1965 Ford Mustang 'Hertz Replica' Fastback (LHD)

Description

One of the classic Sixties cars was Ford's Mustang, a personal sports coupe introduced in 1964 to general acclaim and by 1966 was breaking all sales records - in fact the Mustang notched up 1,000,000 units sold that year. Ford had the sense to leave the winning formula alone for 1966, limiting changes to details such as a new floating pony emblem in the grille, three chrome spears on the simulated scoops plus new styled steel wheels. Inside new safety regulations dictated front and rear seat belts, a padded dash and electric wipers while new front bucket seats and a five-dial instrument binnacle were also big news. The Mustang could be ordered in three basic body styles - the coupe, fastback or convertible - and buyers could choose from a huge range of engine and transmission options. Those wanting a boulevard cruiser were content with the 120hp six but more performance-oriented customers invariably ordered the classic small-block 289-cid V8, itself available in three levels of tune. In September of 1965 Shelby American General Manager Peyton Cramer struck up a deal with Hertz to offer the 1966 GT350H Mustang as a rental car. The program was a clever one for Ford and Shelby as it worked to promote the Shelby Mustang to potential buyers. As Ford puts it, 'The idea was to put high-performance, special-edition Shelby Mustangs into the hands of racing enthusiast-minded rental customers.' That's right, if you were a Hertz Sports Car Club member back in 1966 (and 25 years of age), you could drive off the rental car lot in a performance 306 hp Mustang fastback. Total cost: $17 a day and 17 cents a mile. Not a bad deal by today's standards and not a bad deal back then. As you can imagine, this venture was popular among the racing enthusiast crowd. In fact, it's been reported that some renters actually took their rental cars to the track where they would remove the engine and put it in their personal race car. At the end of the race they'd drop the Cobra engine back into the rental car and return it to Hertz. The idea was to avoid damaging the rental car, while boosting the performance of their personal ride.