Styling & Performance - June 2008 - (Page 30)

“The company also has an aircraft engine shop and is one of the few—if not the only— operation licensed to overhaul Rolls Royce Merlin engines.” TOP: The Roush Museum is a 30,000-squarefoot private facility that’s home to 110-plus Roush vehicles. RIGHT: This rather large engine is a Rolls Royce Merlin powerplant for the P-51 Mustang. Jack Roush has two Mustangs of his own. The production facility’s main body has 35 hoists where work on one of the 16 different Roush-built 2008 models is performed. Rather than having a regular assembly line in a traditional auto plant where hundreds of workers are involved in building a single vehicle, historically, Roush has one mechanic working on one car on one hoist. However, nine quality-control points are manned by three people—the builder, shop foreman and the qualitycontrol inspector. With less than 1 percent warranty claims on Roush products, they come with a 3-year/36,000-mile warranty—same as the factory provides. One thing you do not get with a Roushmodiﬁed Mustang is a custom paint job. The colors available are only those from Ford’s color palate. Approximately 350 parts go into a Roush product, including an optional short-throw shifter. It’s a Roush exclusive and results in faster shifts with 35 percent less throw. Costing $440, it’s purchased by 75 percent of Roush customers. The part is pocket change considering the cost of a Roush Mustang runs between $45,000 to $62,000 (depending on the base model and added options). Decorative hood scoops are another common item. All Roush Mus- tangs have a custom-built emblem under the hood with the name of the mechanic proudly displayed. Owners have been known to come to the plant to meet the person who created their “masterpiece.” For 2008, Roush will offer an automatic transmission in the Roush Mustang—the ﬁrst in ﬁve years. Turns out there is an entire audience for this transmission; from those who don’t know or don’t want to know how to drive a manual transmission to others who just want a “Good Golly Miss Molly” vehicle for transportation. While a Mustang GT may initially sport 300 horses, Roush builders tend to make that number a thing of the past. A factorybuilt V8 ﬁtted with a Roush supercharger puts out 435 horsepower. The P-51A special edition will produce 510 horsepower, while a supercharger for the Mustang Shelby GT500 will boost its power to 605 horsepower. There’s a 1-year/12,000-mile warranty on the supercharger. If you’re feeling lucky, there’s a non-warranty 700-horsepower version, but it’s not available at this time. Just doing a little ﬁguring with a Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil, repairs on this blowtorch would probably be cheaper than increased insurance premiums and tickets to the policemen’s ball. Roush Performance also sells crate engines that reach 1,000 horsepower. One thing to keep in mind—Roush tends to be conservative when it comes to touting its power output. The company ships about 40 engines per month at a cost of around $15,000 each. When Ford Motor Company approached Roush to build the supercharged engine for its revolutionary GT, its goal was to 30 Styling & Performance I Uniting The Specialty Parts Industry

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Styling & Performance - June 2008

Styling & Performance - June 2008 Contents Soapbox Buzz Making Money with 1967-72 Chevrolet/GMC Trucks, Part II Red, White, Blue... & Green Limiting Installation Liability The House That Jack Built MAP vs. MVP Pricing Supply Line Distributor Directory

Styling & Performance - June 2008

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