Ford chose the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction as the venue at which to reveal the Shelby GT-H Convertible to the public. The car was driven onstage while draped in a blue, Ford-emblazoned cover and surrounded by a team of Ford and/or Shelby employees (including Shelby Automobiles president, Amy Boylan) dressed in matching bowling shirts. Ford's Mark Fields,

a Barrett-Jackson fixture the last couple of years, orchestrated the formal unveiling from the auctioneer's stand, which culminated with Carroll Shelby popping out of the car's passenger door and ambling up to the stand to join Fields and the other B-J dignitaries for the auction of the car.

As for the car itself, it's basically the mechanical twin of the GT-H coupe, with 319 willing horses ready to go under its bulging, pinned-down hood. Changes for the convertible, aside from the obvious folding top, include a rollbar and black-painted "Bullitt"-style wheels, as first seen on the black Shelby GT customer cars. Other features are carried over from the GT-H coupe, such as the the black-and-gold paint/stripe scheme, Hertz badging on the front fenders, horizontally-slatted aluminum grille, and an automatic transmission. As was the case with the closed-roof GT-H, only 500 will be built. The 499 rental units will be auctioned away after their stints at Hertz outlets come to an end.

Car #001 ultimately sold to collector Ron Pratte for $250,000, the proceeds of which will go to the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF). As is his wont, Mark Fields paused the auction so that he could sweeten the pot and add extra goodies to drive up the car's sale price. These included a one-off Shelby GT-H Fender Stratocaster from the Fender Custom Shop (see it in the gallery), vehicle delivery at Shelby's Las Vegas facility, and the shirt off his back (literally). We're hoping Ford brings the droptop Rent-A-Racer to New York with the GT500KR next week so that we can get a good look at it in person.