Hertz gets its own hopped-up Mustangs to rent out By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY 4/12/06 NEW YORK - While rental-car companies boast about how fast they can muscle customers into their cars, Hertz is taking a more aggressive approach. It's going to offer a fast muscle car. The rental-car company is bulking up its fleet with 500 souped-up Shelby GT-H Mustangs. The customized cars will have stiffer suspension and an extra 30 horsepower. Ford Motor Company The car-rental company and Ford Motor are set to unveil their own distinctive 330-horsepower, Carroll Shelby-modified Mustang today at the New York International Auto Show. The Shelby GT-H, as the hopped-up Mustang will be called, was designed in collaboration with Shelby and Ford Motor. Ford owned Hertz until selling it in December for $5.6 billion to an investor group. The GT-H won't be in showrooms; it'll be available only as a rental and only at some Hertz locations. Just 500 will be in the fleet. Behind the move: nostalgia. In the 1960s, Ford modified 1,000 Mustangs for the Hertz fleet, in what came to be known as the Rent-A-Racer program. It was the kind of program that would drive any rental manager mad. Customers "took them to the racetrack and won a trophy," says Shelby, the 83-year-old father of the Shelby Cobra and modified Mustangs of yore. Some renters even swapped the 1966 Hertz Mustang's racing engines with those in their own, less-powerful cars - something they would conveniently forget to mention when returning the Shelby 350 GT-H cars to Hertz. The new GT-H - yes, the H stands for Hertz - has a stiffer suspension than the basic Mustang GT, 30 more horsepower, a throatier-sounding exhaust and gold racing stripes. All are black. In one concession to the fact that the GT-H is intended as a rental car, all will have automatic transmissions. Some modifications are being done at Shelby's plant in Las Vegas. The idea came when Walter Seaman, a Hertz vice president, eyed one of the old 1966 Shelby Mustangs on display at company headquarters. "One day I was walking through the lobby, and it dawned on me," he says. Seaman is in charge of Hertz's Fun Collection - cars such as the Nissan 350Z and Mazda Miata, and the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Chevy HHR sports wagons aimed primarily at leisure renters. That led to discussions with Ford, which signed onto the project despite Mustang GTs being in short supply. "We had to overcome that hurdle," says Ford car marketing manager Robert Parker. It was the chance to create another classic. The 1966 models, which were sold to the public after their rental-car lives were finished, today sell at auction for $120,000 or more because so few were made, says Howard Pardee of the Shelby American Automobile Club. He expects the new one to become valuable over time as well. "I think it's an idea that's just perfect for the time," Pardee says. The cars should be showing up in rental fleets within weeks, dispersed to 17 locations including Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Denver; Boston; across the Sun Belt; and Hawaii. The GT-H probably will rent for more than $100 a day, Seaman says. He says Hertz will take special steps to make sure the cars aren't abused - or raced. "We hope people will be reasonably responsible," he says. "It's a powerful car, but so are some of the other cars in the Fun Collection." Minimum age for drivers probably will be 25, he says, instead of Hertz's normal minimum, 21. The cars will be thoroughly checked when they are returned. And when they hit 16,000 to 18,000 miles in seven to nine months, they will be sold. Ford dealers get the first crack at the used ones. Shelby thinks the GT-H will help change minds about the quality of American cars. And, he adds, "I think this will help Shelby and Ford get that visibility. Maybe we will be recognized in a positive way."
