As a general rule, one typically can’t hope to find any ultra-rare, collectible cars on a generic listing page like Craigslist.
Typically. Every now and again, there is the odd “exception that proves the rule,” as the saying goes, and Hot Rod magazine’s Ryan Brutt came across just such an exception in the form of an original 1966 Ford Shelby GT350-H Mustang.
The Shelby GT350-H was a limited-run of high-performance Mustangs built by Shelby American specially for the Hertz Rent-A-Car franchise. It had the same performance as the regular Shelby GT350, but members of the Hertz “Sports Car Club” could actually rent them.
Imagine that: renting a race car.
After the Shelby GT350-H cars had completed their rental duties, they were reconditioned and sold. That’s how the example that Mr. Brutt found came to be in private ownership, belonging to a woman named Judy.
Judy bought the car with her late husband in 1967, and they enjoyed the car thoroughly, putting over 100,000 miles on it before a small engine fire and a few other issues relegated the Shelby GT350-H Mustang to the sidelines in 1982. There it sat for 33 years, waiting for someone to come along and restore it.
Mr. Brutt is not that someone; he didn’t buy the rare Shelby GT350-H that Judy had sitting alongside her house. The car was instead sold to someone from the West Coast who is giving it the full restoration that it so desperately deserves. Still, if this story teaches us anything, it’s that we can never predict with complete accuracy where or when we might strike gold.
Just keep digging.
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