engine giving 78BHP at 4,600rpm and a 3 speed GM automatic gearbox.  Bedford designed a very 'modern' vehicle for the time, so there were some unusual features including a rubber belt driven overhead cam, tilting the engine at 45° to give more room and to lower the center of gravity, as well as a semi-floating hypoid rear drive axle.  All in all, it was quite a radical design for the time.   It is a tribute to the engineering design that so many of these vehicles are still on the road.  This style of Hanlon ambulance saw lots of service with both Surrey and London Ambulance services, both of whom had large fleets in the 1980’s.  Penny first saw service with Surrey Ambulance Service, where she was based at Gatwick ambulance station between March 1982 & December 1990.  She was mainly used for inter-hospital transfers – high speed runs up the M23/A23 between Crawley Hospital and the London teaching hospitals. She was then sold to Ash Division of St John Ambulance, vehicle number MD108, before joining HFR in 2001. 

Penny is a joy to drive, she is compact, easy to manoeuver and has good visibility all around.  This makes moving through traffic and getting in and out of tight spaces relatively easy.

Up to June 2005, Penny  covered 184 first aid duties and some 5,600 miles for HFR as well as having a starring role in a short film! She is no longer working with HFR, but was a critical (though sometimes unreliable) part of the charity for 9 years.
 

Filming 25 May 2003