he story began a dozen yearsago when I visited Montereyand took in an auction of clas-sic and sports cars. A 1966

Shelby GT350H in perfect conditionwas offered, including the originallicense plate and the frame surround-ing it.

At that time, we were the Austri-an importer and dealer for Chevrolet,Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Ponti-ac. We were also the only Hertz fran-chise in Austria. I saw this black andgold Shelby and immediately fell inlove with it, but I had never been toan auction before and had no idea howto get some money within the next fewminutes to bid on the car. I also hadno idea of its value. And the thoughtof displaying it in a Chevy/Cadillacshowroom was also something of aproblem. So I had plenty of excuses tomiss this opportunity. I regret it tothis day.

Being a total car nut, when Iheard that Hertz was, once again,introducing a Shelby Mustang in 2006I immediately contacted Hertz USAand was eventually able to purchaseone of the new GT-H models. Iarranged shipping to Europe at theend of November. However, instead ofhaving it shipped to Vienna, my wifeand I picked the car up at the port inGermany. The plan was to fly to Ham-burg on a Thursday, pick up the caron Friday, and spend two days sight-seeing on the drive back to Vienna.When we arrived in Hamburg we weretold there was “a little delay” becausethe car had missed the boat. We spentthree beautiful days Christmas shop-ping in Hamburg. On Sunday my wifeflew back to Vienna alone.

On Monday morning I drove 100miles from Hamburg to Bremerhafen,the main harbor for car shipping.After a dry weekend it was a rainyday but luckily it was not cold enoughto snow—my biggest concern for thewhole trip. It wasn’t that the carwould not have snow tires; I was wor-

ried about salt on the roads, whichwould do some long term damage.

I arrived at the harbor in theearly afternoon. There were thousandsof cars awaiting export to the U.S. andsome waiting for their new Europeanowners. I finally found the companythat organized transportation and cus-toms formalities for my car. Every-thing was prepared and all I had to dowas sign the paperwork and the carwas mine. After receiving the keys,the guy said, “The car is parkedaround the corner behind our build-ing. Have a look at it, check for dam-ages, sign one more time and thenhave fun.”

First I saw a Porsche 959, a 9113.8 RSR and an Audi Sport Quattro.They are very rare and desirable butwhen I saw the next two cars I gotever more excited. A brand new yellowMustang GT and a white ‘66 Mustangcoupe. Finally I spotted the black hoodwith gold stripes. There it was: myShelby GT-H. What a first impression!I loved everything about it: the fullbody stripes, the 5-spoke wheels, the

aggressive stance. And there was nobody damage from shipping. It onlyhad 1,000 miles on it. And as a Hertzman for over 25 years, seeing all of theHertz logos was icing on the cake. Inthe trunk were the posters and pressinformation that I had requested.Everything was perfect.

I got behind the wheel and thefirst thing I noticed was that the hoodwas much larger and higher than Ihad seen on any other car. My firstthought was that I would only be ableto see half as much as with a stockMustang. I had not driven either anew Mustang or an original one. Myimpression of this car was that it wasbig, long and wide. But I settled intothe seat very comfortably and startedthe engine by turning the key.

The engine spun over and caughtand for the first time in my life Iheard the sound of a Shelby engine. Irealized that a ‘60s GT350 soundeddifferent, and an original Cobra evenmore so, but I definitely liked what Iwas hearing. My first “drive” wasabout 200 yards back to the office. I

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parked it there and spent about anhour just looking at this car, and tak-ing pictures. I also had to finish up thepaperwork.

One small problem was where toput the license plate? The car was tobe registered in Austria in 2007 so Ihad a special dealer plate with me; Iplanned to keep the front plate on thepassenger seat and tape the rear plateto the inside of the rear window. Butmy plans were thwarted when Ilearned that the car would not passthe customs control, a half-mile away,without a properly installed numberplate. I didn’t have any way of attach-ing the plates without scratching or

damaging the bodywork, and due tothe size of the port, there were noshops in the area. It took me an hourto find a place where I could buy sometape and soft material to mount theplates. By the time it started to getdark I was ready to start the triphome.

