Test Driving Revology Cars’ Shelby G.T. 350 Replica

This side-by-side pits an original Hertz-era Shelby GT350 against a brand-new one, a genuine continuation car from Revology Cars, the only company Ford has ever licensed to build reproduction Mustangs from scratch. With an all-new steel body, a modern Coyote V8, and Carroll Shelby’s own blessing, it’s the closest thing to buying a factory-fresh 1965 GT350 six decades later.

Every Mustang restomod shop eventually runs into the same wall: no matter how good the fabrication work is, it’s still technically a modified used car, built on a title that started life as somebody’s driver decades ago. One company in Florida decided that wasn’t good enough and did something almost nobody else in the industry has legal permission to do, build a brand-new, first-year-legal 1965 Mustang from a blank steel body, with Ford’s own blessing. That’s exactly the car sitting in this comparison shot next to an original Hertz Shelby, and the resemblance isn’t a coincidence. So what does it take to get Ford itself to sign off on reproducing its own most famous pony car?

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The Only Company Ford Actually Licensed

Revology Cars was founded in 2015 by Tom Scarpello, a 17-year Ford veteran who ran the company’s Special Vehicle Team from 1998 to 2004, the same division responsible for cars like the SVT Cobra, and who got tired of telling enthusiasts Ford had no plans to reissue the original Mustang. Revology became the first company ever officially licensed by Ford Motor Company to build brand-new reproduction Fords, and one of the few worldwide also licensed directly by Carroll Shelby Licensing to build genuine Shelby GT350 continuations. A 2015 federal law made it all legally possible, capping these low-volume “certified replica” builders at 325 cars per year using new bodies rather than salvaged donor cars.

New Steel, Old Soul, Modern Coyote Power

Under the skin, a Revology GT350 is a genuine continuation car rather than a kit-built clone: an all-new stamped-steel body built to 1965-1966 proportions, a stiffened modern chassis structure, a current Ford Coyote V8, and suspension and brakes engineered around how people actually drive a car today rather than how they drove one in 1966.

What This Side-by-Side Is Really Measuring

That gap is exactly what this comparison test is built to measure, pitting a brand-new, Ford-and-Shelby-blessed GT350 against an original Hertz-era car to see just how far sixty years of engineering has closed the distance between vintage character and modern capability.

The Original Hertz Shelby’s Unlikely Legacy

The Hertz GT350H, the rental-car version of the original Shelby Mustang that Ford and Carroll Shelby built for Hertz’s sports car rental program in 1966, has become one of the most legendary footnotes in Mustang history, remembered as much for the urban legends of racers renting them for weekend track days as for the cars themselves. That legacy is exactly why a modern comparison test pairing a Revology continuation car against a genuine Hertz-era Shelby carries so much weight with enthusiasts: it’s measuring a new car against one of the most mythologized examples of the original.

The 2015 Law That Made Continuation Cars Legal

Before 2015, any company wanting to build a genuinely new car using a decades-old design faced a nearly impossible regulatory wall, since modern vehicles have to meet current-year safety and emissions standards that a 1965 design was never engineered to satisfy. The federal law that changed this created a specific low-volume manufacturer exemption, capping production at 325 units annually per manufacturer, which opened the door for companies like Revology to build genuinely new cars around vintage designs without having to reinvent the Mustang’s basic shape to meet modern crash test requirements.

What ‘Continuation Car’ Actually Means

A continuation car occupies a different category entirely from either a restored original or a kit-built replica. Where a restoration works with an actual vintage chassis and a replica typically starts from a donor car’s title, a continuation car like Revology’s GT350 begins as an entirely new, unregistered vehicle built from freshly stamped steel, which is precisely why Ford’s and Shelby’s direct licensing cooperation was necessary in the first place, since without it, the resulting car couldn’t legally use the Mustang or Shelby names and badging.

Coyote Power Meets Vintage Sheetmetal

Fitting a modern Ford Coyote V8, the same engine family found in current Mustang GTs, into a body built to 1965-66 proportions creates an unusual hybrid: a car that looks period-correct down to the smallest trim details but drives with the fuel injection, cooling capacity, and reliability of a thoroughly modern engine. That combination appeals directly to buyers who love the original Shelby’s look and history but have no interest in dealing with a genuine 1960s carburetor, ignition system, or cooling system on a daily basis.

Why Ford’s Blessing Changes the Conversation

Plenty of companies build Shelby-style Mustang replicas without any official licensing at all, but Revology’s direct relationship with both Ford Motor Company and Carroll Shelby Licensing changes how the car is received within the enthusiast community. A car built with the blessing of the two organizations most directly tied to the original Shelby GT350’s identity carries a legitimacy that an unlicensed tribute car simply can’t claim, regardless of how well-executed the unlicensed version might be.

Why 325 Cars a Year Isn’t a Limitation, It’s the Business Model

A 325-unit annual cap might sound restrictive compared to mass-market manufacturing, but for a company like Revology it’s less a limitation than a deliberate business model built around bespoke, hand-finished construction rather than assembly-line volume. Each car built under that cap can receive a level of individual attention, from paint quality to interior fitment, that a mass-production vehicle simply doesn’t get, which is exactly the appeal for buyers willing to pay a premium for a continuation car over either an original vintage Mustang or an unlicensed replica.

What Enthusiasts Are Really Comparing in a Test Like This

A side-by-side test between a Revology GT350 and a genuine Hertz-era Shelby isn’t really asking which car is faster or better equipped, modern engineering all but guarantees the new car wins those categories outright. It’s asking a more interesting question: how much of what made the original special was really about the driving experience, and how much was about the specific history and mystique attached to an irreplaceable original. That’s a question a spec sheet alone can never fully answer, which is exactly why side-by-side comparisons like this one keep drawing enthusiast attention decades after the original GT350 left the factory floor.

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