[Cal Metal]

From Leo Levine's book, "The Dust & the Glory".

".........When the prototype arrived in Los Angeles, Shelby got on the telephone to his large collection of friends who worked for automotive enthusiast publications. They flocked to see--and write--, and photograph--the new Cobra. By the beginning of March Shelby was able to call Ford and report his creation would be the subject of a number of articles and would even grace the covers of several magazines. When the news got to Iacocca, that was all Shelby needed. For the past year one of Iacocca's sore points had been the of this type of exposure for Ford products. He would contantly leaf through the various "buff books" and see that Chevy and Pontiac had a virtual monopoly, not only on the covers, but on the stories contained therein. No one at Ford had been able to get Iacocca on the covers, and now here came this curly-haired farmer out of the Texas weeds and with one stroke he mangaged to ge the Ford Division more editorial exposure than it had received in years. Shelby and the Cobra were home free (at least in prinicple), and when Ford included the car as part of its exhibition at the NY auto show, the reaction it caused served to solidify the deal......."