written by Tom Forgue

In July of 1997 a letter was sent to Chief Neubauer and Mr. Charninsky, 
The City Administrator about constructing a D.A.R.E. Vehicle, 
and after it was approved things took off.

Say Hello to car 116.   This car was taken out of service with well over 100,000 active duty miles.  If this car could talk I am sure it would have some exciting police car stories to tell......But for now instead of going to the crusher....This car is being given a new breath of life....With a worn out 350 Chevy engine, a burnt up 4 L60E transmission, a wasted interior and countless other needed repairs we choose this car for the project.  From the beginning we wanted to know the official full dress weight....So we drove it to the digital truck scale to get the facts.  When the numbers settled it showed a whopping 4330 lbs.  WOW ! ! What a hog ! We knew then this wouldn't be an easy project. So back to the shop for a transformation that even Cinderella would be jealous of. So we then turned it over to our incredibly talented municipal garage staff who are currently waving their magic wands over it... You can see what the transformation is like in the following pages. Let us say at this time that this project would not be reality if it weren't for the approval of the City of St. Peters Administration:

Mayor Tom Brown, Administrator~ Bill Charninsky, Police Chief~  Ron Neubauer, Department Head~ Russ Batezle, Maintenance foreman~ Herb Chambers.  And a huge thanks to all the municipal garage technicians who made this project successful.

July 1997:
A letter was sent to the chief from Herb Chambers that the cost of the DARE vehicle would be approximately $14,000.

August 25th, 1997
City Administrator, Mr. Charninsky approved the building of the DARE vehicle and also approved the solicitation of funds to build the DARE vehicle.

August 26th, 1997
A letter was sent to the chief listing the major parts and their approximate costs of the DARE vehicle.

October 1,1997
DARE America approves the Trademark request to use the DARE logo on the vehicle

January 1998
Vehicle 116 was designated as the DARE Vehicle. A photo shoot with Super Chevy Magazine was done in Public Works.

February 1998:
Vehicle 116 was completely stripped, exterior and interior. The rear portion of the frame was cut completely off so that a tubular frame could be installed.

March 1998:
Numerous parts were donated, such as tires, wheels, 4-link rear end, all of the tubular steel for the frame and the roll cage.

April 1998:
Marc Beilman installs the tubular steel roll cage and the rear frame of the vehicle.. LOOKS GREAT !!!!!

Bob Schultz Honda donates two helmets for the program.

June 1998:
Spoke with Merv Box from General Motors about donating a trailer for the DARE Vehicle.

The 4-Link rear end is installed with all the rear end gears ready to be installed. The front rotors installed along with the front tires. The DARE Vehicle was taken off the jack stands for the first time.

July 1998:
The DARE Vehicle, though not completed was displayed at the Olde Tyme picnic. There was alot of interest and numerous questions. There were also requests to see it when it was completed.

August 1998:
The motor was sent to the assembler ( Buttons Machine Shop ) to be assembled.

The DARE unit is still committed to this project. We plan to take the vehicle to the local schools and to show students that there are other alternatives than drugs. The vehicle will also appear at the businesses who have already donated parts.

General Motors turned down our request for an enclosed trailer.

Our mission, as always, is to continue to educate the public about the danger of drugs and drug use.

September, October, November & December 1998:
The vehicle continues to come along at a pretty slow pace due to the lack of funds. The wheel tubes are installed and the undercarriage is painted. The interior is also coming along with the dashboard and instrument panel reinstalled.

We still remained committed to the vehicle program although funds have temporarily run dry. Plan to do fund raisers in the spring to continue the program.

January & February 1999:
Work still continues on the car, the roll cage has been completely painted and Marc now has the front end completely stripped and is sandblasting every front end part.

Will be contracting C & S carburetors on 2-8-99 in reference to a Holly 1050 that we are in dire need of for the motor.

Will be looking for a color scheme sometime in the next month.

Tuesday February 9th, 1999:
Jim Crum from C & S advised that he is willing to loan us a carburetor for the DARE Car ( permanently )

Monday February 15th, 1999:
Picking up Alderman Hollingsworth to help us raise funds for the DARE Vehicle.

Monday February 22nd, 1999:
Zieser and Nissan donated 2000 dollars to the Dare Car Program.
Performance Graphics donated the graphics for the car.

Friday March 3rd, 1999:
Alderman Hollingsworth helped raise 4300.00 dollars to help purchase the last items for the DARE Car.
Donations came from several vehicle dealerships and Mobil Oil Co.
Still looking forward to possible July unveiling at City Hall.

April 12th, 1999:
Val-Tech donated another 1000.00 dollars worth of ignition parts for the race car. A thank you letter was sent to Rod for all of their help.

Also received a 50.00 donation from B & B form and tool company. Thank you letter sent to Dave Lamoy.

April 15th, 1999:
Somebody stole our camshaft from a UPS truck and the pistons were the wrong size. This should throw our finish date back a couple of months.

May 17th, 1999:
After waiting eight weeks for the camshaft and the pistons to come in they have finally arrived.

The headers are back from Oklahoma and they look fantastic. 

NAPA also donated a 200.00 bottle of nitrous for the car.

JW and myself went to look at the DARE golf cart at WEB's and it is coming along also.

May 20th, 1999:
Had a meeting with Chuck O'Dell with Quik Trip about donating a Racing Trailer and he said it should be no problem to get us a trailer.

May 24th, 1999:
The DARE Vehicle is on the move. It was towed to Bell & Osborne to be painted and hope to have it back by the end of June.

