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when it was time to publish it, Royal
was the one who spearheaded that. I
later thanked him for having put the
whole thing together and he said,
“
Yeah, not many people know what I
did to make that book happen, but I
was kind of the guy behind it.
”
SAAC: He was also able to use the
newly formed SAAC to finance it. That
was a big deal for the club. We printed
1,000 copies and that was, to us at the
time, a huge number. In fact, we were
so excited about unveiling the book at
SAAC-1 in Oakland that we had the
printer send 600 copies out there. Dur-
ing the event we sold 90 copies, so it
turned out that we were a tad opti-
mistic.
SCUDDER: The Cobra Club asked all
of its members to please tell us all
about your Cobra. And if you know of
any other cars, tell us about them. I
had a lot of information. All of the stuff
I had collected since my college days
was stored in a little file box. I sent it
to Bill Kemper. Any time I saw a
Cobra I would write down the owner’s
name and where he was from, just be-
cause you never knew. One day, if you
got lucky enough that you could start
looking for a car, you could call this
guy up and ask, “
Is your car for sale?
”
SAAC: Even if you didn’t have a serial
number for that car?
SCUDDER: Correct. If I saw a car
somewhere, whether it was at a show
or more rarely, on the street, I’d try to
call them. Back then, nobody knew
much; there was no real network or
anything of that nature. If you saw a
Cobra you’d flash your lights and wave
and pull over and talk. Before I owned
a Cobra I would follow one if I saw it
on the street. If, within five miles, the
guy pulled in somewhere I’d stop and
talk with him and ask him questions.
Do you know of any other Cobras? Do
you know of any for sale?
SAAC: That’s how the information
network actually began.
SCUDDER: Absolutely. That’s how
this whole thing started. And once
everyone began sending in their infor-
mation and someone was there to col-
lect it and put it together, suddenly we
had a fair number of serial numbers.
SAAC: That’s the key. Someone col-
lecting it and everyone else knowing
who that someone is so they can send
the stuff in. You can only collect so
much on your own.
SCUDDER: Absolutely so. It sort of
takes off by itself.
SAAC: Ok, where did that leave you
with cars?
SCUDDER: In February of 1983 I de-
cided it was time to spruce 3227 up
some and ended up sending it down to
Cobra Restorers in Marietta, Georgia.
Long story short, they did the work, I
wasn’t happy with it, and instead of a
law suit we agreed to arbitration. We
both chose Mike McCluskey as the ex-
pert and it was his opinion that the
work had not been done correctly.
Cobra Restorers then refused to accept
McCluskey’s judgement and after
some back and forth, the car was sent
back to Cobra Restorers to be repaired
correctly. After that I decided to sell
the car because it was never going to
be the car that I wanted. That’s when,
out of the blue, I heard that an S/C
was for sale. That was Dan Turman’s
3042, and he had to get out of the car
quickly. This was in the fall of 1984.
The first person who came up with
$75K and put it on his desk would own
the car. I was managing a condo-
minium sales office at the time. I got a
phone call that said the deal is on. “
If
you have $75K on my desk this after-
noon in New York City, the car is
yours.
” I literally closed down the sales
office (against the owner’s desire) and
raced into the city in my car and gave
him a check. And I owned the car. It’s
a fun story and there were at least two
other people that I knew who were
also chasing the car. I was half expect-
ing to see them in the hallway of the
attorney’s office because we were all
racing each other to get the car.
SAAC: During all this time you were
officially “the” registrar.
SCUDDER: I guess that happened
around 1978. When the 1976 registry
came out there was some discussion,
that I was not aware of at the time,
about some cars that Bill Kemper had
excluded from that book. When people
would ask him about one of those cars,
he said that information had not come
from the Cobra Club or SAAC or other
owners. It came out of his own deal-
ings with the owner as he was running
a shop. And some people were un-
happy about that; they said you really
can’t serve two masters here. You’re ei-
ther the registrar and every car you
know about goes in the book or you’re
a restoration shop and sales organiza-
tion and can keep some names private
if you choose. I remember SAAC was
looking for a registrar and was check-
ing with a number of people. I got a
call asking me if I was interested. I
said to let me think about it, and I did.
I called back a day later and said I
would be very interested in the posi-
tion. Looking back on it, I think it has
been a wonderful experience and the
opportunity to meet the some very in-
teresting folks. I talk to people on the
phone, if not daily, then two or three
times a week. I exchange e-mails all
the time, photos and information are
being sent back and forth all the time.
It’s a great deal of fun.
SAAC: Except when you get sued.
SCUDDER: Yeah, that’s not so much
fun.
SAAC: As the cars gained value their
individual history became significian.
Good history (low mileage, original
parts, etc.) added to their value and ac-
cidents, repairs and other catastro-
phes often diminished it. In cases
where cars were separated into pieces,
but both carrying the same serial
number, there would be legal disagree-
ments over which owner had the “orig-
inal” car. When the registrar reviewed
all of the “evidence” (in some cases he
had more than either owner) and at-
tempted to issue an opinion, one
owner could always be counted on to
disagree. He would often threaten to
sue the registrar, as if that would
change the facts. These disputes didn’t
get into court a lot, but even one is
enough to dampen your enthusiasm.
Especially when, as a registrar, you do
not stand to gain or lose anything (ex-
cept your legal bills). All you are trying
to do is reveal the facts and tell the
truth.
SCUDDER: Fortunately, that doesn’t
happen very often, but as the cars get
increasingly expensive the stakes are
proportionally higher.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2015 335