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MotorCity Grind - Jim Chatas
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Links mentioned in the show:
Tom Scarpello, Revology Episode:
https://ford-mustang-the-first-generation-the-early-years-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/tom-scarpello-revology-founder-interview
Roush Performace Engines
https://www.roushperformance.com/engines
Transcript from today's episode with Mike Rey
Doug Sandler 0:01
Ford Mustang Early Years Community, welcome back. Let me share some accolades about today's guest, Mike Rey. Number one, he's coming back for a second time, which means we did something right AND he said he's heard some really good feedback from you guys about his first appearance here. Mike Rey is the National Director of Marketing and Sales, for Ford's Treasure Collectibles Official Archives Collection, but he's also manager and president of the largest International regional Mustang club (MOCSEM) Mustang Owners Club of South Eastern Michigan, and was on the official launch team for Ford in the 2015 Mustang and the GT 350. Talking about some stories and doing some things around the Mustang club, here to talk Mustangs membership and modifications. Welcome back to the show. Mike,
Mike Rey 2:19
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate coming back.
Doug Sandler 2:21
You're a wealth of information. Man. I love having you here. And thank you for sharing so many of your connections with me. I've gotten a ton of of research done and a lot of people that have agreed to come on the show. And I would say mostly because of you and the positive words you've said about this show what gives man you know, I try to keep my reputation under the under the covers here.
Mike Rey 2:41
Absolutely. And I love helping out and I actually have more extensive list to share with you as well. People I think are very crucial in the Mustang community from day one, before the car was even built to the current day. So I have a lot more that I can share with you that I think would make the show amazing and what your listeners want to hear.
Doug Sandler 2:57
Oh, that is great. And I want to tease a couple of Although we haven't gotten commitment from anybody yet from from Mike's list, we have gotten at least a lot of a lot of levels of interest and, and maybe share a name or two. And again, if you don't know these Ford Mustang community, if you don't know these names, it's okay, you're going to know them because I'm going to do my best to make sure I get them here on the air. And, you know, not everybody can be at the reputation to the level of Mike, but we are going to have some folks that are that are amazing and can can share a lot of great stuff. So who can we tease a little bit Mike here?
Mike Rey 3:28
Well, I would definitely say Dave Pericak, who is the global director of foreign icons right now, who's basically in charge of all the fun stuff so GT 500 Gt 350 Mustang, Bronco, Ford Raptor, the Ford GT the new Ford Mach-E, everything Dave's in charge of all that. Wow. Okay, so that's, that's a good one again, we're gonna tease these a little bit and I'm gonna do my best Ford Mustang community you're gonna hold me responsible for making sure if that if those guests don't make their way to the to our airwaves. It's only because I screwed up. Not because I didn't get me the lead. It's now up to me to to to make sure I bring it in yet another tease would be my former boss at Selene. Amy Boylan. So if anybody's been in the Mustang community for all the years, she was a former president and CEO of Shelby American and brought Shelby to all its glory back in the early 2000s.
Doug Sandler 4:21
That's great. So I'm really excited to reach out to both of them hopefully, they'll both be positive. I've also reached out to a good connection that Mike has also her name is Mustang Marie. And, and she has agreed to be on the show. She's we're waiting for her to pick a date. Hopefully she'll hear this and be guilted into a little bit and hopefully she'll be on here. If you don't know her. She has a Instagram following of thousands. She's got some great photos up there. Not only of herself with the cars but some great cars, some great modifications and some great great classic rides, as well. And Mike again, thank you so much for for all the great connections you made for us.
Mike Rey 4:56
Mustang Marie is gonna be awesome for you and she just finally got her Mustang. She's going to tell you that story which is just just absolutely incredible that she's been such a Mustang fan for her whole life and never actually owned a Mustang until now. And it is a first generation Mustang. You know what some more we're going to talk about today too Doug is that I might be able to get you a reach out for Jack Roush Jr. being on the show. He does inteviews every now and then and we are going to be talking about Roush a little bit today. Definitely can reach out to jack for you and see if you'd like to do a episode with you.
