The GT350H’s own Carroll Shelby.
This weekend takes place in Dallas one of the biggest auction events of the house Mecum Auctions, true specialist in this type of macro events. Throughout the weekend, which for Mecum usually starts on the same Wednesday, will come out to the stage, hundreds of copies, the vast majority is in perfect condition and many of them are authentic historical pieces of the us engine.
In the last few weeks we have done a review of the highlights that you’ll find for sale at this event, as the lots belonging to the collections of Ron MacWorther or Jim Fasnacht, as well as the spectacular Shelby GT350 #117, a specimen endowed with a great and enigmatic story.
among all the Mustang present this weekend, which are not few, also emphasises this Shelby GT350H, one of which was part of the original order of 999 units performed by Hertz Rental Cars, although this in particular is probably one of the copies most prominent of these 999, as one of its first owners was none other than Carroll Shelby.
Your state is gorgeous and completely original.
number of frame 1822, this is one of the equipped automatic switching of three relations, as the vast majority of Shelby GT350H original. Although, as with all the GT350H had the same mechanical specifications that became the Shelby GT350 on the icons that they are today, in addition to other elements of competition, that not all the units manufactured by Shelby came to have.
The original idea came from the own Ford, shareholder of Hertz, with the objective of making viable the then-new project Shelby in California. Once delivered the GT350H, the great majority with its characteristic decoration in black and gold, which were announced by the rental house with the slogan, “Rent a racer”, which we can translate as “rents a vehicle of competition”. The original price was 17 dollars a day and 17 cents per mile traveled.
Unfortunately, even with the order of Hertz’s initiative Shelby became viable, having to deal with Ford on the project in 1966 and already in mid-1967, decided to move production facilities from Shelby, in California a plant of the brand.
The interior is also black, with all of its original elements.
In the case of this copy, was one of the little less than 1,400 that were assemblies at the original site of Shelby, first in Venice, where they left the first GT350 -known porpularmente as a GT350R for your specifications most radical – and later in the Los Angeles airport.
to Have vehicles of this potential to the extent of any presented the logical consequences and expected, not only many were hired to do burradas on the street, but that some ended up passing through one of the multiple circuits of the country and in some cases, it is known that some units came to be returned with obvious signs of having installed roll bars and security cages.
like the copy of the images, most were riding the less desirable but more comfortable automatic transmission C6, however, a few were ordered with manual shift mode. Those few units, the first 85 units are produced and delivered were those that served for the celebrated ad “Rent a racer”, however, actually were only available to customers who were members of the Hertz Sports Car Club.
Only 999 copies were made the original order, plus some prototypes.
to belong to this select group, Hertz proved, first of all the skills of the customers, proving that it was able to handle a manual change. These units were the ones that used to appear regularly in events of the SCCA, included in the category of production vehicles.
after completion of the contract, Hertz returned the vehicle to Ford, the reacondicionaba and sold to the public as GT350H. These copies sold by Ford, were losing during the process a good part of the special options with which they had exited the facility of Shelby in California, apparently “lost” during the process.
Even with all these elements, as the windows in the rear of plexiglass, the sports steering wheel chrome-plated with ring of wood or the tachometer on the dashboard, in the same way on the outside we can find the leaks elongated, the hood metal instead of the fiber they rode the first copies of the GT350. Although the most valuable thing of this unit is the property documentation in the figure, the name of Carroll Shelby, who by what is said, employed this unit as a personal vehicle for years.
The 289/306 HP V-8 original that characterized the GT350.
the state of The copy is fantastic, and although we have not been able to find any report that endorsement, we understand by the images that the vehicle no reset, so that makes it even more valuable if it is.
The importance of these copies of Hertz is clear, even fifty years after Ford continues to employ this appellation, launching limited series for Hertz that attempt to mimic the iconic decoration in gold on black.
This is not the first specimen belonging to Carroll Shelby who comes to auction this year. In the summer he went out of his hiding place the first Shelby Cobra, the issue that began to forge the legend of the model, with the first frame number, CSX2000, and which until this year was in the property of Carroll Shelby, now his heirs.
This GT350H is no doubt part of the Shelby legend.
Auctioned in Monterey is automatically turned in the car
american most expensive in history, to achieve the 13.75 million
dollars in an auction in the events of Monterey 2016.
–