Tourist’s Off-Road Adventure in a Rental Ford Mustang GT Didn’t End Well
Recovering a Shelby Mustang GT-H is made all the more difficult by its lack of front tow points.
A Ford Mustang GT is the perfect machine for letting out big V8 noises on the open road. It's less suited for off-road expeditions, so you probably shouldn't take one hooning in the sands of Utah. If you do, you might find yourself calling for a tow sooner rather than later.
In a video shared on YouTube by Matt Wetzel of Matt's Off-Road Recovery, we see just how tricky this situation can be. The driver had rented a Shelby Mustang GT-H from Hertz, and taken it out for a drive around Utah's off-road areas. The low-slung muscle car quickly got stuck wheels-deep, as you might expect.
Thankfully, it wasn't one of the rare 900-horsepower GT-500Hs that Hertz rents out for a greater fee; the GT-H is essentially a standard Mustang GT with an appearance pack and a Borla exhaust. In any case, it likely got scraped up pretty bad, with the exhaust itself stuck on a large rock at the rear. That prevented an easy recovery by pulling the car out backwards, as more damage would likely have ensued.
Wetzel kicks off the recovery with a nifty trick. He hooks a tow rope up to the hitch and loops it under his Jeep's solid rear axle to create a lower pull point, which is less likely to damage the stuck vehicle's bumper. The first attempt is complicated by the fact that Hertz's Mustang doesn't have a tow hook attachment point up front, with Wetzel using the front suspension for a tow point instead.
The Mustang was unstuck easily enough, but needed to be towed well out of the sandy area. The video closes out with more tow jobs in Utah. Wetzel pulls out a Ram stuck by the lake, while his crew heads out with a rollback to rescue a stranded Dodge Ram Charger.
Fundamentally, common sense should tell you not to take a Mustang out on soft sand, rental or no. Here's hoping the driver was able to get their deposit back from Hertz without too much hassle.
Got a tip? Let the author know: lewin@thedrive.com
