For those of us who are just so tired of Steeda (now based out of my father’s home town of Valdosta, GA) waiting and waiting to release its own unique image of the most widely tuned car in the world, the Q-series, there is now the Sport Edition Mustang, sporting parts already available in the parts catalogue.

For the low low price of $6,995 (and I’m not being sarcastic), you get a completely revamped suspension, including upgraded billet lower control arms, sport springs, as well as 20-inch chrome wheels. Also included in the package is a sport shifter, underdrive performance pulleys, performance air cleaner, and those easy-to-miss Steeda graphics along the side skirts.

While there are no real power upgrades available on this model, previous Steeda Mustangs have made due with superb handling and finesse, two features not usually associated with bull-nosing pony cars with live-rear-axles. If you’re wanting a more road-racer feel and less drag-racer, then Steeda probably has exactly what you are looking for.

For more details, check the press release after the jump:

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.

The 35th annual Ford and Team Shelby nationals are coming up in Tulsa, and Shelby Automobiles has released six new models to commemorate the event, including the new 2010 GT500 Super Snake.

Most of the models are essentially upgraded versions of previous generation Mustangs, ones current owners of GT’s, Shelby GT’s, and Shelby GT500s can bring in and have modified by the Shelby staff out in Vegas.

Check the jump to get the scoop on the Prima Donna Super Snake—and those other five cars, too.

And you thought we were joking ...

OK, to clarify, this is an aftermarket “special edition,” which should nicely dovetail with the 3,765 other official special editions. And honestly, Iacocca did champion the Mustang in its early stages, helping it to come to market against the naysaying of some of Ford’s upper management. So why not an Iacocca Mustang? “Once in a while a car comes along that changes everything, and that was the original Mustang,” quipped the man himself in the press release. Looks like the folks at Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters sure smoothed the hell out of that body, and I think the silver paint is 90% just to show off the more taut body. What’s under the hood?

The Pony Car Wars are finally getting on in full force. But most of the journalizing going on revolves around the premium performance models from each of the Big Three: the SS, GT, and R/T. Much attention has also been payed to the “lesser” V6 models, most notably on the Camaro, which boasts an impressive 300hp right out of the box. The Challenger makes due with 265hp. And even Hyundai’s flagship sports car, the Genesis Coupe, winds 306hp out of its 3.8L mill. New technology is quickly rewriting the shameful stigma surrounding the “base” level six-bangers out there.

Noticeably absent from these discussions is the Ford Mustang. When it arrived five years ago, the 4.0L V6 seemed respectable at 210hp. But now, the only thing great about Ford’s entry level coupe is the price and Shelby-inspired fascia.

The 2010 Mustang’s handling has been described as ‘loose’ in more than one publication. For people with enough money to buy new tires every time they change their oil that’s fantastic, but for the rest of us who might fancy a bit of grip ‘round the corner as opposed to full opposite lock, tank-slapping smoke show (which is certainly fun in its own right) ‘loose’ is not such an exciting adjective.

Maybe Ford read all of those reviews because they announced today the release of two new suspension packages for the Mustang GT.

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.

Before you get too excited, remember, this is only a sketch–for now! We already know there is no Mach 1 special edition scheduled for 2010, and there hasn’t been any word officially from Ford regarding future Mustang packages, save the venerable Shelby GT-500. But we do know that the 5.0L 400HP Coyote V8 should be appearing within the next year or two, so perhaps, by 2011, Edmundo Cano’s fantasy can become a reality.

Unlike most photoshop jobs, these sketches, especially the rear-angle view with the backroads Americana backdrop, seem more photo-realistic than photo-shopped. All the basic components are here: the grabber orange paint, the matte-black hood and shaker system, the rear black-out panel, black spoiler, thrust wheels, and side louvers for the windows. But we’re especially fond of the ‘69 inspired rear-quarter intakes. If Ford could find a way to make them, and make them functional, well–that would certainly be the bee’s knees. Probably wouldn’t impress anybody but true blue-blooded Stang enthusiasts, but we’d notice.

Check the gallery for more awesome pics!

Recruitment is at an all time low for the Air Force. But what to do? How do you embellish a job that involves flying multi-million dollar crater-makers for a living? Answer: You bring it down a notch, and put cockpits in muscle cars!

The USAF hired Galpin Auto Sports to transform a Mustang and a Challenger into two serious supercars in hopes of attracting gearheads to Air Force recruiting events. And boy did Galpin deliver. The “X-1″ Mustang and the “Vapor” Challenger are totally unique interpretations of two of the most widely popular tuner cars in the world.

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?