Edmunds has just completed a shootout between the 2010 Shelby GT500 and its closest competitor (for the time being) the 2010 HPE550 Camaro from Hennessey. On paper, this looks like a pretty close match-up. Both cars are upgraded versions of classic Americana muscle cars, with long hoods, bulged fenders, two doors, two spare back seats, and menacing snarls from blown V8’s whining more than 500HP out of the engines.

The HPE Camaro has a definite edge over the Shelby in the power department, besting the Mustang by 48HP at the wheels.

But, as the testers soon found out, even when we’re dealing with two very American cars–power isn’t necessarily everything.

Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s – in conjunction with Dr. Pepper – is kicking off the “Taste For Speed” giveaway in celebration of the launch of the 2010 Chevy Camaro, and they’d like to unload some of their sweet promotional swag on one lucky RideLust reader. Valued at nearly $200, the grand prize “Taste For Speed” gift pack includes:

• a 2010 remote control Camaro
• Meguiar’s Complete Car Care Kit (includes Car Wash Shampoo & Conditioner, Gold Class Wax, tire protectant, and the Quick Interior Detailer kit)
• 8-pack of ShamWow super absorbent, hooker-beating towels.
• Carl’s Jr, Hardee’s, and Dr.Pepper coupons for free food and drinks
• Various other items that can be regifted in a pinch, including a “More than just a piece of meat” t-shirt, insulated coffee mugs, antenna toppers, and baseball caps

To get your hands on the goodies, send us a photo of you and your ride accompanied by a brief, witty paragraph explaining why you and your wheels deserve to win big. Since it’s not what you rock but how you rock it, we encourage fanboys hooning anything from an ‘06 IS300 to a ‘91 Previa to enter. Hell, even if you’re cruising in a rusted-out Schwinn that you’re 80% sure has already infected you with tetanus, you’ve still got a shot at winning – you’ve just gotta really sell us your story.

Stephen Hawking must be thinking furiously about the space-time ramifications of cramming a ~700 HP supercharged ex-Corvette mill into a pedestrian Camaro. Will it create a black hole? (”Only in your bank account,” says the eminent theorist.) Will you die immediately upon applying the throttle? Will it cause GM to fold as it will kill their lead-footed customers? Only time and the world’s largest particle accelerator will give us the answers. Or will they?

It seems Ford has been a bit conservative in their horsepower estimates for the new Shelby. Ford claims the would-be Z/28 spanker puts down 540hp at the crank and about 510 lb of torque, which are respectable gains over last year’s model.

But the guys over at edmunds.com just did their own dyno run, and their test numbers belied the habit of most supercharged cars to succumb to heat saturation by actually posting 7 straight power increases over 7 runs.

When the dust settled, they realized Ford’s nose was noticeably longer.

Texas grown Edward E. Whitacre Jr. knows plenty about telephones. He spent 43 of his 67 years building AT&T into a multi-national telephone giant. That takes some quality wrangling, my friends. But what about cars?

Now that the calendar reads ‘2009′ and summer is upon us, we can already begin shutting the book on the first decade of the new millenia. All the cars that will be produced have either made it to dealerships or have half a dozen reviews already printed in some magazine collecting dust on your shelf.

This decade closes much like the 1960s, in an atmosphere of uproar and protest, with rumors of war and peace and revolution at hand. The auto industry has experienced a second Golden Age, bigger and grander than the first, and has again sunk into crisis, darker and dimmer than the one Baby Boomers remember. And enthusiasts young and old fear that a similar fate awaits them in the coming years with news of outrageously stringent CAFE standards, and fear-mongering legislators fuel anxieties that we’ve already seen the best cars of the next thirty some odd years.

So it is that we turn back to this decade already a bit nostalgic. Here lie the future legends, the autos of myth and lore. With the future unclear, we ask ourselves which cars made the glorious 2000’s the decade we will all miss more than we know?

The Camaro SS has arrived, and the 8 year lull of the Pony Car Wars has finally ended. Mustang owners face a much worthier adversary in the 430-hp SS than in Dodge’s portly Challenger. That thing gotta Hemi? Yeah. Yeah it does. But the problem is it only has one. Owners and advocates of the Kowalski-missile have already retreated from the battlefront, redefining it as a “Muscle Car” rather than a “Pony Car” and glibly accepted all the connotations that go along with it. It’s big, it’s loud, it has a ferocious bark, but like the mean old dog next door, it’s too heavy to jump the fence and do any real damage. Meanwhile, the SS is approaching Shelby levels of performance in stock trim.

Of course, the Mustang is the favorite son of the aftermarket, and frankly, no one really (really) lusts after a stock version. The brilliance of the car has always been its ability to be upgraded, customized, and built to supercar levels of performance. So blue-blooded gear heads aren’t that worried. Roush, Saleen, Steeda, Whipple, Kenne-Bell, Vortech, Procharger, and many many others have already established reputations for boosting, porting, and stroking Mustangs to license-revoking perfection.

But there are some new kids on the block, ready to arm the S-197 for battle with the SS.

Earnhardt Inspired RCR Series 3 Camaro

Don’t let the look and name of this car fool you. In actuality this ‘69 Camaro is a brand new car. Unlike the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro that has blended together old styling touches with new technology, this Camaro from Richard Childress Racing looks like it stepped through a time machine from when Laugh-In was on television. But despite appearances, this Camaro is far from just a reproduction 60’s replica.

2010 Ford Shelby GT500

With each month and year that has passed since the horsepower wars began anew, one wonders how much will ever be too much.  Is it possible to understand that the economy stinks, that fuel prices will remain perpetually high and that the environment is in serious trouble and STILL yearn for an impractical, testosterone pumping beast of a car?  It the answer is yes, the 2010 Shelby GT500 would be what that car is called.

The new Camaro has already gotten our attention, mostly due to style. Just look at its massive rear hips: wide and flat enough to tote small children around a trailer park.

But GM, of course, is paying the price for not eating their vegetables and producing cars like the Pontiac Aztec. And now Big Daddy Obama is almost home, and corporate is in a tizzy selling off old toys before D-Day comes on June 1st. So the General hasn’t the time to go about picking up the gauntlet thrown down by the KR-based 2010 Shelby GT-500 by reviving its legendary Z28 nameplate.

So if the Camaro hopes to at least keep pace with the enormous aftermarket respect of its cross town rival, it will have to rely on the imaginations (and wallets) of wealthy Chevrolites.

Enter–the as-custom-as-you-want-it Fesler-Moss Limited Edition Camaro.