The History of Jack Roush

You can’t talk about high-performance Ford engines, tuning classic cars and trucks, and supercharging without talking about the name at the top of it all: ROUSH Performance.

This name is synonymous with racing, speed, and performance parts for Ford Mustangs, F-150s, and other models. But where did the name ROUSH come from? And how did it earn such a great reputation?

Jack Roush: Engineering Ford Performance

Jack Roush was born in Kentucky in 1942, and after graduating high school went on to get mathematics and scientific mathematics degrees. 

After that, he began working at Ford in 1966, which kickstarted his lifelong love of the company and its vehicles. He left in 1970 in order to focus on his own start-up engineering business, and began racing in NHRA, IHRA, and AHRA drag racing events.

To improve the performance of his team during these races, ROUSH often developed, tuned, and tweaked his own parts. This led to him selling many of these customized parts to others, and in 1982 he fully partnered with Zakspeed, a German racing company, to develop road racing vehicles for Ford. They saw massive success in the Trans-Am and (now-defunct) IMSA Camel GT series for the next decade, and in 1988 ROUSH co-founded his first NASCAR team.

Founding ROUSH Performance

With such a successful racing and mechanical career, Roush earned his reputation as a major player in the engineering, development, and manufacture of high-performance racing parts for Ford vehicles. In 1995, he decided to branch out and establish ROUSH Performance as a legitimate company, standardizing the processes and parts. From here, he also branched out into new technologies for propane and electric propulsion vehicles – even helping to upgrade the fleet of Blue Bird Corporation’s school buses.

With ROUSH Performance, even though he focused mostly on F-150s and Mustangs, Roush nevertheless created high-performance parts for other vehicles on the Ford line. ROUSH Focus, Ranger, Bronco, and Raptor models are available directly from the company. Owners of standard Ford models can bring theirs to certified ROUSH dealers to have specific parts installed, too. 

ROUSH performance parts include:

• Superchargers
• Exhausts
• Cold air intakes
• Suspension
• Performance PACs
• A variety of interior and cosmetic upgrades

ROUSH Performance parts are so highly respected that the company is listed as a Manufacturer of Record on vehicles produced with them. This means that the modifications are so integral to the vehicle’s operation that they are just as much ROUSH vehicles as they are Ford. There are even special ROUSH factory warranties, replacing the Ford warranties that would otherwise be in place.

Getting a ROUSH Ford Vehicle in Calgary

Because of the specialized builds and skill required, ROUSH only sells vehicles and parts to authorized, certified dealers in Canada. You cannot buy parts online or have them shipped to you unless you go through a qualified dealer – like Lakeview Automotive! We specifically sought out our ROUSH certification to be able to offer Calgary the best high-performance and tuning parts for Ford racing.

If you’ve got a Ford and you are itching to unleash its full potential, let us know! We offer full ROUSH packages that will work in tandem across your entire vehicle, as well as single parts that may be an option for you. Even if there is something you can’t find on the site, let us know and we can contact ROUSH Performance on your behalf and order it in for you. 

If you are interested in learning more or finding out exactly what options are available to you as a Ford owner, contact us at Lakeview Automotive so we can discuss specifics. When it comes to style, performance, handling, and enjoyment of a Mustang or an F-150, we believe that nothing beats the quality of a ROUSH tune-up…so find out for yourself at Calgary’s Ford specialists, Lakeview Automotive!