At times you can rent a sports car from a rental car company. This can be a great way to go out on a date on the weekend and drive a car you might never have thought you would be able to drive. Enterprise will rent you the six-cylinder versions of the Camaro or a similar model Mustang and other rental companies have their own version of a sports car you can rent. While these cars from Enterprise aren’t racers that you could put against high powered models they do give you some driving excitement from behind the wheel.
Fifty years ago one company did rent actual race cars. The “Rent a Racer” program from Hertz was part of the advertising for the company and a way to gain more interest. In 1966 you could actually rent a Ford Shelby Mustang GT350-H. The H in the name stands for Hertz, and there’s nothing dialed back or taken away from these cars. The “Rent a Racer” program was designed to allow renters to have the unique experience of actually driving a Shelby Mustang but without the commitment of ownership and the program was a hit right from the start for Hertz.
In this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage we see one of these Hertz vehicles that has been restored and maintained alongside one of Jay’s own Shelby Mustangs. In an effort to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this program Hertz is bringing back the Shelby in the new Mustang and has several that have been painted to look like the original. The first question Jay has for the representative from Hertz is whether or not these new cars are the real Shelby Mustangs, which is confirmed for him right away.
In a quick comparison Jay talks about the fact the 1966 Mustang would only cost $17 per day and seventeen cents per mile for someone to rent during the original “Rent a Racer” program. The program that is being enjoyed to celebrate the anniversary will cost a renter $399 per day but there is no charge for the mileage put on the car. This high cost can certainly be worth it considering you may never get the chance to drive a Shelby Mustang 350GT in any other form, and for those of us who can’t afford to own one this is a great way to be able to have that unique experience at least once.
Looking back we see that the “Rent a Racer” program has been celebrated another time as well. Hertz rented these cars out in 2006 as well which was the 40th Anniversary of the program. Of course with these high performance cars there is the rumor that some renters might not actually return the car with all the same parts it started with. These stories have been around for years and one of the cars was actually entered into a race during the 2006 offering of the program which caused quite a bit of concern for the company.
Over the summer these cars will be offered at seventeen airport locations for renters to enjoy. Once the summer is over the Mustangs will be offered for sale to the general public, giving a small fleet of cars that have low miles on them to us to purchase. If you’re considering purchasing a Shelby Mustang 350GT this may be a great way for you to have one for a much lower cost than buying one new. The mileage is expected to be much lower than most rental cars that are sold off by rental companies.
Jay gives us a tour of both the 2016 model that will be used over this summer and even an original version that he offers us a look at with the owner of the car. This original Shelby Mustang GT350-H came with a four-speed manual transmission, which was considered to be the desired build for the car at the time. Take a look at this video and enjoy the drive and the tour of the Mustang in original form as well as the ones being used by Hertz this summer.
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