Oh the injustice! Hertz adds exclusive Corvette ZHZ to American fleet

Whenever I head out to another city on assignment, I invariably need to hire a car to get myself around. Normally it's the cheapest, thriftiest, most feminine econobox in the company's inventory; something that won't blow the expense account but at the same time nothing that would ever blow the doors off another car in a stoplight drag race.

The story would be very, very different if I happened to be flying to the US.

You see, in the good ol' US of A, you are furnished with a much more palatable range of vehicles from which to choose from upon touchdown. Sure, you've got the usual hatchbacks, sedans and vans, but over in the Land Of The Free you can hand over a wad of cash to the good people at Hertz and drive away in something much less pedestrian. Like a 436hp Corvette ZHZ.

The Corvette ZHZ is a special edition model that's exclusive to Hertz, and by exclusive I mean exclusive. You can't buy one of these puppies and you won't find them on the forecourt of your local Chevrolet dealer - the only way you can get into one is to hire it from Hertz. This isn't the first time Hertz have done this. You can still rent a 325hp Shelby GTH from them for slightly less than the ZHZ, and way back in the 1960s Hertz offered the original "Rent-A-Racer", the Shelby GT350H Mustang.

Unfortunately, the ZHZ is nothing like the mighty Corvette Z06. Once you look beyond the retina-scorching colour scheme, fancy wheels and dual-mode exhaust, the ZHZ is a fairly standard LS3-equipped Corvette - and an automatic-equipped Corvette at that. No doubt it'll still be fun, but don't be fooled into thinking it's all that different from a regular 'Vette. Surprisingly, its actually cheaper to rent than the cooking model: the daily rate for a ZHZ is USD $165, which after various taxes and fees shoots up to $213. Still pretty expensive for a rental, but it ain't no Corolla neither and hopping into one of these bad boys would sure be a great way to unwind after a mind-numbing trans-Pacific flight. Now where's that expense sheet?