Doug Sandler 4:59
So let's and I appreciate that very much. And that would be that would be a major win. So let's start there. Because I'm really curious because I really don't know a lot about Roush Performance. But you had approached me with maybe this is a subject on today's show. So I started doing some research and some background check about what Roush is all about. So why don't you tell me the position that you that you take about some of their products and then maybe we can share a little bit of your experience with them as well?
Mike Rey 5:49
Yeah, I was very fortunate to spend four years at Roush. I'm in the marketing department, basically running marketing being marketing manager. Great, great assets of people there. We had an amazing team to put a lot of cool stuff together and what Roush is, is Roush is a manufacturer, but they actually take the Mustang to the next level and now it's f 150s to the next level and they do Raptors and they're doing Super Duty so they keep expanding as they go. But so you're taking a really cool product and forgiving you and they're making it just a tad bit even better, if that's even possible, right? So like even rafter like what could you possibly do to a raptor? Well, that Ross record actually really, really does really well and really performs to the highest level.
Doug Sandler 6:33
Well, I'm looking at some of the products that they have online everything from spoilers to facials, two scoops to louvers to spoilers in the back and skirts I mean it's a pretty cool and they do a lot with it looks like exhausts and graphics and grills and all sorts of things too.
Mike Rey 6:49
And the number one thing is probably the superchargers So, you know they're partners with Ford Performance, doing their supercharger, which is one of the best selling superchargers there is on the market and gives us the Power and back. So my full warranty. One of the things I'm very proud of that Roush that I got to accomplish was there is to make the connection and bond between relish performance and for performance and title it partners in performance. So if you see that tagline anywhere that was one of my brainchild that I actually got per, you know, approved by Ford, Henry Ford and Pericak. And Jim Owens all got that approved for me. And that was it still to this day is partners of performance. So that forever linked Roush Performance and Ford Performance together.
Doug Sandler 7:31
So what's the connection between some of the classic car or some of the classic Mustang so even the first generations back to the to the mid 60s? What's the connection between a mid 60s owner and in a current owner Do you know of a later model or a late model Mustang Do you see a lot of overlap them repeating the purchase and getting now that they've had a classic ride they want something in addition to having that one that they keep in the garage and just kind of baby and love. They're having one that they can actually get out there and really enjoy the speed that they that That a late model can offer.
Mike Rey 8:01
Yeah, absolutely. So like the first gen owners definitely want to keep that and drive it around and show that off because that's their pride and joy and they want to be able to do that in like the local car shows, things like that. But if you're in Michigan and you want to drive out to California and you want a newer one, you know, you're not going to want to take that older one on that ride. And, you know, actually Roush offers for both people. So a lot of first generation cars are dropping what they call crate engines in there. Whether it could be a new Coyote with a Roush supercharger on it or an old 427 or something that you want to drop in. Roush still builds all those motors for all the old first gen cars and offers that's all the consumers that actually own those vehicles still, who want to do it and a lot of the big vehicles that you see across going across Barrett, the old Hot Rods and stuff or even 32 Fords things like that. All of a lot of them have Roush engines in it so that they're well known in that industry. And then in the newer phase, people are buying the Mustang automatically want to get the Roush exhaust on it are the Roush supercharger, things like that. So they're very, very well known throughout the whole community from the first generation to current.
Doug Sandler 9:05
Take me through a little bit of the process. So let's say that somebody that's in our listening community, which many people in our listening community have those first gen models. So let's just take a typical 65 or 66, classic, Mustang. And they want to do this what's the I'm not, I'm not holding you responsible for knowing the exact process that Roush goes through when they when they install or when they when they share a crate with you. But how does that process work? Like I would have no idea where to even begin on something like that. So where does somebody that's listening, even think about the opportunity to drop something Roush under the hood,
Mike Rey 9:37
They're usually at a lot of local shows. And that's you brought it up just like a perfect segue into a new one is Jim Kemp is the head of Roush engines, I can set up an interview with you too is that with him is that he can actually provide all that information in great detail but usually what happens is there's a website on Roush that you can get into the engine area. I'd have to get that for you they specific link for you. But also, they're usually at the shows like they were just recently at Barrett Jackson there at the Good Guys show, which is a lot of the older cars, if you will, first generations. And you can talk to them and get your specs and tell them what you're wanting. And then they can basically custom build the engine for you and put in your car. A cool story that we did that actually put this in effect, it's a more of a newer engine, but we put it into an older car. You ever heard of Jeff Allen, which is another list. He did a TV show that was called Chasing Cars. It was on TV A few years ago, and it ran like three or four episodes. You got to look him up. But when I was at Roush, he was doing a special Sema project and it was with a 63 Falcon. It's known as Ronin. And if you Google that you guys can see the pictures and everything what we did on that car and it was a 63 Falcon that he wanted to soup up and we put the 400 in it will put the Roush supercharger in it and the really cool thing is he notched the hood to where you could actually only see the Roush superchargers sticking out of the hood, that's all you see. So that was really Really cool and it won all kinds of awards at SEMA and it was one of the really crazy cool build but in like basically a first gen. Ford, you know from that from that area from 1963. So in that era of the first generation Mustang so that it just goes hand in hand with what we can do to customize it to whatever the customer wants.
