When looking for “Barn Finds,” I’m used to traipsing around farm fields and other wide-open spaces, not well-manicured suburbia. It just goes to show that you never know where you might strike gold. Pulling into the driveway, there the Shelby was, just off to the side.
Questions began racing through my head: “How long had it been sitting there? And who has a G.T. 350H just hanging around in their driveway?!” I quickly got the answers as I rang the doorbell and introduced myself to the owner, a kind lady named Judy. I introduced myself to her and her puppy and we talked for a bit about the prairie-style architecture of her home, and how her and her husband had modified it over the years, then cut to the chase and I brought up the car.
The story went that they always had projects that they were working on and the Shelby was one of them.
The 1966 Shelby G.T. 350H was collaboration between Carroll Shelby and Hertz Rent-A-Car. If you were a member of the Hertz Sports Car Club, you could rent one of these rocket ships. We’ve heard the story numerous times, of people renting a G.T. 350H for the weekend, beating on it at the racetrack, then turning it back in, we presume without letting the rental car giant know what they really did with the car. “What, the tires are worn out? I have no idea how that happened.”