Roush Automotive Collection at Mecum Nashville: Every Mustang Sold, Ranked
For decades, Mustang fans heard more about the Roush Automotive Collection than they saw. That changed on Saturday, September 26, when a selection of cars from Jack Roush’s private collection crossed the block at Mecum’s inaugural Nashville auction at Nashville Superspeedway. The sale was tied to Roush Industries’ 50th anniversary celebration and marked the first time vehicles from the private collection were made available to the public.
The lineup went well beyond Mustangs. NASCAR Tauruses and Fusions, Truck Series F-150s, prewar Fords, one-off Roush builds, and even a pair of Indian motorcycles all found new homes. But for the Mustang community, the story was the 13 Mustangs that sold, spanning nearly six decades from a Roush-restored 1966 GT convertible to a 750-horsepower 2022 build. Together they brought $2,896,300.
Jack Roush was on hand in Nashville to watch his cars sell, and according to Shannon Spake, the 84-year-old didn’t sleep the night before as memories tied to each car came back to him. The list below shows why.
Every Mustang Sold from the Roush Collection, Highest to Lowest
Prices are Mecum’s reported sold figures.
- 1995 Ford Mustang Cobra “Nobody’s Fool” IMSA Road Race Car (Lot S140): $935,000
- 1997 Ford Mustang Cobra SCCA Trans-Am Road Race Car (Lot S141): $825,000
- 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Fastback, KK No. 1429 (Lot S158): $522,500
- 2022 Ford Mustang P51-B (Lot S173.1): $115,500
- 1966 Ford Mustang GT Convertible (Lot S159): $82,500
- 1995 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R (Lot S157): $73,700
- 2011 Ford Mustang NASCAR, Carl Edwards (Lot S146): $73,700
- 2011 Ford Mustang NASCAR, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Lot S150): $60,500
- 2010 Ford Mustang 540RH Convertible (Lot S172): $55,000
- 1987 Ford Mustang GT, Bob Bondurant School (Lot S156): $44,000
- 2007 Ford Mustang Roush 427R (Lot S171): $40,700
- 2001 Ford Mustang Jack Roush Edition Convertible (Lot S168): $38,500
- 1986 Ford Mustang SVO (Lot S173): $29,700
No. 1: 1995 Mustang Cobra “Nobody’s Fool” IMSA Race Car, $935,000
The top sale of the Roush collection was also its best story. Roush Racing Chassis No. 23 is the Mustang Cobra that Paul Newman co-drove to a GTS-1 class win and a third place overall finish at the 1995 Rolex 24 at Daytona, sharing the seat with Mark Martin, Tommy Kendall, and Michael Brockman. At 70, Newman became the oldest driver to win a major sanctioned race as part of a class-winning team.
The car’s identity came straight from Hollywood. Paramount Studios sponsored the effort using leftover marketing money from Newman’s then-new film Nobody’s Fool, and the car ran No. 70 in honor of Newman’s birthday. The win was also Roush Racing’s 10th of 10 class victories at the Rolex 24.
This example is especially significant for its bodywork. After the race, the team fitted unused spare panels to the car for display at Daytona USA (now the Motorsports Hall of Fame), while the race-worn panels went back to Michigan and were preserved. The car was recently refitted with that race-worn bodywork, and the sale included the show panels. Power comes from a Roush-built 6.0L V-8 paired with a 5-speed manual, and it rides on two-piece 17-inch gold BBS wheels.
No. 2: 1997 Mustang Cobra SCCA Trans-Am Race Car, $825,000
If Nobody’s Fool is the collection’s Hollywood car, Chassis No. 33 is its statistical monster. Tommy Kendall drove this Mustang Cobra to the 1997 SCCA Trans-Am championship, winning the first 11 of the season’s 13 races. That streak broke Mark Donohue’s 1968 record of eight consecutive Trans-Am wins and remains the longest winning streak in professional road racing.
The title was Kendall and Roush Racing’s third straight Trans-Am championship together and Roush’s fourth overall. It also closed a chapter: 1997 was Roush Racing’s final season of road racing, and Mecum notes that Roush’s road racing dominance in the late 1980s drove Ford to ask him to move into NASCAR.
Chassis No. 33 was the last of 33 silhouette racers Roush designed and built with Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations. Underneath the composite body sits a tube-steel space frame, adjustable Roush suspension, and a Roush-built small-block V-8 rated at 650 horsepower, paired with a 5-speed manual and a Ford 9-inch rear. The car later appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in both 2003 and 2004, the second time as part of the Mustang’s 40th anniversary celebration.
