Here's What It's Like to Drive Hertz's Supercharged Shelby GT500-H Rental Car

Anything that can be bought, can also be rented. Okay, not food, toilet paper and chemical insecticides, but everything else. Including, starting this summer, high performance Mustangs tweaked by Shelby American at Hertz stores near several mild weather airports. That’s all to the good. The question becomes whether or not the amped-up 2022 Shelby GT-H or the ‘roided, 900-horsepower, supercharged GT500-H are great enough to be worth renting.

Based on short familiarization drives, here are some answers. Keep in mind, it’s a rental. Commitments are conditional.

GT-H Coupe and Convertible

The GT-H is fairly close analog to the original 1966 Shelby GT350-H as rented back then by Hertz. It’s also close to the 2006-2007 and 2016 versions of the GT-H Hertz has previously offered up to the public.

Like the original ’66, the GT-H is available with an automatic transmission. In fact that’s the only way it comes. It’s the same 10-speed automatic that’s used in so many Ford and GM vehicles and it’s pretty good. But it’s also not a quick-shifting dual-clutch super-performer. The transmission by itself tempers the car’s behavior; there’s only so much going to happen.

At its essence the GT-H is a 5.0-liter Mustang GT that’s been slightly thumped. Hit the start button and the Coyote V8 dibbles up to an idle enhanced by the spongy warble from the Borla-built, Shelby-branded exhaust system. Shelby and Hertz claim that the exhaust system is enough to raise the output from Ford's claimed 450 horsepower to… more than that.

The other big performance change is the fitment of 20-inch wheels wearing Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires in 255/35R20s on nine-inch-wide wheels in front and 275/35ZR20s on 10-inchers in back.

With its aggressive decoration, the GT-H has a definite presence a regular Mustang GT can’t match. There’s a bit of tire noise from the big meat at each corner, but that’s also true of the regular GT. In fact the tire widths are the same as used on the 19-inch diameter wheels Ford fits to Mustang GTs.

What the GT-H packs most powerfully is visual excitement. The stripes, the cool Hertz-specific hood and the splashy tail panel with the Shelby logo running across it all look great.

The rentals on the GT-H run at $99 a day with no mileage limitations. There will be “about 400” in the rental fleet according to Hertz, evenly split between the hardtop coupe and convertible. There aren’t going to be many better ways to spend a summer weekend in Miami than cruising a GT-H convertible.

And really, it may not look like the ’66, but the convertible is the best way to appreciate the GT-H.

GT-500H

The idea of a 900-horsepower anything let loose on America’s highways and byways is ludicrous – in many glorious and occasionally terrifying ways. But there will be 25 of these Whipple-blown studs out ranging the country starting this summer. Rentals start at $399 a day with 75 miles of use included. Additional miles will go off a 99-cents each. So, doing the math, a record Cannonball run in one of these could come in under 24-hours. Figure 2906 miles… that’s $3201.69 plus fuel and snacks. Might be a deal. Some complications will ensue.

Start the Hertz GT-500H and it does a mini-eruption. It’s Mount Vesuvius spitting out through a Borla exhaust with a wicked whine from its Whipple screw-type supercharger (replacing the GT500’s Eaton Rootes-style lobe unit). It’s not a normal car – much less a normal rental car. It has an abnormal (claimed) 900-horsepower aboard. While that’s a lot, in a world of Tesla Model S Plaids, it’s not that much.