Jack Roush, the legendary racer and CEO of Roush Racing, has tipped the scales for the performance minded 2004 Ford F-150 owners by offering three different levels of performance packages created by Roush Performance. Roush is now offering three performance levels; The Sport or Tejon, Stage I and Stage II for Ford's 04 F-150. Now the Tejon or Sport are a little on the tame side for our likes, but we think the Stage I & II are both rockin'.

The Tejon F-150 Sport package adds a little eye-catching appeal with the addition of a hood scoop and set of 20" wheels and tires. In the performance arena the package includes the addition of a cat-back exhaust systems topped off with Roush's distinctive exhaust tips. That's not a bad deal for around $4,500 if you consider 20 inch wheels and rubber is usually going to be close to that anyway. The Tejon gets our vote for those who want to be distinctive, but don't feel like really changing their truck too much.

Here's where it starts getting good. Roush's Stage I F-150. Emptying your wallet to the tune of $7,500 for the core components you will be happy to know that this baby has packed plenty of punch for your hard earned dollars. The Stage I has everything featured on the Tejon, but also includes a painted front bumper and chin spoiler, a sport suspension that lowers the truck by 2" in the front and 3" in the back. This kit also includes performance shocks and sway bars to stiffen up your ride. This truck looks every bit the part of what you would expect if it says Roush on it.

Now the Stage II is just a further extension of the Stage I so expect more styling pieces, including painted and molded rear bumpers, side skirts and a rear wing. The Stage II is also only available in the Supercab Styleside Ford factory configuration so keep that in mind if you feel like heading down that direction. Keep in mind the Stage II, with it's aggressive styling will set you back a good $11,500 so make sure you're ready.

What's our take? Well, one of our biggest problems with the styling is consistently the wheels - 20" wheels are nice, but they still look small when the wheel well could handle 24" with ease. The overall styling is pretty nice and on the verge of overdone in the stage II unless you are a Craftsman Truck Series fan but all of these packages are missing something fundamental. Something that we would have thought would be common sense for a company that uses the word in their name. Performance: where is it. A cat-back is hardly the answer. Where's the headers, the air intake, the performance chip and the optional supercharger system, all the stuff that was debuted at the 2003 SEMA show. Maybe we are just spoiled by Roush's previous work, but we don't think asking for a little more performance is too much. Maybe it's being saved for the Stage III.

Roush's 04 F-150 Debut

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