RUSTY RENTAL

BACKYARD BARN FIND 1966 SHELBY G.T.350-H HERTZ RENTAL CAR PARKED SINCE 1981

- Jerry Heasley

As rusty as it is, and as ugly as it is, there is so much good here,” said Rick Parker as he and his team from Signature Auto Classics, in Columbus, Ohio, were working with pickaxes and shovels to dig out a 1966 Shelby G.T.350-H that had been parked in a backyard for nearly 40 years. The registration on the plate expired in 1981.

The entire car had sunk into the mud and might not have been worth the trouble except it was a real Shelby, one of the 936 G.T.350-H models that Shelby-American produced in the Rent-A-Racer program. Most being automatic, these rental cars were once deemed slightly watered down and thus not destined to be as desirable as a basic four-speed 1966 G.T.350. Perhaps the wondrous black-with-gold paint stripe scheme, and the oddity of a real Shelby being available for $19.95 a day, is what has put this car on a collector pedestal.