Lebanon Ford is Flinging Out Cheap Roush-Supercharged Mustangs Like You Wouldn't Believe
You remember Lebanon Ford — the suburban Cincinnati Roush Performance dealer that suddenly began offering the country’s greatest performance bargain early last month?
Well, its 727-horsepower supercharged Mustang GTs are now flying off the lot (at the insanely low price of $39,995), and the once-sleepy Ohio dealer has become a nationwide performance mecca, Automotive News writes.
Credit to the idea goes to Charlie Watson, Lebanon Ford’s Roush Performance manager. Watson came up with the idea of a low-priced supercar as he lay in bad one night after watching Smokey and the Bandit.
“Back in the day, it was just a man and his car,” Watson told the publication. “It had a big engine, it had tons of power and it was all fun. It wasn’t about the fancy body kits, the heated seats and the touch screens and all this other craziness. It was just a lot of power and a lot of fun.”
Inspired by the movie’s mustachioed hero, Watson started working out the possibilities of creating such a car. He realized that by fitting a Roush Phase 2 supercharger to a base 5.0-liter Mustang GT, he could offer a 727 hp vehicle to buyers for under $40,000 — 25 grand less than a 707 hp Dodge Challenger Hellcat.
The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted, Ronald Reagan once said, and that applies to both Watson and the buyers of his supercharged creation. Store owner Lisa Cryder went all in on the idea, and the result was instant promotion and sales.
A month after Lebanon Ford began offering the modded Mustangs (in both 727 hp and 670 hp Phase 1 versions), the dealer easily fields 1,000 calls a day to its newly created internal and external call centers. Three to five 727-horsepower Mustangs leave the lot daily, with the majority of buyers going for the hotter Phase 2 version.
The moral of the story? As another famous film once said, “Build it, and they will come.”
[Image: © 2016 Lebanon Ford]
More by Steph Willems
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I spent 30 years trying to get the dealer body to think outside the box. Their job is to build equity and sell the manufacturer's iron - full stop. Now, could some use a little sensitivity training? Could others use some empathy? Absolutely. However, I have come to the belated conclusion most buyers are useless mooches who expect- in the American tradition - something for nothing. The fact that some on this forum question the value offered is fine, but never question some poor sap with his and the next three generations mortgaged future trying to make a buck by offering something no sane individual would purchase. You do know our risk/reward heritage, right? Have you read the San Jose expose on the CIA and crack cocaine? A 700 hp Mustang with wobbly legs is right up our collective alley. YeeHaw
I think this is awesome. Big props to the dealer for having the stones to give their performance customers what they want. Tons of performance cars out there have aftermarket support for ludicrous outputs, a 400hp fwd gti or focus for example, is possible with similar bolt ons and a new turbo. Just like with those cars, you pay to play, and you pay a lot more for a complete build, which almost never happens in one fell swoop. I don't understand the outrage or shock in the comments above when all the dealer is doing is completing the first stage of a customers performance build.