Photos: Barrett-Jackson
Coming up shortly is the 2nd Annual Barrett-Jackson Orange County Auction, June 24-26 at the OC Fair & Event Center. To handle anticipated growth for this event, the team will bring out a portion of the renowned Scottsdale Auction Tent, measuring nearly two football fields in length.
Among the cars coming to auction in Orange County are this rare, documented Hertz company-purchased Shelby GT350 that was not a rental unit. Complete with a factory 302cid V8, 4-speed manual transmission, the car is beautifully restored with plenty of pictures and documentation of the restoration.
A Kevin Marti Report verifies that this GT350 was ordered by the Hertz Company of Los Angeles, CA on 12/20/67. It is neither clear, nor documented (that we can find) as to why this car would have been purchased by the Hertz company at that time.
There were other things going on in the Shelby world, including moving production from California to Michigan, with Ford handling all promotion and advertising activities.
On a speculative basis only, we suggest that there could have been some effort by Ford to repeat the ‘Rent-a-Racer’ program from 1966, which saw Hertz buy one thousand Shelby GT350 cars for use by their preferred customers.
As it turns out, this car was a barn find, partially restored, until Dave Parker purchased the vehicle in 2007, when it was then stripped down and received a complete restoration by California Body Works. Great care was taken to return this Shelby to its original glory, including adding the iconic Shelby stripes.
Everything from top to bottom has been gone through with all new wiring, the 302ci 4V motor being rebuilt to factory specs, all new interior from the carpet to roll bar, and the entire brake system was rebuilt along with the suspension.
Some future revelations may clarify the historical role of this Shelby GT350, but for the time being, it remains an outstanding example of the breed.