The winner of the biggest sweepstakes prize ever in Hagerty Fantasy Bid history – a one-of-a-kind Ford Racing Champions Shelby GT500 Special Edition Mustang – was announced today after the last of the week’s 28 Fantasy Bid cars went over the block at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction. The lucky winner is Chris Cherryholmes of Tucson, Arizona, which is about 100 miles from the Scottsdale auction site, whose user name in the Fantasy Bidding was “Papcholmes.”

The ecstatic Cherryholmes, who calls himself a huge SPEED fan and regular Fantasy Bidder, had to call his wife to the phone when he received the call from SPEED to make sure nobody was playing a trick on him.

The sweepstakes was open to every participant in the Hagerty Fantasy Bid game during SPEED’s nearly 40 hours of live broadcasting of the Scottsdale event with the name chosen at random. A record 1,591,910 people participated in the game, compared with about 699,000 during last year’s Scottsdale auction.

This is a special Mustang by any standard, as 2011 Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne and 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. were among those who collaborated on the build – an autographed plaque signifies their involvement. A Ford Racing Supercharger kit boosts an already robust factory installed 5.4-liter V8 engine from 550 to 750 horsepower, and a six-speed manual transmission delivers the power smoothly to the rear wheels. A new intense-environment C&R Racing cooling system, a 3.5-inch aluminum drive shaft; various exterior aero and appearance upgrades also focus an overall appeal. Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) also added its high-performance handling pack that includes Dynamic Suspensions front-and-rear adjustable shocks, lowering springs – dropping the overall ride height by 1.25 inches – and front-rear stabilizer bars. The extra power required an upgraded Wilwood brakes package featuring 14-inch drilled, slotted rotors and six-piston forged billet calipers on the front, and 12-inch rotors and four-piston forged billet calipers at the rear.

Photos ©2012 MustangsDaily.com

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