Ok, this just about blows my wad so far as '68 Hertz/Shelby/Cougar stuff goes.
As I've said, I'm hoping there might be more out there - so please share if you have some.
Below are copies of vintage paperwork where Hertz first expressed an interest in having a high end Shelby-like Cougar to add to it's Sports Car Cub rental program.
You'll notice the mention of Shelby American and the XR-7S Cougar.
Some of you will be familiar with that show car - it has been speculated that the "S" stood for Shelby. Henry Ford II had and XR-7S built for himself that still exists and made an appearance at a SAAC convention in the '80s.
For some reason, the XR-7S was more-or-less split off into two production Cougars; the GT-E (427 and then 428 CJ powered and built in-house) and the XR7-G (assigned to Shelby Automotive and put together at A.O. Smith).
Hope everyone is doing well!!
- Phillip