Doug Sandler 11:20
It's amazing. I'm looking at some of the engines directly online right now and Ford Mustang community. I'll make sure I put a link in the show notes to to Roush engines, but it's Roushperformance.com/engine and literally it is a laundry list of every kind of engine that will that will get your eyes twirlin' here. It's everything from the 331SRX all the way up to the 5.0 Coyotes, amazing stuff in there. Wow this you know, this is the kind of stuff where I get in front of my computer and all of the stuff I have on my to do list for the day just kind of evaporates, sitting in front of the computer. Just looking at all the cool stuff on it and Again, these are these are crate engines. So these are these are brand new engines and amazing, amazing Look, I'm sure they make it. So what happens if you put something like this into into a classic Mustang? And again, I'm not expecting you know all the mechanical details of it and all as I certainly don't myself, but what happens if you put something like this into a car and the rest of the car isn't compatible meaning you don't have a transmission that can that can hold the torque that this thing is going to create or you don't have, you know the the right suspension to kind of handle this properly. What do you need to match everything up? I would assume, don't you?
Mike Rey 12:33
Yes, absolutely. Jim and his team will tell you like what's going to be needed to hold this car down to the ground. And then also there's other partners to like we have Gateway Classic Mustang, who another one I can get you there there but they specify and specifically in suspension and performance. So if you're doing any kind of racing, whether it be drag racing, whether it be road course racing, whether what it would be they are the pros that suspension for all Mustangs from first generation two currents, and the majority they would they do it first gen Mustangs, so they're out of the Missouri area and they just do great, great things that would complement a Roush engine going into a vehicle.
Doug Sandler 13:12
It's a it's amazing as again, as I'm looking at this, the technical specs of this stuff, the tech specs, it's 425 horsepower, Ford steel crankshaft it's Coyote engine 302. 425 horsepower, 475 foot pounds of torque. It's like, Oh my gosh, I like I said I could get lost in this in this forever. And I'm not a mechanical guy. But just the look and the feel of these. I mean, I could just imagine opening up my, my 65 convertible downstairs in the garage and just open it up and just seeing this brand new 5.0 in there. That would be crazy, ultra expensive. Crazy. Amazing.
Mike Rey 13:48
Well, then that also allows you to if you got, you know, like I said, you said you had talked to Tom Scarpello before and that's basically the old car outside, new stuff inside. So that would allow you to go from Michigan to California on a road trip.
Doug Sandler 13:59
Exactly. Yeah. That was Tom was a great guest from from Revology. I don't remember the exact episode number. I'll look it up. And I'll make sure I put that in the show notes as well. But yeah, really fun. So what else can you tell me about Roush because their products look really cool.
Mike Rey 14:15
So Roush is a lot. You know, they're known for engineering and every other thing they've been around for over 40 years, and been building cars since 1995. And now the big thing is, is that 150s with them, so it's at least when I left there, it was like 75% of sales were F150s. So three to one over Mustang, actually. So that's where the world's going is to the pickup truck era. And F150 was definitely the king for that. But yeah, I got the chance to work with Jack Roush Jr, who was absolutely amazing fun to work with. Get that super down to earth guy. A hell of a racer on the road course. I've been in the car with him on road course and just watched him lap people and we were in one of his Focuses. So and we're laughing must things with 800, 900 horsepower. That's how good Jack is. So I think you'd be a really really cool guest to be on but Roush offers basically anything you want whether it's a parts play, whether it's a whole vehicle, whether it's taking a vehicle and upgrading it afterwards. If you're doing a truck if you want to go off road, they offer the off road accessories for that the off road suspension. Everybody wants to Roush to exhaust on their vehicle whether it be Mustang or truck so yeah, definitely definitely the way to go and they have a lot of dealerships all around the country to more so than anyone else in the in the aftermarket industry.
