Before our estafette was famous

Rush spent his working life as a first response fire engine where he was fitted with a couple of ladders and fire extinguishers. From the standard Sapeurs Pompiers  tow bar fitted, he probably pulled two trailers (see the example picture of another estafette with 2 trailers), one that was the water pump and another that carried the hose pipes. Unlike the UK, 80% of French firemen are local volunteers.

 

Rush was first registered in February 1979 and took over the first response fire engine role in the community of 70500 Vernois Sur Mance from October 2001 until his replacement arrived and he was sold by a sealed bid tender process by the Village Mayor to an englishman.

 

Rush was then imported into in England arriving in October 2011. His first owner found that he required more work than he'd expected to get him on the road and he was sold on in January 2012 to a company that provides vehicles for TV and Film production, Reel Vehicles. 

 

Reel Vehicles literally turned around the bodywork repairs and paint job in a couple of weeks and Rush was delivered to set at Blackbushe Airfield by the end of February. Reel Vehicles have done a pretty good job on the bodywork with an excellent paint job and graphics externally (This would have cost at least £3,000 for a commercial body shop to do the preparation and paintwork).

 

His role in Rush - The Movie was as a Niki Lauda's 1976 Ferrari Scuderia Formula 1 team support vehicle tand was used as set dressing in the pit areas and for a scene between the principle actors playing Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

 

Rush is first seen in the background when James Hunt is racing Formula 3's early in the films and is often just about visible in many of the behind the pit area scenes. Rush is strategically positioned outside the window during the F1 Driver's meeting when Lauda is trying to get the Drivers to vote to not take part in the infamous Nuremberg F1 Race on 1st August 1976 due to his safety concerns. The tragic irony of this scene is that this is the race in which he crashed and was severely burned.

 

Rush also appears in some scenes which didn't make it to the Director's final cut but are included in the Blueray DVD version.

 

 

Whilst it has been claimed that Rush was based on an actual vehicle used by the 1976 Ferrari Scuderia Formula 1 Team, we suspect that they would have probably used a Fiat 850T Familiare van which is similar looking. We are still looking for evidence of a Renault estafette being used by the 1976 Ferrari Formula 1 team. Please let us know if you have evidence of which vehicles they used during that season.

 

After the film production company finished with him, he was sold to a dealer who showed him over the summer of 2013 at various shows before putting him up for sale at Silverstone Auctions. SIlverstone and the dealer did a really great global PR job on making Rush famous and as a resullt of typing Ferrari Van into google, he can literally be found on hundreds of motoring related websites globally. However, probably due to an unrealistic reserve, he remained unsold until we made an offer that was accepted!