Everyone seems to know the facts about the Shelby GT 350 H or at least have a strong opinion on what they think they are. Many a nay sayer has scoffed at my (now ex) GT 350 H with a four speed, sure that all the “H” cars were automatic. Or politely dismissed the notion that there was any other color but black with a gold stripe. So with the expectation that you can surprise your friends at the next Mustang Car Show here’s some fun facts:

Hertz Rent a Car or in this case rent a racer ordered 1,001 Shelby GT 350s. At that time that represented near have of the Shelby GT 350’s produced in 1966. Only 2,380 GT 350s were produced that year. When the first 100 cars were released to Hertz they were all equipped with 4 speed transmissions. Only after some rigorous rentals resulted in transmission and clutch replacement did they switch to the automatic transmission. Which remained the transmission of choice for the remaining cars to be built.

The Majority of the cars were of course raven black (800) with a gold stripe. However, there were also approximately 200 in a mixture of Candy Apple Red, Wimbledon White, Sapphire Blue and Ivy Green.
They all of course had the gold stripe. So, if you want to find a rare Shelby find a white GT 350 H with a four speed! I have driven one myself.

It is interesting at least to note that the Hertz version had a metal hood, the rest of the GT 350’s in 1966 all had fiberglass hoods.

Out of the 1001 cars that Hertz ordered they only put 996 into their fleet. One was returned to Shelby for a repair and four were wrecked before Hertz got them.

Many of the facts are very hard to verify on this car just because of the record keeping at the time. So, if I’m wrong about a detail….sorry. Just a side note, once the cars came out of the rental fleet, most of them ended up at the Ford dealers to be resold. Amazingly, the dealers found it difficult to sell the rental cars. Oh, if we only would have known.

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