Estimated Price: £140,000 - £160,000
Released in April 1964, Ford Mustang sales figures were nothing short of incredible, with nearly one million units sold in the first eighteen months of production. Thanks to his successes with the Ford-powered 1963-1964 Shelby Cobra, Texan farmer and seasoned racing driver Carroll Shelby was the obvious man to be entrusted with turning a stock Mustang into a successful challenger that could be entered into the Sports Car Championship of America (SCCA) and take on the might of the General Motors Chevrolet Corvette, and so soon after, development of the car was underway at Shelby's Marina del Rey facility in Los Angeles, California. Unveiled in January 1965 at a basic price of $4,547, and based on a Mustang Fastback, the Shelby GT-350 was effectively a stiff, loud and fast road-legal race car. Under the hood lurked a 289cu.in. V8 producing 306bhp and the suspension and brakes were extensively modified.
The 1966 GT-350 gained Plexiglas rear windows instead of vents, side scoops for improved rear brake cooling and a thin bar grille. These changes translated into numerous successes on the race track and the legendary Shelby GT-350 was born. Never has the ‘marriage' between a car rental company and a manufacturer yielded such fruitful results as it did between Hertz and Shelby with the inception of the Shelby Mustang GT-350H. In a clever marketing move in 1966, Hertz initially ordered 100 models and requested that it be named the GT-350H, ‘H' standing for Hertz, with a few minor tweaks for their 'rentals' customers.
Delivered in Raven Black with Bronze Powder Gold stripes, the order was increased to 200 cars, and by the end of that year 1,000 cars were produced in total. It is believed that 800 or so cars were delivered in the black / gold colour scheme, whilst the remaining 200 were built in Wimbledon White, Sapphire Blue, Ivy Green and Candy Apple Red. By the end of '66 the Shelby GT-350H was available at over 50 Hertz airport rental locations across the United States, where customers could hire one for the nominal sum of $17 per day. Unimaginable in the litigation heavy America of today, many of these cars were rented for weekend use on drag strips and race tracks, and hence the term ‘Rent-a-Racer' was coined.
This particular G.T. bearing chassis number #1555 and presented in the Hertz colours was, according to the SAAC Shelby Register, on which it features, delivered to Hertz via Larsen Ford Inc., on 31st March 1966, and originally featured an automatic gearbox although it has since been upgraded to a 4-speed manual 'Toploader' unit. After Hertz ownership, the car was sold to a Lacy Levone of Wilson, North Carolina, followed by another two owners in the U.S. In 1992 it was purchased by a Dutch collector and remained with him before ownership passed to another collector in Holland, who used the car for classic regulation rallies such as the Rallye de Paris and the Vogezen Classic.
Purchased by our vendor in 2016, the car displayed an odometer reading of 58,045 miles, at the time of cataloguing. Thought to have never been restored, although likely painted in its lifetime, this original G.T.350 H boasts a wonderful patina rarely seen on these cars and represents an opportunity to own a slice of American motoring folklore. Presented to auction with a fresh MOT, and detailed letters of provenance, this rare car, verified and authenticated by the Shelby Register, is not to be missed.
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