Two or three times a year, Jack Roush’s Roush Collection has
an open house. The Collection is the private museum where Roush keeps many of
the race winning cars from what is now Roush-Fenway Racing as well as cars and
artifacts from his personal collection of cars, motorcycles and airplanes (the
“Cat in the Hat” must have nine lives indeed because the guy has survived two
plane wrecks). Since they bring in tables for merchandise and memorabilia to
sell during the open house, some of the items in the museum get moved around.
Up against the back wall were a bunch of engines, race and prototype, from
various projects or race cars. I was admiring one of Jack’s beloved flathead
Ford V8s and nearby noticed an odd looking V4, banded to a pallet, with just a
tag that said “Gemini engine” and instructions to send it to the Roush museum,
with a couple of names after “Attn:”. One of the names was that of a senior
Roush engineer.