hertz rent-a-racer

I had no idea what a Hertz 'Rent-a-Racer' Mustang was when a good mate of mine first described this particular car to me. He was talking about a car that his mates dad had recently acquired - a faithful replica of the original Hertz hire cars.

Hire cars? Apparently Hertz presented a whole lot of fastback Mustangs as race cars in the 60's, and let anybody hire them out to do what they pleased with them. Surely not, I thought. I was confident my mate was having a giggle to himself behind my back. However, a quick search on Google proved that he was, in fact, right on the money! In the 60's, if you lived in the US, you could hire a more or less race prepared, fastback Mustang from the Hertz rental company!

I was curious as hell about these fastback Mustangs, so before I went to take a look at one in the flesh I decided that further investigation was definitely required.

What I discovered was that the Hertz Mustang was, in fact, a brilliant marketing ploy created in September 1965, by then Shelby General Manager Peyton Cramer. His idea saw the 1966 Shelby GT350H Mustang become available under the list of cars you could hire from the rental company Hertz. Dubbed the "Rent-a-Racer", these beauties cost about $17 a day, and 17 cents per mile to hire. Not bad!



Shelby built 1001 of the fastback Mustangs for Hertz, and they built the Rent-a-Racers with a few specific modifications too. Visually, the pony cars were instantly recognisable with their racing inspired stripes - most were painted Raven Black with Gold stripes, though there were other colours available. The cars came with a High-Performance 289ci V8, with an output of 306hp and 329lb-ft. They had a top speed of 117mph, and ran the quarter mile in 15.2 seconds. Other special features include a dash mounted tacho, plexiglass rear windows, a cleaned up grille, a bonnet scoop with NASCAR style bonnet pins, and working rear fibreglass brake ducts.



Not surprisingly, many of these cars were often driven to the local drag strip for a weekend of racing. There are dozens and dozens of stories of cars being returned with damage, and there are even stories of weekend engine swaps and rollcages being welded in.


Over the years, these unique Mustangs have become somewhat of a collectors item. Many of the cars were 'decommissioned' years ago, and many severely damaged, however the cars that have survived are now fetching big dollars.

As I mentioned earlier, this particular car is indeed a replica, however it is fitted with everything that the original cars would have had on them in 1966. There is one minor discrepancy though...you won't find a 289ci donk under the bonnet. Instead, you are wowed by 427ci of Fords finest, backed by a 5 speed cog swapper. A fitting tribute to the original muscle cars that were raced, and modified, in the 60's.