2007 Ford Mustang in Houston

There's a great scene toward the end of John Frankenheimer's epic movie, Grand Prix, where James Garner, as the troubled racing ace Pete Aron, drives slowly through the crowded paddock at Monza in his rental car before the season's final round. The fact that his car was never available for rent in Europe, let alone Italy, is irrelevant. His character was American, so, logically, he drove an American car. That it was arguably the coolest ride in the film, a car eclipsed perhaps only by the Ferrari boss's 330GT, was a stroke of genius on Frankenheimer's part. As a nine-year-old, I saw the movie in 1966 at London's Odeon Leicester Square, and the black fastback with the gold stripes left a big impression on me. I came to expect that, aside from Jimmy Clark, who would eternally be loyal to Lotus, all Formula 1 heroes should drive a Ford Shelby GT350H, commonly known as the Hertz Shelby Mustang.

Along with many players in the American performance-car scene in the '60s, Hertz had fallen under the spell of Carroll Shelby, gleefully ordering 1000 of his GT350s for its Sports Car Club--a program aimed at bored, highly paid business travelers. The rental firm had switched its alliance from General Motors to Ford the year before, so the souped-up Mustangs were the obvious replacement for its fleet of Chevrolet Corvettes. The deal scratched the backs of both parties--Hertz got a hip, prestige car, and Shelby enjoyed lots of editorial coverage in magazines, not to mention posters in all of Hertz's agencies.... Read full article