[Lee Stewart]

Because of a rule change made by NASCAR for 1970 models which raised the number of production cars needed to qualify a car from 500 in 1969 to almost 3000 in 1970 the cost of making nose cones for the King Cobra and Cyclone Super Spoiler II out of metal would run more than $2 million dollars ($12,440,876.29 in 2016 dollars). Yes the cost could be driven way down if fiberglass was used but getting that many warp free units was a headache that both Ford and Mercury wanted to avoid so steel was the material of choice. All 6 prototypes do have a fiberglass nose cone though. Both cars were given the axe by incoming Lee Iacocca who slashed Ford's racing budget by 75%.