In the 1980’s, a little Stephanie Raykovich loved playing with her Barbie dolls.  Just like Stephanie, a countless number of young girls across the country enjoyed dressing Barbie up, putting her hair in a ponytail and sending her off in a hot pink ’57 Chevy to go out with her girlfriends and on dates with her boyfriend Ken.

The only difference between Stephanie and her peers was that Stephanie played with her dolls in her dad’s garage, as he tinkered away on various cars, trucks and motorcycles. 

While Barbie was cruisin’ around in a play car, daddy was working on real classics.

And, somewhere along the line, Barbie’s passion for pink and daddy’s love for old cars molded Stephanie into the car collector she is today.

Stephanie Grows Up

Stephanie has always been fascinated with everything about cars, and once she was old enough, she began working with her father, in his shop. She grew to love restoring old cars, trucks and motorcycles. During her junior year in high school, Stephanie bought her first classic car— a 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo. While she worked on it, she also drove it day to day. And, when she was not at school or participating in car shows, she worked part time at Auto Zone, helping people find the parts they needed and diagnosing issues they were having with their cars.

Throughout her high school years, Steph became serious about incorporating her passion for restoring old cars into her future career. After graduating in 1998, she went on to earn her associate’s degree from Lincoln Technical Institute, where she studied mechanical engineering for a year. Around the same time that she began attending school, Stephanie and her boyfriend Chris started a car club called “Low Budget Customs.”

But, just before graduating from Lincoln Tech, Stephanie was involved in an unfortunate hit and run accident with her 1972 Monte Carlo; and, the vehicle was totaled.

Despite this upset, Stephanie kept active in the car hobby, while searching for a vehicle to replace her Monte. She continued to manage “Low Budget Customs” as a non-profit club and she designed and maintained the club’s web site.

A 1971 Monte Carlo Named Alizé

A year after the crash, she says that she found her 1971 Chevrolet Monte Carlo on an Indiana farm, behind a barn, in tall grass.

Soon after purchasing the car, Stephanie married her boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Chris. During the last decade, the couple continued to host benefit car shows for “Low Budget Customs” as they slowly restored Stephanie’s 1971 Monte.

By late 2008, Stephanie became sponsored by Sinister Autosports, now called Asylum Autowerks, out of Castleton, Ind.

Asylum customized her Monte Carlo’s trunk and interior, which sparked a friend, Matt Bluiett from the shop, to offer to paint her Monte at a discount. After nine long years of preparation, the Monte Carlo was finally painted.

Stephanie had a vision, ever since she had her first Monte, to have a unique pink paint color scheme. She says that she was tired of people asking if it the car was hers when she attended car shows or drove it. (It was grey primer for a few years.) Stephanie had it painted two-tone candy pink. This color matched the theme she choose for the trunk which was built by Asylum to include a custom box to hold three bottles of her favorite alcoholic drink, “Alizé Rose,” which is a mix of vodka and strawberry juice.

Stephanie says that some of her fondest memories associated with her Monte revolve around watching her husband work on the car throughout the decade they have had it. Steph recalls that she would hang out in the garage and hand Chris tools while she was pregnant with their daughter, who is now 5-years-old, and their son, now 8-months-old; she says she helped as much as she could. Today, Steph loves looking back at photos of their baby girl, Alicia, cleaning the car with daddy, just like she had done with her father, when she was little.

In addition to an endless amount of family pictures, many professional photographs have been taken of the Monte Carlo.  Stephanie says that it has been featured in a digital publication called “Elite Magazine” and most recently, it was showcased in a four-page feature in the June 2010 edition of “RIDES” magazine. The car has received at least ten awards, as Stephanie and Chris took the car to a handful of shows, each year, throughout the restoration process. 

The regulars at various car shows have been able to see the car “go from yuck to pretty,” says Stephanie.

The specs and modifications on the car are as follows:

Factory Options (Original):
Avocado Green Metallic (paint)
Avocado Green initiator
Air Conditioning
Power windows
Power bench seat
Tilt steering
Power steering
Disk brakes
Power breaks
EZ-Eye window tint
Bumper guards
AM/FM A-Track radio
2 dash speakers
2 deck speakers
Map pockets
Chevy rally rims with caps
V-8 350 Small Block (250hp @ 4500rpm – Torque 345ft-lb @ 2800rpm)
Original Sales price $4,472 (Ranged from $3,123 – fully loaded $5,000 NEW for a 1971)

Motor:
350 Small Block Chevy with a 30 over bore (makes it a 355 small block Chevy)
Mild Cam
Aluminum Edelbrock performance intake
5” high stacker K&N air filter
Chrome Edelbrock dress up
Edelbrock 4 barrel Carb
Headers
Dull 2.5” Flowmaster Exhaust