Doug Sandler 15:34
Geez, thanks for all the information and for Mustang community if you're not in the market right now for a crate engine, but you do want a good tumbler they do have a really nice cup on their website and Roushgear.com also they have great shirts and hats, and even if you can't play the part by having a crate engine dropped into your dropped into your classic ride. You certainly can play the part by wearing the the very nice t shirt as well.
Doug Sandler 16:00
Yeah, I agree. I agree. So let's move over to to membership a little bit. Tell me a little bit about what's going on in the in the club scene we didn't really have a lot of time to talk last time, specifically about about MOCSEM, but I really do want to find out, you know a little bit more about the whole membership idea. There's probably a ton of people in our community that that aren't part of any Mustang clubs and, you know, maybe share some of the advantages and some of the stories that you have going on with your regional club.
Mike Rey 16:24
Let me share a few of my favorite things really quickly as there's been four huge events. That, to me stand out more than any. I've done hundreds of hundreds with the club over the last 15 years. But one was when I was presented with the Lee Iacocca award at the Mustang Memory Show. And one of my best friends John Clor, you know, was the one who surprised me and presented it to me at the show. So there's only about 100 people in the world that have that award. It doesn't exist anymore. To the Mustang community that's basically the Mustang Hall of Fame, if you will. So very, very honored to have That and I was surprised at the muscle memory show and John was the one actually presented to me, which ironically, takes me to the second event. It was our 50th Heroes banquet so celebrating 50 years of Mustang in 2014. We did a heroes banquet here the weekend of our show, and I in return got to present John me and Dave Pericak presented John with his Lee Iacocca was at that event, but that event is still titled and labeled as the greatest 50th anniversary Mustang events in the world that ever happened. And that was here in Dearborn, Michigan, during 2014, and it was our club who hosted that and ran it we have 60 different heroes from Gale Halderman and Hal Sperlich and Edsel Ford to the current team, which was the Pericak team. We had everybody throughout those 50 years. We had about 60 different people know from clay modelers to engineers to marketing team to Vice President. Everybody was there and We we set them up in a horseshoe shaped design out in the lobby after the banquet and let them sign autographs for everybody and created a keepsake for everybody to take. And they went around and they were there to almost two in the morning, starting at 8pm signing autographs, that's how long and everybody wanted to be with them and taking pictures and hearing stories. And it was just an unforgettable event and probably our most proud event we've ever put on as a Car Club. So those are things that cool that you get to come and see as a as a member that you get to enjoy. Another one was another no other Car Club can say this is we did a our general meeting inside the Ford World Headquarters. I touched on this very briefly at the last interview, but at the Ford world headquarters auditorium where we had Henry Ford, our Edsel Ford, we had Mark Fields, we had Dave Pericak, we had the list goes on and on and on. We had everybody you could possibly think of at the time that was available. So that was really, really cool. And so yeah, really, really great. And then the last event that I want to mention that we've done that was really cool was literally just last week. Last Tuesday, and I mentioned this before, we had Dave Pericak as our special guest speaker at our general meeting, which was held at Gateway Classic Cars in Dearborn. And he surprised everybody and brought out a Mach-E in person, for everybody just sit in feel touch and ask questions about and explain the reason and the process, why the Mustang name was attached, why, you know, and so many opportunities are against that. You get to explain the reason behind that. And I think it opened up a lot of people's minds about seeing a change everybody's mind because still, a lot of people, including myself, don't think the Mustang name should have been attached to that kind of vehicle. But I do understand the reasoning. I've accepted it and I'm okay with it. And he basically agreed with that. David great analogy stating, you know, if you go to your favorite amusement park like Cedar Point or something when you're a kid and they bring in a new ride, you know, do you absolutely hate it and want to go to war over it or you just don't ride it? You don't I mean, it's just an addition to the fun, it's not replacing anything. So it's not like you came into the amusement park and replace your favorite ride. It's not replacing Mustang, it's just an addition to and given another outlet. And you got to understand if they don't build the electric vehicles, they can't build their other Mustang. So the marquee is enabling them to keep building the GT 500 is the GT 350s, the Mustang GT, without these electric vehicles are not going to be able to do that anymore by federal mandate. So this is a part of it, and why not make a fun little section of it, and giving this Mustang performers that was going to do and this horsepower and torque in that thing is insane.
