The Leland Chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians held a meeting last night at Jack Roush’s private car museum in Livonia, Michigan. Naturally, MCG was there.
First order of business: Are you a member of the Society of Automotive Historians? You probably should be if you have an interest in automotive history and lore. The SAH publishes two fine periodicals, hosts a hospitality tent at the Hershey AACA Fall Meet each year, and offers a great networking opportunity for folks who share a passion for automotive history. And the dues are reasonable. You can learn more about the SAH and apply for membership here at the Society’s website.
SAH members in the Motor City area can also join the organization’s Leland Chapter, one of seven regional affiliates around the world. The local chapter is capably led by director John Jendza III—that’s right, the famed Top Hat John—along with associate director Jim Petersen and Secretary/Treasurer/real brains behind the operation Victoria Mobley.
The Leland Chapter people (you can find the chapter’s website here) organize an entire series of great gearhead-related activities for their members throughout the year. Like this one, for example: a visit to the private car collection of Jack Roush, NASCAR team owner and auto industry kingpin. 
Fun stuff at last night’s meetup included a picnic-style catered dinner, great musical entertainment by the a capella doo-wop group Full Throttle, and of course, a stroll through Jack’s matchless and priceless collection of vintage Fords and famous Roush race cars. You can see a few of them in the gallery below.
I like this collection. Jack seems to have some interest in normal everyday cars rather than the usual exotic muscle car collection.
Some might say it’s a bit Ford-heavy. Not Jack, though.
On a previous visit, I was told that many of the “normal, everyday cars” were those in which Mr. Roush had a personal interest. i.e. early cars that he had owned.
Ford-heavy for obvious reasons. He worked for Ford at the peak of the muscle car era and has been racing them for at least thirty years. His connections probably get him fantastic deals. I just hope he’s a better driver than pilot.
Rick Hendrick has been fielding race cars just as long but hasn’t ventured outside of NASCAR for very long and wasn’t as successful. It’s been a while since I’ve seen his collection but it wasn’t as diverse. Probably no tractors or cars from the Twenties. At that time, Rick liked the high-dollar Barrett-Jackson cars, the 1 of 1 COPO cars and such. But he’s certainly no GM loyalist. He owns dealerships for at least 14 manufacturers. An equal amount of Toyotas as Chevy, and twice as many Honda.
I don’t understand why we haven’t seen any big collections of Japanese cars. There’s no doubt that they’ve ruled the American landscape since the Eighties. Granted, there haven’t been many high-horsepower sports cars but the Honda Civic was as revolutionary in its time as the Model T, and may be the modern version of the street rodder’s 55 Chevy. The RX7 and 240Z are as iconic as an E Type Jaguar. The Miata is every low-buck British sports car wrapped into one.
Beautiful collection, would love to see it one day
How many actual 1979 indy pace cars were built? Was there 3 or 4 of them? Was one of them a sun roof car?
Don’t know directly but here’s what one source has to say about it: http://www.mustanglab.com/1979-mustang-pace-car-specifications/