The man behind the movie Ford vs. Ferrari.

"Ford v. Ferrari" filled movie screens around the world with enthusiastic motorsports fans, and even those who were not familiar with motorsports enjoyed the action-packed racing scenes and the dramatic relationship between Carroll Shelby and his star shoe, Ken Miles.

Beyond the story of the movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, it was the stars of the cars. Cobras, GT40s, Daytona coupes, Ferrari 330 P3s, and Porsche 906 Carreras were screen heroes. Director James Mangold, less than 60 miles from the 20th Century Fox studios in Irvine, California, where the South African manufacturer and distributor of the most popular Shelby-licensed Cobra replica on the planet, Superformance, Hill Banks, could be reached.

Lance Stander is the CEO of Hilbank and Superformance, and his company has built two major GT40s, two Daytona coupes, and a MkIII authentic Shelby 427cid aluminum block and a slab-sided 289cid Ford Twenty-three beautifully detailed replicas of Cobras were offered, including one with a racing engine. Several others were equipped with crate 302cid engines.

"My cars were very expensive.

"They were very well built and true to form, as cars of the day were."

His father, Stan, founded Hillbank in South Africa in 1977. Under Lance's stewardship, the company brought its sales division to the United States in the late 1990s, and in 2005 purchased the Superformance factory from Jim Price, which was incredibly successful. In addition to Shelby Replicas, Hillbank is an authorized dealer for Shelby American and has expanded its offerings to include the Caterham Lotus Seven and the 1964 Corvette Grand Sport Replicas.

Like all Superformance vehicles, the car in the film was built entirely by hand in a South African factory, starting with a rolling chassis that included frame, suspension, fiberglass body, electronics, and connections. The engine was shipped to Irvine and mounted at V's Performance, a partner store in Orange, California; after delivery to 20th Century Fox, the car was wrapped in the original car colors and numbers.

The film made many references to the legendary story of Miles and Shelby. In one scene filmed at Willow Springs International in Rosamond, California, Ken Miles slammed the trunk of the Cobra shut on top of a "mandatory size" suitcase that followed FIA GT rules. Shelby himself did so at Le Mans in 1964 to satisfy the FIA judges about the proper fit of the suitcase. The dents in the trunk were quickly cleaned up on site by Phil Remington.

The film required a modification to the film car, an aluminum trunk lid, in order to share the story. Fiberglass would have broken or shattered.

According to Stander, Cobra restorer Drew Saab built the aluminum trunk lid and there were three.

Soon after production began, collectors "bought up" the hero cars. The main Cobras were purchased by the sons of famous racers. Peter Miles got Ken Miles' Cobra, Rich McDonald got Dave McDonald's car, Alex Gurney, who played his father in the movie, brought home a Cobra, and Carroll's grandson, Aaron Shelby, got one too, at Indianapolis in 1964 " McDonald, who lost his father Dave in the wreck with Eddie Sachs on "Black Sunday," commuted in the Cobra to work at Hillbank, where he was a sales executive.

One of the movie cars was sold to a client and listed at a Mecum auction for three times the purchase price. The other car was sold to the Cobra Experience, a non-profit museum dedicated to the promotion, preservation, education, and conservation of cars produced by Shelby American. Lynn "Mr. Cobra" Park and Cobra expert Drew Saab and their spouses are founding members of this museum in the Bay Area, California. The car, which appeared in the film as a static prop, will be powered by a Roush 427 and coupled to a Tremec TKO-600, which will be raffled off to a lucky winner on June 6, 2020.

The car was indeed used. The film makes that clear. The on-track and in-car footage amazed audiences around the world. After production, the car needed some TLC.

"The car came back in very rough shape with rock chips, chipped chrome, chipped windshields, etc. Stander stated.

Superformance also produced cars for the "Cinema Series." Although not featured in the film itself, a limited run of 100 cars, including a Shelby Cobra Roadster, Daytona Coupe, and GT40, will be built to the same specifications as the cars used in the film and registered with the Shelby Registry.

How did Stander feel about the cars his company built being shown on the big screen?

"It's very cool," he said. It's amazing what I'm doing, and in my opinion, we're dealing with the best racing cars in the world." If you haven't seen it yet, go see the movie."

Written by Tom Stahler, this article originally appeared on ClassicCars.com, an editorial partner of Motor Authority.