Doug Sandler 16:42
And I think it would be great to have a conversation with I think, you know, Jimmy Densmore
Mike Rey 20:55
I just talked to him a couple times this weekend. Tell him what a great job he did on I'm his interview with you because I listened to that yesterday too. Yeah, I know. I've known Jimmy I met him through Gale Halderman. I think Jimmy came in a couple years ago and you know, was was doing the book on Gale And but yeah, cuz I know Gale, probably for the last seven or eight years now. And you know, and heard a lot of the stories. So a lot of the stories Jimmy was telling you were absolutely true and fun, because I've actually heard those from Gale's mouth himself as well. One of the things that Jimmy didn't get into was about those myths, the myths that he was talking about. The one myth is that Mustang was named after an airplane. And it was, it was named after the horse when we we've been visiting Gale for the last maybe 5,6,7 years. We go down to his museum in barn once a year with the club. And afterwards after everybody leaves me and John Clor usually sit with Gale for an hour or two and just hear stories from a man he tells us about the Lee Iacocca days and spurling and all that. And we asked him about the horse and the one of the first visits we went there. He said, yeah, it was absolutely named for horse not after a plane so everybody tells you that. Don't believe that because Did you ever see a plane in any rendition or any form met on a car on a badge or anything like that it was it was always animals. And it was definitely named after the horse. So that's the guy that was on the team that will know it. And it came from the horse's mouth, as we call it.
Doug Sandler 22:11
And pardon the pun, no pun intended, but there was a fun. So tell me a little bit more about just how how, you know, you have a lot of these regional clubs and a lot of the regional clubs don't quite have the pull that a club that would be in Southeast Michigan has. So what do you say to those that are either running or in clubs? I mean, what's some of the what's some of the formula for success when it comes to running a successful club?
Mike Rey 22:34
That's a perfect segue of exactly where I want to talk about next is in coming February 9 this year, we have a summit that we put together started about 10 years ago. For all other clubs that are welcome and any club business listening here would like to join us. Please send me a note in the next week. And, Doug, if you could share my email with them. That'd be great. February 9th, we invite all different club heads in the Ford and Mustang world to this summit to share best practices. things they may need help with things to cross promote for each other for events, get to know each other and see how we can help support each other's events and answer questions or give them different avenues of where they might, you know, like to feel comfortable with or to learn things from. And yes, we people say, you know, we're spoiled. Oh, you guys got it made because you're in Dearborn and I mentioned this before. No, we have to actually go out and do what we need to do to actually make things happen. But like, a couple years ago at our show, you just seen the the bullet that just sold at Mecum? Correct. So Sean's car. Sean's a good friend Sean is a Club member of ours. Sean brought the Bullit out. We had Craig Jackson bring the little red before it was restored and that was just unveiled last weekend. Little Red was there. The Bullit was there. The 10 million Mustang was there. Larry Shinoda, his prototype boss real to car and we have all those guys there. We had Henry Ford, the dueces car. They're all at our shows over different years and to have those kind of special cars is just absolutely insane to me. And like you said, they're all first generation cars. And you can't see those at any other show. After our show last year when we had most of those, John Clor got just bombarded by other clubs asking, how do we get all those cars at our show? is simple answer was you don't. Everything has to basically fall in line, and a lot of hard work behind it to get things lined up. And we are very fortunate to have Woodward now, the same weekend as our show. So a lot of muscle cars coming for Woodword, and we try to talk to those people to try to extend it another day. Now people say well, that's why you get 1000 plus cars at your show. That Woodword weekend only started in 2014. So from 1975 to 2014. We were not the same weekend as Woodward we were always the weekend before. And two of those shows before that weekend started. We hit over 1000 cars so and now you're out. Are you out in California? Correct? So you're very familiar with the Knott's Berry show that has been going on for many years.Knott's Berry has always been the number one one day largest Ford show in the country. Well Knott's is taking a breather now and trying to get you know some new things basically reinvented if you will, and they're going to they're going to come back shortly but I know they're going to be taking a year or two off. So currently right now we are the largest one day all Ford event in the entire country. And that's how it the Ford world headquarters every August
Doug Sandler 25:26
That's incredible. Yeah, I think that a lot of people are going to say hey, because of your location where you are in the country. It makes it quite easy, not easy, but it makes it a lot easier for you and I would say that hey there's a lot of there's a lot of excuses people could have for not building their club the right way or maybe finding the right mix of guests to come in. But I'll tell you there's a lot to be said about tenacity and and just kind of staying in the game and and promoting your club to those that are important. I have another show called The Nice Guys on Business podcast and we're about 1000 and some episodes in Which game afforded me the opportunity to put that kind of say, okay, that's running over its own steam to start this show and look until you start reaching out to guests that are in favor and guests that you really want to hear. You can't be shy about it, you got to sink your teeth in and make it makes it happen.
