The recent resurgence in the Shelby brand name no doubt began when the deep-pocket crowd started swinging wallets at the rare and collectible Shelby Mustangs that have, as of late, proliferated various collector-car auctions. With the popularity in both Carroll Shelby himself and his vintage automobiles on the rise, it was only a matter of time before Ford set its sights on the icon in an effort to capitalize on a growing trend.
The time was right for the Blue Oval, too, as its latest ponycar was bulging with classic Mustang lines and begging for someone to give it a vintage makeover.
The performance aftermarket immediately responded to the new Stang, turning out its own variations, most of which were based on the '65 Shelby GT350 Mustang. Obviously, Ford and Shelby had plans in the works, and the Shelby GT-H was born.
Five hundred or so of these cars were built and are available through the Hertz Fun Collection. The Fun Collection is available only at select U.S. cities, though strangely enough, the Big Apple isn't one of them.
We were to take charge of our rental at the Hertz office in the Tampa International Airport location, but our initial rental didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. Rather than go through Hertz public affairs, we had jumped online and booked the car for five days. We were set to go, or so we thought.
What the Hertz Web site failed to mention was that local renters must bring a utility bill with their home address on it, in addition to the two forms of photo ID and a credit card. If you've flown to the Fun Collection location and have plane tickets in hand, there's no problem, but for some reason, Hertz makes it a little more difficult for its next-door neighbors to rent a GT-H.
The Hertz manager at TIA called the secret Hertz hotline, but the voice on the other end said no rental without the bill. It was an hour trip to the airport to begin with, and despite our rental confirmation (the five-day fee totaled over $700), we left without the Shelby and were fairly pissed off. The Shelby GT-H test deadline came and went, without the car to test and without any fun from the collection.
 |
Wheels and tires are stock Mustang GT equipment. The Torque-Thrust-looking wheels simply add to the vintage appeal. |
Our first stop with the GT-H was our local autocross event. It was here where we really got to push the limit of the Ford Racing Performance Parts handling pack. |
Autocrossing the big S197 Stang took some getting use to. The lack of a manual transmission really hurt us when trying to pull out of the corners. |
Here is a look at the Ford Racing Performace Parts Cold-Air Intake found on the Hertz Shelby GT-H. |
There was a drastic change in the Mustang's form in 2005. Who knows where it will go from here? We hope they put it on a diet. |
The car comes with a pretty wicked stance which is achieved thanks to the FR3 Handling Pac. |