2006 Ford Mustang GT-H "Rent-a-Racer"

2006 Ford Mustang GT-H Description

In 1966, Carroll Shelby struck a deal with rental car giant Hertz to build a fleet of "Rent-A-Racer" Shelby American-tuned Mustangs, labeled as the G.T.350H. The move helped to make Shelby a household name (among car enthusiasts, anyway), and 40 years later, a new Mustang GT-H helped to launch the next generation of Shelby-tuned Mustangs. For the 50th anniversary of the original Shelby G.T.350H, Ford, Shelby and Hertz are once again teaming up to build a special-edition Mustang, the 2016 Ford Shelby GT-H, available for rental at select Hertz agencies this summer.

Pitching a rental car agency on the merits of a street-legal racing car was a bold move, even for Carroll Shelby. Playing on the long relationship between Ford and Hertz, Shelby even opted to show the company a black Mustang with gold stripes, reminiscent of early Fords delivered to Hertz in black with gold lettering. More audacious was the fact that the G.T.350H was a serious performance car, targeted to renters who'd be adding the bulk of their mileage during "off-highway" use.

The 1966 Shelby G.T.350H owned by Gino Lucci, featured in the February 2011 issue ofHemmings Muscle Machines. Photo by Terry McGean.

Each 1966 Shelby G.T.350H came equipped with the K-Code 289 V-8, which produced 271 horsepower in factory-delivered form. Sent to Shelby American's shop near the Los Angeles International Airport, the Hertz-bound Mustangs were fitted with a Holley four-barrel carburetor atop an aluminum intake manifold, tubular headers, and a low-restriction exhaust system that raised output to 306 horsepower and 329 pound-feet of torque. Some cars (roughly 100) were built with Borg Warner T-10 four-speed manual transmissions, while the rest of the 1,001 examples constructed came with Ford C-4 Cruise-O-Matic three-speed automatic transmissions. According toCar and Driver, an automatic-equipped 1966 Shelby G.T.350H could run from 0-60 MPH in 6.6 seconds, getting through the quarter-mile in 15.2 seconds at 93 MPH.

Drag racing wasn't really the G.T.350H's forte, though at $17 per day and 17-cents per mile, many saw action at the strip. Other revisions, such as 14-inch Magnum 500 wheels with Goodyear Blue Streak tires, a revised front suspension, quicker steering, a Monte Carlo brace, a one-inch front anti-roll bar, 11-inch front disc brakes and 10-inch rear drums (cooled by functional fiberglass scoops) were more about road course performance, and these rental Mustangs certainly saw their share of track time on weekends.

Photo by Terry McGean.

At the end of the program, the Shelby G.T.350H Mustangs were returned to Ford for sale through its dealers, many of which were reluctant to take on this rode-hard-and-put-up-wet high-performance inventory. As Terry McGean explained in theFebruary 2011 issue ofHemmings Muscle Machines, Ford's used vehicle manager for the Philadelphia district, Marv Neeley, finally achieved success moving inventory by cherry-picking the best cars, reconditioning them and showing them off to local dealers. Soon, demand outstripped supply, making it easier to move G.T.350H models that were more "enthusiastically" driven.

History shows that the 1966 Shelby G.T.350H models went on to become highly collectible, something not often associated with rental cars. Fast forward to 2005, the year that Carroll Shelby signed a new contract to build high-performance vehicles for the Ford Motor Company; what better way to kick off the relationship than with a modern Shelby GT-H Mustang, built for the Hertz Corporation and based upon the retro-styled fifth-generation Ford Mustang?

2006 Ford Shelby Mustang GT-H, with an original G.T.350H.

The 2006 GT-H Mustangs also received performance upgrades, with the cold air intake and low-restriction exhaust adding 25 extra ponies and raising output from 300 to 325 horsepower, boosting torque from 310 to 320 pound-feet of torque. On the handling side, the Shelby-prepared coupes received the Ford Racing FR3 Handling Pack, including new dampers, lowering springs, thicker anti-roll bars and a strut tower brace, while the brakes were standard issue Mustang GT bits. Performance-wise, the second-generation Hertz Shelby Mustangs could gallop from 0-60 MPH in five seconds flat, running the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at 102 MPH.

Predicting future collectibility, Shelby American built just 500 examples, all coupes, for 2006. Each came dressed up with a unique hood (with hood pins), an aluminum grille, a California Special front fascia, five-spoke wheels, and Shelby GT-H and Hertz badging. For 2007, Shelby and Hertz repeated the deal, this time with Ford Mustang GT convertibles carrying the GT-H torch.