Mike Rey 26:17
You know, passion is a huge thing, you really can't teach it, you got to be born with it. But anybody who usually steps into the club lead and not i'm not saying everybody because there's definitely exceptions. But usually, if you're stepping up to that role, you got to have some passion behind you to want to do that. And the passion will take you a long way I can, I can definitely vouch for that. And so being a club leader, if I can speak as a leader to other club leaders is see where you can give the most benefits to your members. So one called might be very interested in racing, so try to put the best racing events together. And another one might be well we might like to be in a big car. So let's do that. Some people like to do road trips or overnight so you know focus on that where you can you know, cater to what their their wants are as many preserve your club. And that will go a long way. And then they're there, their word of mouth will actually, you know, expand your club, gain more interest and make things, you know, a little bit more exciting within the club and to actually keep gaining traction and build the club as well.
Doug Sandler 27:12
What are some definite don'ts? Some things that you have tried that you said, Oh, well, that didn't work. We kind of fell flat on their face to face with that one. Is there anything that's happened in your club?
Mike Rey 27:21
Yeah, well, you know, there's, here's, here's the thing right now, and not nothing we've done, but I've watched other clubs do it and these other clubs that, you know, I'm talking and I won't name names right now, but there's a couple clubs Now regarding this Mach-E. And I love both of them. I get along with both of them, but one of them has they've taken stances and one fully embracing it Once fully not and like you're not allowed in the club anymore. If you have a Mach-E. So the market is not welcomed in their club. And the other one is absolutely and they're getting. So for the people that are welcoming it are they're getting from the people who hate it against it, and then the people who are banning it the people who like it are against it. So one thing that I'm just trying to do what I've been putting out there is our club is not like that I am I, I don't want to, I don't hope it a word it wrong. But I don't want to be a dictatorship into a club, we're not going to force you to like something, we're not going to force you to hate something, everybody has their own opinion. And we're going to support it either way. But, you know, our club doesn't want to take a stance and to do that, it's just like politics anywhere else you go, you know, I mean, you're not going to say, this club is all republican or this club is all democratic, you know, you don't want to do anything like that. It just opens up so many different cans of worms. So for me, personally, is what can I do in the best interest of the club always and to make the members happy and to make them feel good, whether they agree with something or not, you know, I mean, so. Like I said, I've mentioned it many times, I don't think the Mustang name should be attached to Mach-E because it's been the hottest topic. And our club is actually one of the few clubs that actually has a small advantage. I think I told you this before too. It's like 60% in favor of the car 40% against, so most clubs are 80% against and 20% for it. You don't I mean, so But like I said, it's just that it's a topic now that's going on, but You know, it's created a lot of conversation within club heads, which is really, really good. But like I said, To each his own, anybody can do something like that. But no, I mean, it has nothing personal against me. I'm not going to let a name of a vehicle, ruin lifelong friendships over something like that.
