The Mustang staggered shock brace is reproduced but not Mustang
“…but not the Cougar.”
That oil cooler did not come out until 1969 when they first advertised the package as the “drag pack” February of 1969. However the first SCJ “drag pack” Mach 1 Mustang was built on August of 1968 just two months after this Cougar and was not sold until October of 1968 . That 8-68 1969 Mach 1 did not come with an oil cooler either like many of the early SCJ cars, but they were still called and considered “drag pack” cars. The core support had the hole punch outs but they had never been punched out proving it did not come with the oil cooler. I am not sure exactly when the first 1969 SCJ came with the oil cooler, but they supposedly built the SCJ’s because of the 4:30 gearing.
One question: why’d you buy those two junkers and leave that sweet turquoise Fiesta just sittin’ there? 
My 500 does not list the GT option
The Marti report for my lime frost standard does not call out disc brakes. When I bought it in 1999, it had disc brakes. I’ve always been confused about that.
It’s my understanding that selecting either the GT package or the 428 CJ engine option triggered automatic installation of power steering and power disc brakes. However, a customer could elect for drum brakes at no extra cost, and power steering delete if so desired. The question would be for Kevin Marti to answer whether he has any way to determine this from the information at his disposal.
If those are vintage photos of that car I would restore it to look like that race car on that day.
a correction again. The staggered shock piece is reproduced.
It is for the 69 & 70 models, but it will work on 67 & 68’s as per Vic Yarberry.
Here’s pics of the prototype w/ square cut slots instead of the radiused cut slots.
Contact me for pricing & availability.
Thanks, Bill
OSHAWA CANADA is listed on the side of the Cougar in the photos. That’s near Ontario Canada so possibly that race car was Canadian?
Those Hurst mag wheels sure are unusual on a Cougar - drag or street.
- Phillip
The car was based in Canada and was also raced at the Indianapolis Park dragstrip. My cougar was sold out of Western Ohio Spitzer Ford, so geographically it is a possibility. I can see no evidence of any stickers or markings on the side of my car. It does look like it was stripped and painted in lacquer decades ago though.
I had a set on a Mustang Shelby clone I built 20 years ago. I love Hurst wheels. 
Safe and dry for the first time in about 17 years. There were so many bugs and cockroaches, lizards and frogs in it we had to bug bomb it and place a ring of bug killer around the outside to keep them from escaping into the shop! All I intend to do at this point is clean it and get it totally dried out. I still can’t believe it.
The vinyl roof is beginning to show some signs of age… No one will notice if you keep it above 90 mph. Great find!
Would you take several payments over my life to get this? Heh that’s an amazing story and has me green with envy! Wish I could have found a small treasure chest buried away!
That is so cool. How it looked 30 years ago. I am surprised that it is so stock with even the hubcaps still on it.
The car is currently showing 46k original miles according to the Speedo and the DMV. I wonder what the mileage was back then.
THANK You Phil Parcells for remembering the car from a 1988 CCOA Newsletter!
It looks like the previous owner, Debra Sudlow was very active in the CCOA writing multiple articles for the newsletter out of Holland Michigan. Does anyone know her whereabouts?
Well the CCOA newsletter article picks up the story of this Cougar a few years after it was born. In the article it is identified by VIN. A man named Danny Stanley in Canada Kentucky bought it from the original owners that raced the car extensively. Danny also raced it extensively out of Kentucky. When Danny owned it it was black with ET Mags on it and running a 429 according to the CCOA newsletter article, which describes the “Nemesis” drag car to a “T” in the attached photo. I am trying to get a hold of Bruce Fitzgibbons to see if he is still with us and may be able to answer some questions to determine if this was his race car. Fitzgibbons was later part of the “Ford of Canada Performance Clinic”, a Ford factory backed race team which was very successful with a team of 1969 and 1970 Cobra Jet Cougars and Mustangs all painted white with blue scallops. They only raced the 1968 Cougar for about a year and a half.
Danny Stanley owned a repair shop, drag raced and also was a big Mustang enthusiast. After he raced it for a few years, when the car was passed onto the next owner, it had most of its 428CJ stuff pirated out of the car, most likely to go into one of Stanley’s beloved Mustangs. It was not until this car was bought by Debra Sudlow of Holland Michigan in 1984 when she took pity on the car after spotting it on a used car lot in Fenton Michigan. She was a member of the CCOA and had written multiple articles for the CCOA Newsletter. She was the one that sourced all of the 428CJ parts to put back into the car to return it to its former factory glory as it appeared in the 1988 article. She put back the CJ engine, a RUG-AZ trans and big bellhousing and reinstalled the Nodular correct traction lok rear axle. The only thing she said she could not find was the original shifter. It has a Hurst shifter in it now. I have an original shifter that will be reunited with the car.
Debra Sudlow apparently moved to High Point North Carolina where she worked for the High Point College newspaper coincidentally named the “Hi-Po”. This is where the man named Sherwood Strong that I bought the car from had purchased the car.
Contact John Baumann “John’s Classic Cougars” also in Holland and was ahead on the CCOA club at the time and his wife Dee did the news letter. I’m sure he can give you some information on Debra Sudlow and the Cougar.