Vintage Racing Shelby GT350H Has Us Yearning for the Golden Days
From rental car to race car, this Shelby Hertz has led a long and interesting life.
Being mustang fanatics, we’re all aware of the Shelby-Hertz ‘Rent-A-Racer’ GT350H of the mid 1960s, yes? Of course we are. This particular Hertz special was a rental car for a little while, though the program didn’t last long, as Hertz allegedly went through a lot of replacement clutches on their manual-transmission Shelby Mustangs with big V8 power. This car was sold on from the Hertz fleet to Jeff Burgy, who was a member of the Shelby American board member. Burgy later prepared the car as a proper racing machine for SCCA Solo 1 competition (hillclimb and time-attack style competition), where he ran from 1971-1975.
For over a decade the Mustang sat quietly in storage waiting to be revived. A racer like this doesn’t like to sit around, it’s soul demanded to be taken to the race track again. In the mid-eighties, the car was purchased by the current owner, and immediately prepared for vintage racing. At that point it received a roll cage, fender flares, and much more. It’s still powered by a 289 cubic inch small block, though it’s been built up to a much higher spec than original. The car was last raced in 2006, and the engine was rebuilt shortly after ‘retirement’ by a shop in Tucson, Arizona to the tune of ten thousand dollars.
If this car had been perfectly restored, you wouldn’t want to drive it, race it, or use it. This would make an excellent car to drive to the track (it’s still street legal), then race all day and drive it home. If that sounds like your kind of fun, check out the full listing over on Bring a Trailer.
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