The BUSTang: Hottest D.A.R.E. car in the country

If you're young enough to have lived through this country's War on Drugs while attending grade school, you no doubt remember annual visits from your local police department to intimidate convince you not to do drugs. In order not to frighten children by showing up in a Crown Vic with a dash-mounted shotgun, most officers arrived in a D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) car, usually a vehicle acquired through a drug bust or paid for with confiscated drug money, or so they told my class. A lot of D.A.R.E. vehicles were late model pony cars like the Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang, presumably because drug dealers were way into Detroit iron and the flashier the car, the easier it was to keep the attention of kids hopped up on sugar and caffeine.

ModdedMustangs brought us back to those innocent times with an article on the BUSTang, a custom 2006 Ford Mustang used by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Florida. The vehicle was purchased in December of 2005 and students in Franklin County's 5th grade D.A.R.E. program were enlisted to plan its mod list. Though an in-dash ice-cream dispenser and roof-mounted skateboard rack were nixed, the BUSTang did get a 2,000-watt stereo with eight speakers, 200 LED lights, a DVD system with two monitors, an aftermarket rear wing, new hood, wheels, and, of course, the requisite light bar. Many sponsors helped make the project happen including Steeda, though it likely wouldn't have been possible without the generous contribution of incarcerated drug offenders in the form of seized drug money. How good is the BUSTang in the hallmark of D.A.R.E. cars? It took first place out of 60 cars at this year's national D.A.R.E. conference.

[Source: ModdedMustangs]