No. 3: 1969 Mustang Boss 429 Fastback, KK No. 1429, $522,500
This is the most personal car on the list. Jack Roush bought this Royal Maroon Boss 429 in 1971 for $1,100. It had a blown-up engine, and the young owner who had been drag racing it was behind on his payments. Roush kept it for 55 years, and he describes it as one of his personal favorites in the collection.
It’s also not a numbers-matching Boss 429, and that’s the point. Roush treated the car as a challenge: take a muscle-car icon and make it better. He restored it with a friend and installed one of his own Pro Stock-derived 460-cubic-inch short-block V-8s, with different pistons and a cam, a half-inch of added stroke (a common Roush modification), and a mechanical-lift camshaft. It runs a 4-speed manual and a 3.20:1 ring-and-pinion pulled from Roush’s NASCAR program.
KK No. 1429 is one of 857 Boss 429s built for 1969 and retains the Boss look collectors expect: scooped hood, front spoiler, Magnum 500-style wheels, and Firestone Wide Ovals. For a buyer, the value here isn’t originality. It’s 55 years of documented history with one of Ford’s most important performance names.
The Rest of the Field
2022 Mustang P51-B, $115,500. The top modern Mustang in the sale is a P-51 fighter-themed build based on a 2022 GT Premium fastback. It carries a 2.65L Roush supercharger producing 750 horsepower, Roush-designed widebody flares, Iconic Silver paint with P-51B yellow graphics, Katzkin “Bomber Jacket” leather, and just 1,764 miles. The theme fits: Jack Roush flew ceremonial pre-race flyovers at Nashville Superspeedway in his P-51 Mustang.
1966 Mustang GT Convertible, $82,500. Roush acquired this black GT convertible in the mid-to-late 1980s after an engine fire and restored it himself. It’s a 289 V-8, 4-speed car with the Pony interior, Rally Pack tach, and dual redline tires, showing 474 miles.
1995 Mustang SVT Cobra R, $73,700. Roush provided extensive engineering input on the original Cobra R, and he bought this one directly off the Ford production line. It’s one of 250 built, finished in the only available color, Crystal White, with its 5.8L Windsor V-8 and just 29 miles on the odometer.
2011 Mustang NASCAR (Carl Edwards), $73,700. Roush Fenway Chassis No. RK-638 is the first Mustang to win a NASCAR Nationwide Series race, taking the 2011 O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was only the second NASCAR win for a Mustang since Bobby Allison’s 1971 victory at Bowman Gray Stadium.
2011 Mustang NASCAR (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), $60,500. Chassis No. RK-654 carried Stenhouse to his first Nationwide win at Iowa Speedway on May 22, 2011, after he traded the lead with teammate Carl Edwards eight times. Stenhouse went on to win the 2011 Nationwide Series driver’s and owner’s championships for Roush Fenway.
2010 Mustang 540RH Convertible, $55,000. Roush Serial No. 10-021 is a RoushHammer, a deliberately understated “sleeper” with a supercharged 4.6L V-8 making 540 horsepower, matching the contemporary GT500. It pairs Sterling Gray Metallic paint with a 5-speed manual and 23,729 miles.
1987 Mustang GT (Bob Bondurant School), $44,000. Roush Performance prepared this orange Fox body for the Bob Bondurant School of Performance Driving, adding a roll cage, Eibach springs, Wilwood front brakes, and a fire suppression system for life as a driver-training car.
2007 Mustang Roush 427R, $40,700. Roush Serial No. 07-233 was one of the Mustangs Jack Roush personally used during his NASCAR years, towed to the track in a trailer behind his motorcoach. It’s Grabber Orange with a supercharged 4.6L making 427 horsepower and Jack Roush’s signature embroidered into the seats.
2001 Mustang Jack Roush Edition Convertible, $38,500. Roush Serial No. 01-0004 is a Stage 3 car, the top tier of the three-stage Roush packages first offered in 1997. Its Roush/Eaton supercharged 4.6L makes 360 horsepower, and it shows just 5,136 miles.
1986 Mustang SVO, $29,700. One of 3,382 SVOs built in the model’s final year, this Oxford White example carries the turbocharged, intercooled 2.3L four-cylinder and 5-speed manual with 48,931 miles.
The Takeaway
The results tell a clear story. The three six-figure race and muscle cars, the ones with direct, documented ties to Roush’s racing history and personal garage, accounted for more than three-quarters of the Mustang total. The Roush Performance street cars, meanwhile, sold at levels that should encourage owners of similar builds, with provenance adding a premium but not rewriting the market.
For the Mustang community, the bigger result is that these cars are now out in the world. Nobody’s Fool, Chassis No. 33, and KK No. 1429 each start a new chapter with new owners, carrying one of Mustang racing’s most important histories with them.