Transmission:
Auto
350 Turbo
BMN Shift kit

Rear End:
12 Bolt

Rims:
Chrome 20"x9.5" Panther Juice 5's

Exterior:
Custom Body work by Lou Raykovich, Chris Beers, and Stephanie Beers
Repaired rusted body panels
Shaved emblems
Shaved side markers
Shaved mirrors
Shaved trim
Shaved hood ornament

Final Body Finishing and Custom Paint by Matt Bluiett.
2 tone Custom Mixed Candy Pink with Silver Stripe to fallow the theme of the car which is also the car’s name “Alizé”

Chassis:
Custom Built by Chris Beers.
Full Air Ride all the way around
3/8” air lines
2 Viair 420c air compressors
12 gal air tank
Firestone rapid response polished aluminum 3/8” Valve Block
7 switch control box - chrome w/ lock out
2 dual needle air gauges installed in a dual pillar pod.
Superior 2-inch drop spindles with upgraded (larger) brake calipers, pads and rotors

Interior:
By Chris & Stephanie Beers
Upholstery, carpet all redone in black
Grant steering wheel
Pillar gauge pods for the air rid

Custom Built Audio/Visual System:
ByAsylum AutowerksAnd Chris Beers doing some of the minor stuff
Jensen 7” flip out, touch screen head unit with DVD/CD/MP3/IPod play
(2) 12” Subs
(1) 1000 watt 2 channel Amp
(1) 600 watt 4 channel Amp
(2) 2 way 6.5” deck/package tray speakers
(2) 2 way 6.5" speakers in custom made kick panels
(4) 1" tweets
- Custom built box to hold subs, and hides the air ride components, air tank & amps in the trunk. Also lights up & holds 3 bottles of "Alizé Rose"
- Custom built Center console to hold portable Garmen GPS, iPod Video (or BlackBerry) and Air Ride Switch Box. Also lights up on the sides in low glow pink.
- Custom built Package Tray to hide speakers and lights up from below.
-- Has hit 135.1 (tested at Slamology 2009's show)

This super hot pink car is an eye-catcher.

And, it caught the eye of “Dr. Tom” Pollard, who promotes his charity organization, World Motorsports Breast Cancer Foundation, at an Indianapolis-based car show called Slamology. Last year, the coordinators of the event asked Stephanie to place her brightly painted pink car with Tom’s display, since pink has become the universal color for breast cancer awareness – it was so fitting!

After talking with Tom throughout the car event, Steph volunteered to continue supporting the foundation by lending her car to the organization, to be used as the corporate show car.  Over the last year, Stephanie has become a board member and state director for the organization. She has also offered to start a Web site and maintain it as Webmaster. The site is currently under construction but can be viewed by visiting: www.worldmotorsportsbcf.org

The World Motorsports Breast Cancer Foundation

“Dr. Tom” founded the WMSBCF after he saw firsthand the hardship that his mother went through when she had cancer. He remembered that even if a cancer patient has great medical insurance, medical bills can be overbearing. Tom did some volunteer work for about a year with a breast cancer charity, and in doing so he found, to his surprise, that he could not find any charities that help cancer victims directly—the charities he located could only help indirectly, by funding research. After Tom did some research, he discovered that there were not any cancer foundations in the motor sports industry, so he went with it.

In October 2008, “Dr. Tom” founded the World Motor Sports Breast Cancer Foundation (WMSBCF), knowing that the motor sports industry and motor sports lovers are very giving, and tend to feel compelled to help others. 

Stephanie explains that the foundation sets yearly goals, and throughout the year the members collect funds to help pay for mammograms and medical bills; the team also funds classes that teach young women how to conduct self-exams and provide education on breast cancer. Stephanie says that the women who are helped by the foundation typically found out about the charity online and at car shows. The women with the most severe cases are provided support first.

Little Known Facts About Breast Cancer
• Every 13 minutes a woman dies from breast cancer in the USA.
• Every 75 seconds a woman dies from breast cancer in the world.
• Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in American women ages 35 to 55
• Younger women with breast cancer have worse outcomes and more advanced disease then older women.
• Breast cancer diagnosis within 2 years of child birth has nearly 50% mortality.
• 7 of 8 breast cancer patients have no family history of being afflicted with breast cancer.

 The WMSBCF team and Stephanie’s car will be at Slamology again, this year, on June 19-20, 2010. They can be contacted by calling 847-823-5289 or e-mailing info@worldmotorsportsbcf.org.  The postal address for the foundation is W.M.S.B.C.C., P.O. Box 124, Park Ridge, IL 60068

Story by: Becky McLaughlin, Gazette Editor

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