How many on this site have a red Hertz?

[deathsled]

Pleased to meet you gentlemen.  Here's a red Hertz I found online set up for racing...

[gt350cs]

Richard,

In response to your question of how many red Hertz delivered to California there were 4 delivered to Los Angeles and 7 to San Diego and none to San Francisco. Total of 11 all together for the red Hertz California cars. If anyone has original plates for any 1965 - 1970 Shelby cars I would appreciate the information, I am still continuing to add to data base.

Dennis

[deathsled]

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the research. I would have thought more red ones went to California. I have an original Cal plate to 843 that the prior owner graciously provided. I keep the plate indoors on a wall. A special artifact that is part of the car.

[66 Hertz]

For a complete telling of the '66 Hertz story, I would urge anyone interested to read the appropriate chapter in the 2011 '65-'66'67 Registry. But I can offer a definitive explanation of just the red cars here. One must remember that despite the fact that Shelby American pitched the program to Hertz as 1000 black and gold cars, when Hertz finally awarded a contract to Shelby in December of 1965, it was for 1000 cars equally divided in all five of the colors in which the '66 GT350-black, red, white, blue and green. By then, Hertz had already changed their minds several times as to the color mix and the transmission types. Even after the contract had been finalized, Hertz continued, almost on a weekly basis, to change the requirements, and these changes have all been captured in Shelby American's Staff Meeting Minutes.

Another factor must be understood to being the red cars question into focus was the means by which San Jose shipped cars to Shelby American for conversion into GT350s: they would run a batch of one color, ship Shelby's allotment of that color, run another color, ship Shelby's allotment of THAT color...and so on. The result was that Shelby received cars for GT350 conversion (for both Hertz and non-Hertz) in batches of like-colored cars. What happened in the case of the red Hertz cars was that two unrelated events occurred simultaneously: first, Hertz again flip-flopped on the subject of top stripes (please don't call them "LeMans stripes", Shelby American referred to them as "rally stripes" back in the day) and requested that rally stripes NOT be applied. Then, very shortly thereafter, Shelby American received a batch of red cars and began converting them into GT350Hs. Just as the red group as completed, guess what? Hertz again changed their mind and decided that all cars thereafter would have rally stripes. Thus, factory paperwork proves pretty conclusively that NONE of the red GT350Hs had top stripes. Hertz didn't make a conscious decision to have their red cars lacking top stripes; it just turned out that way. Sometime afterwards, Hertz again flip-flopped and decided that the remainder of their fleet would be black with gold stripes, so the 50 or so red GT350Hs without top stripes were the only ones there would ever be.

I hope this clarifies this subject for the 99% percent...

Greg

[Doug C]

For a complete telling of the '66 Hertz story, I would urge anyone interested to read the appropriate chapter in the 2011 '65-'66'67 Registry. But I can offer a definitive explanation of just the red cars here. One must remember that despite the fact that Shelby American pitched the program to Hertz as 1000 black and gold cars, when Hertz finally awarded a contract to Shelby in December of 1965, it was for 1000 cars equally divided in all five of the colors in which the '66 GT350-black, red, white, blue and green. By then, Hertz had already changed their minds several times as to the color mix and the transmission types. Even after the contract had been finalized, Hertz continued, almost on a weekly basis, to change the requirements, and these changes have all been captured in Shelby American's Staff Meeting Minutes.


Thanks for the update and glad that you have refreshed the story about the Red Hertz.  BTW I have #988 which was born without stripes.  Cheers,