Doug Sandler 29:16
I think that's, I think that's where it is very well. And again, we all have to get along here. No haters is a part of this. If people have differing opinions, that's okay. And just let them voice their opinion. I won't mention the club the the place that I was, but I was at this and somebody got up and he just started like preaching to the people that are there and not about this particular car, but about a subject that that we have, we've got to take a stance and I kept thinking, we don't have to take a stance. This is my first meeting here and you're really not even making me feel welcome. It wasn't about me, right? But I just felt so uncomfortable. Just the fact that he was taking everything so personally at this club meeting, everybody, we just got to relax a little bit, just chill out.
Mike Rey 29:57
And you know, Doug, I would really really, really hope you can Try to put it into your schedule to make it down to Mustang Memories this year because I think you could go live there with so many first generation owners to share about their experience to share their camaraderie with their their friends who are parked next to them and all that I just think you're you know, you see so much eye candy for miles I it would be fun and you get to meet so many great people from just being at the event.
Doug Sandler 30:22
I completely agree with the end. I'm trying to look up the date for that right now.
Mike Rey 30:26
August 16th, and it's at the Ford world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Doug Sandler 30:29
See if I can get my press pass all lined up for that.
Mike Rey 30:32
I got you covered on that. And then here's what the theme is that we're doing this year for that is 65 years of Thunderbird, 60 years of the Ford Falcon and 30 years of the Seven-Up Mustang which not too many people are aware of or are doing anything special for so we're celebrating 30 years of the Seven Up Fox Body Mustang at our event this year.
Doug Sandler 30:51
Wow. That's very cool. I enjoy the sound of the seven up Mustang. I wonder why I haven't heard of that.
Mike Rey 30:57
It's a 1990 Mustang was a special edition that they were going to do for NCAA March Madness back in 1990. And the the promo fell through somehow, but the cars were already made. So they were at the dealers there a dark green car with white interior, you know, seven up colors basically, if you will. And, and there was, you know, only a certain amount made, and they were only made for that one year. And like I said it was very, very limited. So they're called the Seven Up Mustang and very, very cool. And they have their own groups and their own clubs, but to do a national event for them. This is the first one that I know of right now that we're celebrating 30 years this coming year for them
Doug Sandler 31:33
Nice. Love it. And I'm looking at pictures of that right now online as well. It's a very cool looking car Fox Body 5.0 Are they all convertibles? Did you say Are they all convertible?
Mike Rey 31:41
All convertibles. And you know, Doug, I don't know if you were gonna get to this or ask this. But I was listening to Jimmy's interview yesterday, and you asked about if you could be at a table with five people.
Doug Sandler 31:51
Hey, that was my next question. You can you can take me there though. Let's do so let me let's set up the question properly. So I give I'm gonna get Mike the ability to choose five guests alive or dead to have a dinner or a conversation with a talking Ford Mustangs? Who would he pick? And I'm I'm really curious because you've named so many of those people that were on not only Jimmy's list but on many of our guests list that have come on so you're already friends with many of them. You might not have to pick them who would you pick?
Mike Rey 32:18
Well, the funny thing is, is I really truly have seven and six of them I know personally, I'd have met one was passed away and I never got to me and that my biggest regret in the industry but so for my list is Gale Halderman, Hal Sperlich, John Clor, Dave Pericak, Amy Boylan, Carroll Shelby, and Jack Roush.
Doug Sandler 32:35
You know we got a really crowded table. Should we go? Should we go buffet style for this? Are we still in French service?
Mike Rey 32:41
Well, let me let me tell you the reasoning behind each of them. So all right, John, to me is the most well known in my opinion, Mustang expert there is in the entire world. That's my opinion may not be in fact or other people may not agree but in my opinion, he is the most knowledgeable man on the Ford Mustang there is In the world. Dave Pericak has the biggest and baddest things that are coming out now been, like I said, had the greatest launches with Ford on the current day. Hal Sperlich and Gale Halderman had the greatest launches of the original Mustang, the first gen and the greatest way. And so they can actually share a lot of that. Amy Boylan, to me is the most successful woman in Mustang history. And she could share her female input of if you will, and and how to make businesses work and how to make things special and exciting. Carroll Shelby, obviously the absolute legend, he's the one I never did get a chance to meet and my biggest regret in life is I had one chance to meet them and I couldn't make it to the event. And I never got to meet Carroll. And then I also had the honor of working with Jack Roush and Steve Saleen. But Jack Roush is just so amazing and his ideas. Jack is quiet. Just so super quiet, but very observant, observant and some as a tack. So he's listening. He's taking everything in and when Jack needs to talk, he goes again. what he's talking about and his ideas always usually turned into gold and still to this day the number one winning NASCAR owner in history
Doug Sandler 34:08
That is great and what a great list and we'll give you the will give you the latitude to have an extra couple people at the table I'm thinking that if you send out the invitations maybe not all of them would be available but I'm hoping that they would all be available at the same time how what a cool dinner that would be
Mike Rey 34:40
I'm sure I can get John to have Ford pick up that expense if we can hit up we can get those guys together.