June 6th, 1999:
The motor is back from Buttons Automotive and is almost ready to be assembled.

June 7th, 1999:
Quik Trip and Chuck O'Dell are going to donate the racing trailer for the DARE Vehicle.

DARE America approved the use of the LOGO on the DARE trailer and golf cart.

June 15th, 1999:
Went to Bell & Osborne to thank them for painting the vehicle and will be returning on the 16th to video and shoot some pictures.

June 16th, 1999:
Today it became a reality, the trailer was ordered from Midwest Trailers and should be ready in 6 weeks.

Lori, from Quik-Trip stated to let her know when they can send the remaining 5,400.00 dollars.

The race car is still at Bell & Osborne and is now completely primed and ready to paint. Should be finished sometime in the next week.

Contacted Linda Behlman from Behlman Chevrolet in reference to a vehicle that could be used to pull the trailer.

June 23rd, 1999:
The check for the valve covers were sent to Aluminum Graphics in Iowa.

Rich J. will be taking more digital pictures of the car in the painting process.

I know that this project has been a long process and I can't thank the guys at the garage enough  for helping me get my message out to the public about drugs.

I would like to thank Michelle Jacquemin for her endless work in helping set up the web site for the DARE Vehicle.
http://stpetersdarecar.virtualave.net/...It "looks Great Michelle"

The spoiler arrived for the DARE Vehicle and the vehicle is taped and ready to be painted. Larry advised that the car will be painted and then returned to the garage for assembly and then the ghost flame will be put on after the motor is assembled.

Measurements were taken on the golf cart and we will be discussing what to put on it.. Ray advised that it should be painted sometime next week.

Everything is starting to come together and it should be a lot of fun.

June 28th, 1999:
The DARE car is now a different color !!!!!!!
It is totally black and looks great. The front clip will be installed and then sent back to Bell & Osborne for the ghost flame to be put on.

Picked up the graphics from Quik-Trip and they need the exact measurement of the trailer so they can be made as well.

July 6th, 1999:
The flames are now on the black DARE Vehicle and we will see what they look like tomorrow when they are finished.

July 7th, 1999:
The flames are finished and do they ever look "fantastic". I have shown the video of the car to at least 20 people who said that it looks so neat. Len did such a fantastic job painting the car. I don't know who we will ever be able to thank him.

Next the car goes to the graphics place in O'Fallon and will be there for a week or more.

The access channel ( channel 7 ) wants to do a story on the car on Friday and interview me about it.

July 9th, 1999:
Interview with the access channel went well on the DARE Car.

It is now finished at Bell & Osborne and does it ever look sharp!!!! Now it goes to Performance Graphics in O'Fallon for the graphics to be put on it.

July 12th, 1999:
The car is on the move again, it is finished at Bell & Osborne and was towed to Performance Graphics in O'Fallon.

The DARE logo will be "Garnet Red" with a gold badge on the deck lid. It will also have Daren the Lion on it in several places.

We plan to display it at the Olde Towne Picnic parade and at the park this Saturday and Sunday.

July 16th, 1999:
Picked the DARE Car up from the graphics shop and does it ever look sharp. I am really impressed!!!!!!

Spent all day Friday putting it back together and cleaning with the garage crew so that we could display it in the parade.

Herb & Perry said that the car should be running sometime in the next few weeks and that we should have it finished by Sept 9th, 1999. for the Board Meeting and the Progress Show.

July 17th & 18th, 1999:
Met Cardinal Towing at the garage and entered the DARE vehicle in the Olde Tyme picnic parade on Saturday and placed second for best decorated vehicle.

The DARE car was then placed at Bell & Osbornes miniature pedal car booth for the Olde Tyme Picnic.

The Dar car sparked a lot of interest among young students as well as adults talking about how the choices that you made today can effect you the rest of your life.

With all the work that has been done on the DARE car, it has exceeded my expectations.

August 2nd, 1999:
The Motor assembly is almost complete. The oil pan was being installed when the last photographs were taken.

Bruce has been working on the wiring of the entire vehicle, the headlights, taillights, and windows are back in working order.

August 3rd, 1999:
Contacted Rick to get some carpet for the car and he said he would check for us and try to find some gray carpet.

August 16th, 1999:
The Motor to the vehicle is now installed with the exhaust finished. The headers and the exhaust system are now complete.

August 20th, 1999:
Michael's Carpets donated the carpet for the race car and became one of our supporters.

August 26th, 1999:
The trailer has arrive and is at Mid West Trailers, we are in the process of paying for it so that we can get it to Bill Riechman to have the graphics put on it.

August 30th, 1999: 
New York Carpet World donated the flooring for the floor in the trailer. We will be using black and white checkered pattern.

The radiator and the transmission cooler were installed and the fuel system should be installed hopefully before the progress show.. I am very excited about the project.

October 16th, 1999: 
The Day has finally arrived... The car is running and it sounds great. It is looking even better. It is going to be a major draw next spring.

October 18th, 1999: 
Marc lit the car up on the parking lot and the feeling was awesome to see it finally roll out of the garage after 2 years.

October 25th, 1999:
The interior of the car looks great thanks to Dr. Vinyl who donated the paint to turn the interior gray. It looks "fantastic'/

Planning for the Board of Alderman meeting on the 18th of November to show them.

January 6th, 2000: 
Jeff Burk from Autographix took photos of three burnouts on the parking lot in front of public works. Marc was driving the car and Jeff plans to put the pictures on the web site which has had a million and a half viewers in four months. Plans to link to our web site are in the future.

Stay Tuned.. More to come...........................