If this car could talk, it would have stories to tell that would make your hair stand on end. It’s carried suspected murderers, kidnappers and robbers of all types and witnesses to their crimes.
The coal-black 1947 Dodge sedan did a decade of service as a Vancouver police detective car, and the giveaway for this car’s original use is the lack of window cranks and inside door-opener handles in the rear passenger compartment. Most of the passengers who would ride back there were going straight to the old police station at 312 Main St. They weren’t getting out along the way.
There are holes in the dashboard where a now-antique two-way radio and microphone had been secured. No markings on this black car because police detectives back then, as now, often use stealth to track down suspects and witnesses.
Remarkably, this well preserved antique police car has remained stashed outside and forgotten for the better part of four decades.
The old Dodge, with more than 160,000 kilometres on the odometer, was taken out of service and auctioned off by the Vancouver Police Department in the late ’50s, and in the ’70s it was donated to the Vancouver Police Museum.
With no place to put it, the Dodge was dumped in a corner of the police compound alongside the Cambie street bridge, where it remains today.
But this car may have a new-found life, beginning with its display at the upcoming Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre for the Kids, Cars and Cops Gala on Tuesday.
This is a fundraiser for an innovative police-led youth program that could result in the complete restoration of the only authentic vintage VPD car that has survived. NASKARZ, an acronym for Never Again Steal Karz, is a program originated by Vancouver police Sgt. Tim Houchen, who has used his enthusiasm for old cars to impact the youth problems he saw firsthand on Vancouver’s hardscrabble Downtown Eastside.
This 1966 Chrysler 300 was donated by Vancouver Police Sergeant Tim Houchen for restoration by youths in the NASKARZ program.
Alyn Edwards/PNG Merlin, Driving.ca
Stolen cars kept turning up in the parking lot at the Ray-Cam Community Centre, prompting Houchen and community youth worker Alex Vasiljevic to realize kids in the area loved cars but had no means to ever own one or work on them. So they stole cars.
The imaginative program to get high-risk youth involved in mechanics and car restoration got funding from patrons including Van City Credit Union, Canadian Direct Insurance and the Insurance Corporation of BC, coupled with government crime-prevention grants. It then found a home with the Vancouver Community College auto collision program, and Houchen donated his own 1935 Ford flat-back two-door sedan restoration project, tools and parts to get the program in gear.
The program, run by VCC instructors, is held two nights a week through the school year and five days a week in the summer.
Nearly 300 boys and girls have been involved in the program over the past decade. During that time, auto crime has taken a dramatic drop as more and more young people interested in cars took advantage of the opportunity.
“Ninety-eight per cent of the kids in the program have no further involvement with police,” Houchen says. “The success rate is phenomenal. We give them something they never had in their lives before … “Some lost their lives or were injured. Others ended up in court.”
The NASKARZ kids working with instructors received $100,000 by auctioning a 1965 Factory Five Cobra with a 500-horsepower engine that they put together at VCC. They also built a Factory Five Shelby Daytona coupe, which was sold to raise money for the program. The youth crew painted a donated van in a Scooby-Doo cartoon theme. Dubbed the Mystery Machine, the van was used by the Ray-Cam Community Centre. They are currently working on a 1966 Chrysler 300 coupe, also donated by Houchen. Last summer, the kids built soapbox racers based on wheelbarrows and held their own soapbox derby.
“They cherished this experience, because they would otherwise never get to build anything themselves,” Houchen says. But raising the funds for expensive restoration projects needing parts, products and paint is an ongoing challenge.
“I can turn an $8,000 donation into $40,000 in parts and supplies,” Houchen says. “Companies want to help, often providing necessary items for less than cost.”
When lack of funds caused progress on the 1935 Ford to stall, Jellybean Autocrafters and Customs rescued the project with $100,000 in work.
“Their fabrication skills are phenomenal and far exceed anything we could do,” Houchen says.
To showcase the work the kids do, all the cars they are working on, their soapbox racers and the old Dodge police car they hope to restore will be displayed at the NASKARZ Kid, Cars and Cops Gala on Tuesday starting at 6 p.m. inside Vancouver’s Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre.
Jellybean Autocrafters will also display some of their work.
People are invited to come any time after 3 p.m. to meet the kids and talk to them about the work they are doing on cars and their future.
Tickets for the gala are available for $50 each through eventbrite.ca. For more information, visit nascarzprogram.com.
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com