A few miles past the customs con-trol I stopped at the first gas station Icould find. The driver’s side fuel fillerwas unusual for me. Initially I pulledup to the left of the gas pump and gotout, only to discover there was no fillerdoor on the right of the car. No matterwhere or when I stopped, the carattracted large numbers of people who

were curious, impressed and compli-mentary.

I was driving on the Germanhighway at an average speed of 110mph in the dark and in the wet. Traf-fic was light and the car felt very com-fortable at that speed. While slowingdown due to some traffic I heard somestrange noises. I stopped twice, think-ing the hood was not closed all theway or that the front plate was comingloose. But the hood was closed and theplate was on tight. It took me anotherfew miles to locate the problem. It wassimply the radio. I was so excitedabout the new car and the sound of itthat I did not realize that the radio

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had been on but had lost the radio sta-tion’s signal. At higher speeds thesound of the engine and wind noisecovered it but at slower speeds it wasthe scratching sound I had heard.

The exhaust and engine sound isa very nice one. Powerful and loud butnot disagreeable. The real hammer(sound and power) falls when makinga kick down through all gears. That’svery close to the sound of the newLamborghini Gallardo. Just the shift-ing paddles are missing.

Due to the unplanned late depar-ture from Bremerhafen I had not stud-ied the car’s owners manual. Most ofthe switches were clear but with threeor four of them it took me a while tounderstand them. It also took a whileto learn how to change the CDs—which are unnecessary because theengine is making the music. I also dis-covered that there is an indicator forgas consumption but it depends onyour right foot, so it is also unneces-sary. An outside thermometer wouldbe nice. The most difficult think Ifound was how to switch between

miles and kilometers. It took me morethan 600 miles to change it—and itwas so simple!

I made an unplanned stop inFrankfort and the next morning, inthe traffic jam and at a petrol station,I got the same reactions. Everybodywho looked at the car asked the samethree questions: “What car is this?”“This is a beautiful Mustang—is itsomething special?” Or, from insiders,“Is this REALLY a Shelby?”

Now, in daylight, dry weather,and with some miles on it, I decided tocheck out the high speed performanceof the car. I was not able to makemuch more than 140 miles per hourdue to traffic, but the car runs verysmooth at that speed. The sound isgreat and becomes better and betterthe farther you go. I think on a week-end, with no truck traffic, speeds high-er than 140 miles an hour would befun.

For my personal tastes, I wouldhave changed some things on the car:brakes, automatic to manual, andeliminating the traction control. But

then the car would be closer to a GT-Rthan a GT-H. And I’m happy with theGT-H. I have no intention of makingany changes other than what is neces-sary to register the car in Austria.

Arriving in Vienna, I phoned myfamily and told them to come out ofthe house to see me arrive in the newcar. My kids did not know about it andit was a big surprise for them. Theyall went crazy and after a six-hourdrive I was forced to add a few moremiles with them on board. They beganarguing over who would ultimatelyinherit the car in the future.

To my knowledge, this is the only2006 Shelby GT-H in Europe, and itwas one of the first ones sold to a pri-vate owner in 2006. The car was ondisplay at the 2007 Vienna HolidayFair in January to promote travel tothe U.S. and plans are for it to be dis-played at other special events. But youcan be sure that after its registrationbecomes valid and the Austrian plateis permanent, this very special Shelbywill be no stranger to the Austrianroads.

The trip to pick up the car in Germany and bring it to Austria was a total of 813 miles. Average speed was 72 mph and the gas consumptionwas 15.4 mpg. Serial number is 06H0098. Postscript: Since Udo sent us this article he added a second Hertz car to his stable. This one is aconvertible (#487), one of only 17 with a 5-speed. As soon as the conversion at Shelby Automobiles in Las Vegas was completed (the caracquired a Paxton supercharger, upgraded brakes, 20” Razor wheels and a custom gauge cluster), it was shipped directly to Europe whereUdo Rienhoff purchased it from Hertz before one rental mile could be put on it.

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