Another factor must be understood to being the red cars question into focus was the means by which San Jose shipped cars to Shelby American for conversion into GT350s: they would run a batch of one color, ship Shelby's allotment of that color, run another color, ship Shelby's allotment of THAT color...and so on. The result was that Shelby received cars for GT350 conversion (for both Hertz and non-Hertz) in batches of like-colored cars. What happened in the case of the red Hertz cars was that two unrelated events occurred simultaneously: first, Hertz again flip-flopped on the subject of top stripes (please don't call them "LeMans stripes", Shelby American referred to them as "rally stripes" back in the day) and requested that rally stripes NOT be applied. Then, very shortly thereafter, Shelby American received a batch of red cars and began converting them into GT350Hs. Just as the red group as completed, guess what? Hertz again changed their mind and decided that all cars thereafter would have rally stripes. Thus, factory paperwork proves pretty conclusively that NONE of the red GT350Hs had top stripes. Hertz didn't make a conscious decision to have their red cars lacking top stripes; it just turned out that way. Sometime afterwards, Hertz again flip-flopped and decided that the remainder of their fleet would be black with gold stripes, so the 50 or so red GT350Hs without top stripes were the only ones there would ever be.

I hope this clarifies this subject for the 99% percent...

Greg

[427heaven]

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the research. I would have thought more red ones went to California. I have an original Cal plate to 843 that the prior owner graciously provided. I keep the plate indoors on a wall. A special artifact that is part of the car.

SLED... Did the plate start out with TQK  I had an early SHELBY # 409 still have its California plates.

[deathsled]

Here is the plate that 843 wore back in the day.

[deathsled]

And thank you for your helpful insights, Greg.

[gt350cs]

Richard/Dennis

I have plate numbers recorded for 6S409 as well as 6S843. Still looking for others.

Greg,

Can you confirm that were there 50 each of the blue, green and white Hertz cars and 850 Black? Also did the 50 white cars include the ones that came with blue stripes?

Thanks,

Dennis

[66 Hertz]

Hi Dennis,
Short answer: no.

More detailed answer: although it wouldn't seem so, an exact total of most of the colors is, for the time being, impossible. That's because where the color of a certain batch of cars changes into the next-colored batch, often we don't know exactly where the changeover occurred (by serial number). So there are some cars where we don't know whether they belong to one color group or the other. Each of the red, green batches, for example, didn't number exactly 50 cars, either. I think the number was closer to 54-ish or so for the red ones, 57-ish for the green ones. The white cars total closer to 65-ish because, as you ask, there was the early batch of white cars (some with blue stripes) and then a (close to) 50 car batch later on. This is just one of those areas where we historians will hafta learn that we can't have exact answers! At least until more paperwork turns up.

[gt350cs]

Greg,

Thanks for the quick response. At least I know that there is more to be determined regarding the numbers. The numbers that I have come up with are as follows and I know they are off because some are simply guesses on my part and I highlighted them yellow in my database as being questionable: white/blue - 20, white/gold - 56, blue/gold - 56, green/gold - 59, and red/gold - 63.

Thanks again, I really appreciate all that you do on our behalf in documenting this information and sharing your expertise.

Dennis

[deathsled]

Imagine what it felt like going to the airport and seeing one of those in the stall knowing it was yours for the weekend. I was 3 years old at the time. I can only use my imagination.

[Greggt350]

Interesting thread with lots of insights.  I have a red Hertz - SFM6S846.  I bought it in CA when I was stationed in Monterey back in the early 80s. When I left CA I drove it to IN while I attended a school, then drove to VA where we are now.  No evidence of top stripes, but I had a friend paint them on in the mid-90s.  I like the way it looks with the stripes.   

[Steve McDonald Formally known as Mcdonas]

I went through the registry and counted 60 Red Hertz, there may be more but some cars are marked "unknown" on color. The earliest VIN is a Red 4 speed(552) all the rest are listed as Automatics, the last VIN is 1015. I heard that a large number of cars left without stripes and a $25 credit was given. Don't know if Howard or Greg K may have some records of the credit on the invoices, or if the delivering dealer painted them or if they were added later on. I've seem more Red Hertz than any other optional color (about 15 red cars over the past 40+ years). Only seen perhaps 2 or 3 Blue gold and about 10+ of the other colors (white and green)

[gt350cs]

Steve,

I show 6S552 as black and 6S522 as the red 4 speed. Can you verify this?

Thanks,

Dennis