Steve Saleen is bringing back the musclecar wars with the help of the Detroit 3. Not content to modify Ford Mustangs alone, the former head of Saleen, Inc. is branching out into bowtie and Mopar territory as well. His new company, SMS Limited, will take on all three of the new retro rods this year. Under his former eponymous company’s banner he had focused primarily on Ford vehicles, but now that Dodge and Chevrolet are getting back into the musclecar game, he figures it’s time to expand his reach.
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As seemingly untouchable as the “Ranger” badge is to Ford, the company has nevertheless made preparations to close its small truck plant in Minnesota in the near future, possibly at the end of 2009.  This is hardly unexpected.  The current Ranger is nearly 15 years old, and it shows.  However, if the Asian truck concept that has been making the rounds at auto shows is any indication of the future, Ford has an aggressive replacement in the works.

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 Thanks to CAR and a few masters of vehicular design, Santa is bringing some serious automotive enthusiast cheer. The glossy euro mag asked designers from Ford, Bentley, Nissan and Rolls-Royce to design some sleighs for Santa, and while a few of them look to be from the land of misfit toys — and one of them looks like Santa’s Death Star — it’s a fabulously cool exercise. Nissan’s intergalactic sleigh is pulled by a GT-R, Bentley’s got a W12-powered sled, Ford’s got some popout snowboard action happening, and the Rolls sleigh looks, of course, like Santa should have a snifter of Louis XIV in one delicately gloved hand while an elf named Jeeves tends the Smythson leather reins.

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The 2009 Focus Rallye Sport has a price: £24,995 when it goes on sale in the UK in March. That will put you about £4,000 over a Focus ST3, but for that extra money you get a car that could be much closer to Ford’s WRC competitor than it is to its ST3 sibling. The 300 horses and 325 ft-lbs is channeled through a six-speed manual to the front wheels, and a wider track joins beefier driveshafts, thicker anti-roll bars, tuned springs and uprated dampers.

The car comes with a bodykit that only an RS could wear, as well as things like heated door mirrors and windshield, xenon headlights, Recaros, and Ford’s Easy Fill fueling system. Only a few options are available, the ritziest one being the Luxury Pack that will give you things like automatic climate control and rear parking sensors. Thankfully, based on how popular these cars are among the five-finger set, an alarm is also standard. You can check out the full release after the jump and the gallery of high-res photos below.

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The 2010 Ford Mustang made its debut just a few weeks ago at the LA Auto Show and already various tuners around the country are preparing their variants based on the new model. Steve Saleen has beat everyone to the punch and is the first to announce his new lineup called the Signature Series 460 Mustangs. Each will feature a supercharged version of Ford’s 4.6L V8 starting at 475 horsepower and going all the way up to over 650 raging ponies underneath the hood. Keep in mind that the mechanicals of the 2010 Mustang are carried over from the current model, so we should expect the aftermarket industry to carry over their performance parts for the 4.6L V8, as well. Aerodynamic enhancements for the SMS Mustang will be penned by noted designer Phil Frank, and the cars will also feature upgrades for the drivetrain, suspension, tires, wheels and more upscale interior. More details can be found in the SMS press release after the jump.

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The British arm of FoMoCo has given us an early Christmas present by releasing a barrage of photos of the production-ready Focus RS that was unveiled to the public for the first time in prototype form at the London Auto Show earlier this year. Final specifications have yet to be revealed, but according to the firm’s latest tests, the Focus RS that’s equipped with a limited-slip diff, a special suspension and a 300HP 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbocharged engine, accelerates from standstill to 100km/h in 5.9 sec and achieves a maximum speed of 263 km/h (164 mph). Hit the jump below to enjoy the image gallery.

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In a recent letter to enthusiast web sites, Ford’s reportedly requiring the relinquishment of all Ford trademarks including domain names, banners, signs and merchandise as well as a restitution payment of $5,000 by December 19th.

The days of the Carpocalypse are upon us and Ford is now taking it to the internet, web 2.0-style. In a recent letter received by enthusiast sites including, TheRangerStation.com, Ford is requiring the relinquishment of all Ford trademarks including domain names, banners, signs and merchandise as well as a restitution payment of $5000 by December 19th, 2008.

Enthusiast sites that have received a letter from the Howard, Phillips and Andersen legal firm will be required to promptly remove all FoMoCo-trademarked material and are threatening a $100,000 lawsuit on top of the aforementioned restitution payment.

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