In this week’s Wednesday Want we’ve found something truly special in the classified adverts and thought it really deserved some attention. You can check out past Wednesday Want entries right here.
If you’ve ever rented a car you know how dreary they can be. They’re typically a forgettable sedan-based snooze fest with barely any creature comforts. Granted there are options to spice up your rental experience, but they’re often absurdly expensive.
Back in 1966 rental cars were a bit different, especially if you snagged a Shelby Mustang GT350H through Hertz. For just $17 a day ($132 today) and 17 cents a mile, you could have a go in a race car for the road.
The idea for the GT350H came about in 1965 as a way to attract more potential customers. While the sales of the Shelby Mustang weren’t bad, they didn’t hit the intended target. To remedy this Shelby American General Manager Peyton Cramer worked out a deal with Hertz to get more people behind the wheel.
Eligibility requirements to rent one were lax too. Renters only needed to be 25 years old and a member of the Hertz Sports Car Club. However, with only 1,001 in the fleet nationwide, getting your hands on one was tough.
For those lucky few that did manage to rent a GT350H, the venture proved to be costly. Even though the rental cost was inexpensive, often times renters had to shell out hundreds of dollars for repairs to the car.
Crafty customers quickly figured out a way around this. They would rent the car and drive it to the track where their standard Mustang was waiting. With the help of some buddies, they’d remove the engine from the GT350 and put it in their own car.
By doing this they’d avoid a costly repair bill and keep the miles on the rental car low.
Whether Hertz was aware of this at the time, we don’t know. There probably was more than one rental agent confused as to why someone would rent one of these cars and then put hardly any miles on it.
So what made the engine so desirable?
The standard Mustang with a 289 4 barrel Windsor V8 was no slouch. With 221hp it would hit 60 in around nine seconds. Not fast by today’s standard, but 50 years ago it was.
By comparison, the GT350H came with a whopping 306hp from the 289 Cobra V8. This would push the Shelby to 60 in 6.6 seconds and a standing quarter mile in just 15.5 seconds.
Given the amount of effort, time, and money needed to tune the standard Mustang to those numbers, $17 a day was a steal.
This GT350H we found through Bonhams Auctions is a pristine example of the legendary “rent-a-racer”.
The current owner, who bought the car in 2007, gave the entire car a thorough restoration. This included returning it to its original paint scheme of Raven Black with Bronze Powder stripes.
The restoration was so well done in fact that the car received a Palmetto Award at the 2015 Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance.
To help with drivability, this example also received a high-speed rear end and 5-speed manual transmission. However, for any potential buyer, the original diff is also included with the sale of the car.
The car will head to the block on March 8 at the Amelia Island Auction in Florida. Current estimates put its sale price between $90,000 – $150,000. Given what other examples sold for in the past, expect the final number to be on the high end.
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