Rental Auto review Shelby GT-H

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Inspired by Enola Straight’s continuing series of valet auto review, I thought I would do a review of the Shelby GT-H that I rented last Sunday.
Back in 1967 Carroll Shelby built a bunch of rent-a-racers for Hertz the GT 350H. Stories of these cars being rented and raced at sanctioned races are still told by bench racers from coast to coast. Anyway in 2006 History repeated itself when Shelby started producing the Shelby GT-H based on the current Mustang.
These cars are part of the Hertz fun collection (an apt name if ever there was one) and are at limited locations. For example in Seattle where I was they had two.
I never had a chance to drive the original rent-a-racer, so I decided not to pass up this chance.
FTR you cannot reserve these cars though the web or the 800 reservation number, you have to call the airport location yourself. I did and talked to a manger named Walter, who hooked me up with a Shelby.

So what is it like to drive CSM 07H0114? How did I know the serial number of the car, you ask? It is printed on a plaque mounted between the center AC vents.*

The Great
This car should come with the license plate C ME XLR8. Bottom line, in the usable portion of the rev range, it flats hauls ass. From zero to about 90 it goes like stink.
The transmission gearing and computer control is top flight. Always the correct gear. When you step down to pass someone the downshifts come at exactly the right time.
The sound, oh my OG, the sound. Whoever the engineer was that did the exhaust engineering needs a raise and a promotion. The exhaust is totally quiet at idle and very subdued at cruise. (since this is a convertible you can hear the exhaust), but when you get on it, the note is pure music. Blipping the throttle in the parking garage at SEA-TAC brought smiles to our faces. Romping on the throttle while driving brought a shit eating grin to the face of everyone that rode in the car. At one point a friend called me on my cell and asked what I was doing. I asked him to listen, held up the phone and goosed the throttle. His response? Wow, that sounds awesome, what is it? :smiley:
The suspension is very taught and harsh over rough pavements at low speeds. As speeds increase the ride smooths out.
The traction control is very very good at keeping the tail following the front while using gobs of power.

The good
The radio is very good, maybe great, but frankly I was more interested in listening to the exhaust, so I am going to rate this as good.
The gas mileage was also better than I expected at 14.9 it sips 91 octane.

The bad
The price. This car is not a rent it for a week for $200 special. The base rental price before discounts is $299/ day. :eek: Being an auto club member is worth a 20% discount, and there were a few other discounts that were applied by my main man Walter. All in all before taxes this car cost about $180/day more than the KIA I drove the rest of the time.

The odd
The top is electric, but there are two manual latches at the front corners that must be manually unlocked before the top will fold.
Hertz has a 20 item check sheet that is completed before and after every rental.
One of the items on the check sheet is to verify that the traction control cannot be switched off! (there is a dummy switch mounted in the center console) While I really wished I could have hung the tail out with the throttle, I can understand why they don’t want the customer getting this thing sideways. With an inexperienced driver it could go from 0-stupid in about 0.5 seconds flat.
Under the hood , there is a safety wire secured with a lead seal attaching the strut tower brace to the engine itself. I am not sure just why.

Overall summation
I am damn glad that I did this, while I could not afford to do it for the entire time I visited, or do it on a regular basis, I am damn glad I did it once. This is one hell of a car, and I am glad I got a chance to drive it for a day.

So does anybody want me to write a review of the KIA shitbox I drove the rest of the time? :smiley:

ETA: more pictures here

*Decoding the serial number
CSM= Carroll Shelby Motors
07 = 2007
H = Hertz
0114 = 114th car produced this year.

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Totally cool, sounds like fun. I tried to rent one of these last summer and couldn’t ever find one available. I don’t recall being quoted as much as what you paid, but then rentals are generally cheaper in Phoenix in the summer.

What are the gauges on the center dash? I can’t quite make them out. Have you driven a stock GT for comparison? I test drove a stocker last year. Loved the pants shitting torque and nice exhaust note, but the handling was pretty absymal in anything but a straight line.

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The car I rented did not have the three gauge pod on the top of the center console like the picture. Between the speedo and tach are for 4 small gauges for fuel, oil pressure, water temp and battery.
The gauges look a lot like the gauges out of a '67.
No I have driven a stock Mustang GT, but I believe that the GT-H has an extra 25 HP

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Safety wire: To assure that, unlike the 1967 model, people do not remove the engine and place it in their car for race-day.

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You got an auto? What’s the point?

Lead-seal wire = grounding?

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Rental car companies in the US don’t rent stick shift cars.
The lead sealed wire was not for grounding it was just double wrap of 0.039 safety wire. It could be to verify that the engine had not been removed, but it wasn’t for grounding.

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So that was you? :smiley: I rode in a 1967 Shelby in 1968. It was owned by my, then, husband’s boss’s son. I think it might have been what hooked me on fast cars.

Glad you had a good time in our little town.