Doug Sandler 34:44
Yeah, hey, listen if it if it could be my personal mission to put all seven of well, I can't put Carroll in the room. Well, I don't know if I can. I know some people that know you. I mean, you know all these people, you'd be able to invite them so maybe I'm going to use you as my liaison. To him I think we could. How cool would it be if we were able to actually put this together?
Mike Rey 35:04
Oh, absolutely. You know what, and I me and John can absolutely kind of try to work on this. Now Hal Sperlich is very tough but I've got to meet Hale on four or five different occasions. the saddest time was actually at the Lee Iacocca funeral, this is not a thing. So, we were contacted by Ford to provide first generation Mustangs for the Lee Iacocca funeral to be on display our club one so and when I walked in the door the first two people I see were Hal Sperlich and Gale Halderman so I got to talk to both of them and great length there as well. But yeah, those guys are great another guy who never comes out of hiding as John Colletti but he would be a special guest for your show as well and I think we can try to reach out to him and see if he doesn't he doesn't like coming out in person. But you might do a phone call.
Doug Sandler 35:44
I heard the same thing about about how because when I when I was talking to to Jimmy who wrote the book with Gale's cousin he was saying that, that how was it is a tough guy to get it to get ahold of now Dale, Gail is is is a little bit a little bit easier but but not quite the same with with Hal so we'd have a challenge with him but I'm up for the challenge.
Mike Rey 36:16
I am as well and I'm trying to actually get them to come speak at a meeting this year. So me and John are already gonna be talking to him. So let me see what we can do. If we can get him on the call. That would be an epic podcast if I could ever have
Doug Sandler 36:26
I'll tell you Mike I not only do I enjoy having you as a guest but I just enjoy your positive attitude and the world needs more positivity like like you're spreading So thank you again for sharing not only just a great message but sharing you know your your fun stories on the on the show as well. Thanks for being here. One more time.
Mike Rey 36:42
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's literally been an honor and I'm gonna just keep getting you some names and some contacts and we want to blow this thing up for you.
Doug Sandler 36:50
Hey, man, I would appreciate that so very much. You know, I'm here to my day gig might be going away. So I have no problem doing this full time. No problem at all. Give a plug one more time for, for that special collector's thing that you're working on the collector's thing, sorry, the Ford Treasured Collectibles. You gotta shorten that title, man, that's do long.
Mike Rey 37:11
Here's the funny thing right now. So on board, we submitted the book for final approval before we went to print and Ford has requested a few edits. And we're adding a new chapter in that they wanted more stuff in there. So we're going to be adding that. And so if anybody is listening, that actually already ordered one, an email will be going out in probably the next three to four weeks. People that have already ordered the shipment is going to start early summer. But if you haven't ordered one yet, you still can, you can contact me directly on the link that Doug is providing. And we can still get you included into the book and have your picture included for everyone to see for the rest of history. And we can actually still get you in and still get you into the discounted price. So everything happens for a reason they say and so with the edits and bought us some more time so it's actually cool because we get to market them for the next three four months though.
Doug Sandler 37:57
Yeah, we'll make sure we put a link again in the show notes for you. TreasuredCollectibles.us but the site right now is not accepting orders so just send an email directly to Mike I'll put his email directly in the in the show notes as as well thank you again, Mike for being on the show and sharing all of your amazing stories and your message with us today.
Mike Rey 38:17
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. And we'll talk again soon
Doug Sandler 38:20
Ford Mustang community if you have an idea for the show or you think you'd make a great guest send an email directly to me Doug@turnkeypodcast.com, we'll put a link in the show notes for that as well. Thanks for listening. Keep it safe, keep it rolling and keep it on the road. Until next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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