Ford, Shelby And Hertz Team Up

Unveiled and sold for $250,000 on the block at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in West Palm Beach, Fla., the companies announced that approximately 500 convertibles, a first for the GT-H program, will be available through the Hertz Fun Collection at select airport locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Hawaii, later this year. Proceeds of the sale will benefit the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation.

The Shelby GT-H Mustang program was launched in 2006 to commemorate a plan by Carroll Shelby and The Hertz Corporation in 1966 to help put high-performance, special-edition Shelby Mustang coupes into the hands of racing enthusiast-minded rental customers. Ford supplied the new Mustangs with V-8 engines and automatic transmissions while Shelby added extra performance and style. Hertz gave the public access to a unique driving experience. Those Shelby GT-H Mustang coupes are being retired from the fleet, and are in the process of being auctioned off to Ford dealers. Some of the early GT-H coupes to reach auction have achieved impressively high prices - in the range of $60,000-$90,000 - which underscores the desirability of the Shelby GT-H program.

The program was so popular that Shelby, Ford and Hertz have again teamed up to create the first Shelby GT-H Mustang convertibles. The 500 cars will be built at Shelby Auto's facility in Las Vegas for delivery to Hertz.

"The Ford Shelby GT-H was so much fun to drive that people literally begged us for more," said Carroll Shelby, CEO of Shelby Automobiles, Inc. "The Mustang program never stands still, so we created a Ford Shelby GT-H convertible that gives people another unique driving experience. It's a genuine American pony car that delivers open air motoring" - Ford.