I may have said this before but my single favorite Shelby car is the 1966 GT350H. You might think I am crazy and believe that a 289 Cobra, a 1965 GT350, or a 1967 GT500 is the best Shelby car, and all are great Shelby cars, but I have liked the ’66 GT350H since I learned of its existence.
For those of you who might not know the history of these cars, the GT350H began in late of 1965 when Shelby American pitched Hertz on the idea of a hundred black-and-gold GT350s to try to help Hertz’s struggling idea of the Hertz Sports Car Club.
This program would not only help Hertz but would also benefit Shelby as it would give prospective Shelby GT350 Customers a way to test drive a GT350. This was important as many dealers did not get the GT350 and those that did sold them immediately. This would get their potential customers in their cars and increase their sales along with helping Hertz.
Hertz agreed to the plan, and through a series of purchases ended up ordering 1,000 GT350 cars from Shelby. All were labeled GT350H contrary to many peoples opinions, not all were painted in the iconic Raven Black with Gold Le Mans stripes color combinations. Hertz ordered the GT350H cars in Wimbledon White, Candy Apple Red, Ivy Green, and Sapphire Blue as well. I still prefer the Raven Black ones.
Now there are a lot of legends about the GT350H stating that they were rented, raced, and then returned to Hertz (there are some instances of this recorded but not many), that they had their engines swapped into race cars (this did happen, though, only one documented time), and that people would rent the car as their tow vehicle to take their GT350 or 289 Cobra to the track and then if they needed engine parts, would take them off the rental engine (this is a well documented thing that happened more than once). What this lore did for me as an impressionable, teenage, car crazy kid in the early 1980s was to make me really want one of these cars.
A year ago I got to buy one of these for the Maine Classic Car Museum collection which I manage. Just yesterday I got to drive it. Yes, it is an automatic, but the museum’s 1966 GT350H completely delivered on the expectations I had when I was just a teenager. If you love history and muscle/pony cars, these cars are the perfect match and cost considerably less than other top tier muscle cars, and less than a non-Hertz 1965-1966 GT350.
The Pick of the Day is one of these cars, a 1966 Shelby GT350H for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in Monrovia, California.
They describe this GT350H as an original, un-restored, all matching numbers, three owners since new, survivor car. It is equipped, as most GT350H cars were, with its original automatic transmission. It is said to have covered only 92,268 original documented miles from new. Included with the sale of this car are all books and records.
Most importantly this 1966 GT350H is fully documented with SAAC (Shelby American Automobile Club). It has recently received a full headlight-to-taillight service by Stephen Becker Automotive Group in Atlanta, Georgia, who is a Shelby American factory-authorized dealership. They close stating that everything with this GT350H works, and that the car runs and drives great.
The asking price for this 1966 GT350H is a very reasonable $185,000, which in today’s market looks especially good to me. Sure it is an automatic, but most of these cars were, and the automatic equipped one I drove yesterday was amazing.
Click here to see this Pick of the Day listing on ClassicCars.com.
