One to Buy: Sapphire Blue ex-MIA 1966 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350H
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In September 1965, Ford signed an agreement with Hertz Rental to supply 1000 special copies of the Shelby Mustang GT350. The resultant GT350H would be available to Hertz Sports Club members for the bargain price of $17 per day and 17 cents per mile.
Uniquely, Hertz GT350s were completed with gold GT350H-branded sill stripes and many also featured matching centre stripes. Around 80% of the 1000 cars delivered emerged in Raven Black while the remaining 20% were either Wimbledon White, Candyapple Red or Sapphire Blue. Hertz GT350s came with the normally optional Magnum 500 wheels as standard.
Chassis SFM6S1185, set to go under the hammer at Mecum’s Indy sale on May 16th, is one of just 57 GT350Hs produced in Sapphire Blue with gold stripes. Completed at the Shelby American plant on February 26th 1966, it was shipped to Ball Ford in Miami for dealer preparation prior to entering service with Hertz at Miami International Airport.
More recently, this outstanding Shelby has been completely restored to factory condition using original and new old stock parts.
Unlike quite a few Hertz-bound GT350s which had their motors swapped out by rental customers back in the day, SFM6S1185 is accompanied by its original 4.7-litre V8 along with the factory automatic transmission, nine-inch rear end with 3.50 axle ratio and hard-to-find MICO two-stage power brake booster.
The car, which appeared in July 2015’s Mustang Monthly magazine, is accompanied by a Shelby serial number verification sheet, ownership history from new, copies of service records from its time as a Hertz rental and a folder filled with invoices.
