Yahoo Autos Shelby GT500-H puts insane 900 hp in Hertz renters' hands | First drive review
When it comes to American muscle you don't get much more apple pie than Shelby American and Hertz. Once again, the two companies are teaming up to offer travelers across the United States access to a triad of new Mustang Shelby muscle cars with as much as 900-plus horsepower, reinvigorating their longtime Rent-a-Racer program this summer. But, are the $399-per-day price tag and additional restrictions worth the price tag? Purely for research, we hopped a quick flight to Las Vegas and the Shelby Museum to get behind the wheel of the convertible GT-H and the monstrous GT500-H on a straight highway run out to Seven Magic Mountains and back to gather more data.
The GT-H comes in convertible and coupe form and starts with your standard Shelby GT, which is based on the Mustang GT Premium with the 5.0L V8 that puts out around 450 horsepower. Hertz and Shelby don't have specific horsepower details yet for either vehicle, but when the cars hit Hertz airport locations around the country the company will have those numbers buttoned up. Both the GT-H and the 900-plus-horsepower GT500-H get special Shelby bits added for both looks and performance including parts like Borla cat-back performance exhausts, a staggered-width wheel kit, 20-inch aluminum wheels with all-weather Michelin tires, and a Shelby-designed deep-draw hood, upper grille, fascia winglets and taillight panel. The convertibles get a special light bar, and of course, both the coupe and convertible get those characteristic Hertz-gold racing stripes and Shelby serial numbers that will be added to the Shelby registry.
That's because Hertz and Shelby both hope that these vehicles will continue to fetch high prices on the secondary market after their time in the hands of renters comes to an end around the end of 2022. The 1966 versions, the ones that marked the first advent of the Rent-a-Racer/Hertz-Shelby tie-up, now fetch nearly $200,000 at auction. The 2006, 2007, and 2016 models also go for a premium price on the secondary market according to both Shelby and Hertz executives. Both Shelby and Hertz say that giving normal people access to these powerful vehicles will "surprise and delight," and both companies talked at length about the benefits in sales and rentals that they see as a result of the program.
“The Hertz deal in 2006 saved Shelby,” Patterson said in an interview with Autoblog. “The company had been badly financially managed and the Hertz deal pulled it through.”
Both Shelby American and Hertz are no strangers to financial and business problems. While Shelby isn’t in the same position it was in the early 2000s, the company did say it had some production slowdowns as a result of pandemic shortages, especially since it relies on products from Ford. According to Shelby American, it ships around 1,200 cars a year to customers. Hertz, on the other hand, just came through bankruptcy and is working through a rather messy legal battle after accusing thousands of renters of stealing Hertz cars.
The tie-up brings the two companies together for a three-year deal, and more cars are coming. The Mustang Shelby GT-H and the much more powerful Mustang Shelby GT500-H will be the first ones available to rent this summer. It’s possible that one of those additional new vehicles may be a Shelby F-150 and/or a Bronco, but no one at either company would confirm that. Shelby says that the company’s production of Mustangs and F-150s largely mirrors Ford’s, and it has considered doing a Shelby Bronco, but the project is still in the air.
