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.
History
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.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Series III 109-inch hard top, V8)
- Manufactured
- Series III V8 109 (Stage 1) era; with ASSAR from the mid 1980s
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- British Gas Board (pump-up mast); repainted by Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue
- Engine type
- Rover 3.5 L V8 petrol
- Production run
- Small batch; count unknown
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series III
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 109″
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.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue — Transport History ↗ — ASSAR (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.assar.org.uk/about/transport-history/ https://www.assar.org.uk/about/transport-history/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T13:17:41.994Z · status: researched