The Shelby American (Fall 2015)

press kit carried a picture of the car. It

was a black 289 (which I recognize

now was a LeMans Replica) and its

small size and V8 power made it the

perfect combination of sports car/hot

rod; as good-looking a vehicle as you

could ever find. In my first year of high

school, I would always read

Car and

Driver, Motor Trend

Road & Track

and

Hot Rod

and they stoked my in-

terest in cars. I obviously had no real-

ization at the time that I would ever

own something like that. We didn’t

have a high school in our area and I

would’ve had to go twelve or thirteen

miles to the high school they desig-

nated for us, and it was not a great

high school. So I was packed up and

sent off to Deerfield Academy in Deer-

field, Massachusetts. I kept all of my

magazine subscriptions. I happened to

be on spring break in 1964 when what

should there be at the New York auto

show but a wonderful maroon 289

Cobra (2316). It had chrome wires and

just looked fantastic. I took a picture

of it. I had yet to see an actual Cobra

on the street. Nevertheless, I thought

they were fantastic. There was just

something about them I couldn’t ex-

plain. I didn’t know what it was. They

had a magnetic affect on me.

SAAC: We’re sure you can recall when

you saw your first one on the street.

All Cobra enthusiasts can.

SCUDDER: I first saw one in Lake

Placid, New York, where we were

lucky enough to spend our summers.

There was a guy there named Red

LaFountain who owned a restaurant

called the Steak and Stinger. We knew

Red very well and he was quite the

character. It was probably the best

restaurant in town and we went there

about once a week. I loved eating there

and I liked Red. One day I saw him

driving around in a Cobra and said,

“

Holy $#@% !”

It was a dark green 289

and he had “Steak and Stinger

Restaurant” lettered on the doors. I

later discovered it was 2120.

SAAC: Did you get a ride in that car?

SCUDDER: A brief one. We went up

the road and back just so he could

move through the gears and ask,

“

What do you think of that?

”

SAAC: And what did you think?

SCUDDER: Whoa! It pinned my head

back. It was everything I thought it

might be. We only went straight and it

was a worm-and-sector car. I did get a

good Cobra ride a little later on. A guy

by the name of Peter DeSilva was our

neighbor in Lake Placid. We were the

same age and became friends. He and

I were into all manner of strange

things as teenagers together: bicycles,

girls, boats, cars. His sister got mar-

ried in the summer of 1965 and one of

Peter’s friends showed up in a British

Racing Green rack-and-pinion 289

Cobra. He took everybody for rides

and I can remember him going out on

this wonderful windy road, the Wilm-

ington road they called it, and he

floored the thing in first gear. He

missed the shift into second and

revved the living snot out of the motor

but it held together. We were doing

over 60 by the time he shifted into sec-

ond gear. It was a very memorable

ride. This car turned out to be 2521,

the car that Bill Whitley ended up

buying. The original owner was John

King.

SAAC: Did your Cobra appear at this

point?

SCUDDER: Not quite. When I gradu-

ated from high school I got an unspec-

tacular Chevy and later traded it for a

fairly damaged GTO convertible.

When I got out of college my dad had

said that if I graduated in four years

without stretching it out to five, he

would go halves with me on a car. He

figured that it was going to be some-

thing brand new. When I told him ex-

actly what it was intending, he kind of

raised one eyebrow and said, “

Huh?

” I

found a Cobra in Kentucky and went

down there and bought 2306. It was

1972 and I was not quite a year out of

college. I paid the owner, Ed Maxwell,

$5500 bucks for the car. I tried to beat

him down to $5000 but he absolutely

wouldn’t hear of it. I drove it home

from Kentucky up to Lake Placid, New

York. And my parents freaked. My fa-

ther said, “

You said you were getting a

Ford and I thought you were talking

about some kind of a Mustang. I didn’t

think you were getting something this

small. You’re going to kill yourself in

this car

.” Initially he said, “

You’re not

even 23 years-old. I want to go for a

ride in this thing and see how fast it

really is

.” I tried to feather it a little

bit, but still he could tell. He said, “

might just prohibit you from ever driv-

ing this car.

” I said, “

Number one, you

can’t because I’m over 21. But if the

fact that I’m still dependent upon you

to a certain extent

(because I didn’t

have a place of my own yet)

is of criti-

cal importance, I’ll park the thing and

ride my bike until you think I’ve got

enough maturity to drive it.

” He re-

lented and I drove the car and never

had an incident. I repaired it and

cleaned it up. About three-and-a-half

years after I bought it I came up with

a plan with three friends to create a

magazine. I moved to Princeton, New

Jersey and sold the car for $10K to fi-

nance my partnership in

New Jersey

Monthly

magazine.

SAAC: And you were Cobraless. For

how long?

SCUDDER: I worked in Princeton for

a while. In late 1976 it was only a year

or so after I sold 2306 and I got the

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Fall 2015 333

Scudder’s first Cobra, CSX2306.