“While the UK is on lockdown from Coronavirus measures, I thought I would take a look back through the history of our company. I hope all of our clients, staff, friends and families are well and stay safe during these difficult times”
– Nick Roach – Company Director
Chapter 2 – The White Roush
If you haven’t been to an American main dealer, it is like nothing you have ever experienced in car sales. They are vast, hundreds and hundreds of cars over acres of space, with salespeople that seem to pop out of anywhere.
For two car enthusiasts, we were in heaven. Seeing Mustangs, Corvettes, Ford Trucks etc., in the flesh was eye-opening. We had enough funds to buy a few cars to stock up our anticipated new showroom (more on that later), so a difficult decision had to be made.
Do we go for basic V6s to suit the UK market and have more available to spec up options? No, that didn’t sit right when we heard the V8s rumbling past.
So V8s it would be. We could get three sensible GTs with a good spec and sell them in the UK fairly quickly... Then we saw it, a brand new Stage 3 Roush Mustang – it was white, it had blue stripes. We needed it.
Realising this one was the first and signed by Jack Roush made us throw out all of our previous sensible plans and decide we should buy this one, plus a standard GT with what we had left. The “man maths” agreed that the marketing potential was huge.
The deal was done with the fantastic people at Brandon Ford and at an exchange rate of nearly $2/£, we were happy boys. Time to head home.
The Showroom
Now we had a couple of months while the car was being shipped and SVA (as it was then) tested. The race was on to find suitable premises for a showroom.
Unit 62 Tanners Drive in Milton Keynes was the one. It could fit around three cars in a showroom, a few out the back for valeting. What more would we ever need?
At the time we were still out and about with CleanMyCar.com so it was tricky sorting solicitors etc., but finally, we got hold of the keys. We decorated the warehouse and built a wall to section the valeting bay from our showroom. Just in time, the cars arrived from the USA and it looked magnificent.
The Publicity
So now it was time to get out there to some shows. Earl’s Court and the NEC shows looked the place to go. We made up some signage, packed the Roush and drove to a weekend in Birmingham. Then we realised, events are hard work, hard on the feet and hard keeping cheerful for that length of time, but it worked – we got the call from BBC Top Gear.
BBC Top Gear
The crew at Top Gear wanted us to bring along the Roush so they could do a feature comparing it to the Shelby GT500. We happily agreed and spent a great day filming with Clarkson, May and Hammond. Seeing the Roush being driven round, and round, and round, and round the track by The Stig was a worrying time for us, but it looked stunning.
Once they were done, we drove away – almost into a wall as the brakes were that worn, but almost as soon as the show aired, we received a call from somebody who wanted to buy the Roush and just like that, it was gone.
Time to restock and move forward.
Carry on reading – Chapter 3 – Roush and Cervinis Dealers