In the midst of hotly contested pony-car contest, Ford will litter the Las Vegas Convention Center with modified 2010 Mustangs for the SEMA show, which starts November 3.

Ford donated these Mustangs to various tuning shops, parts makers or favored associates to create something tasty (with some guidance from Ford officials, of course). The company will also have at least a couple of surprises it created independently, but the company isn't ready to talk about those yet.

So meanwhile, peruse this collection of Mustangs starting with the car above. It's called the Mustang RTR-C, but we prefer to call it The Black Death. This carbon fiber-bodied 'Stang is the work of champion drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. and is alleged to be an "extremely limited production" model. Beyond the carbon panels all that we know about The Black Death is that it carries a 550-hp motor. That should do the trick.

Make the jump to see many, many more Mustangs.

And now for something quite completely different comes a Mustang inspired not by drifting but by the drag strip. Paul's High-Performance built a quarter-mile queen with a stonking hood, Pro Stock-style rear wing, fat rear drag slicks.

Long-time Mustang tuner, Steeda created this road-racing style Q350. The company claims to have more wins, records and championships in production-based Mustangs than any other "specialty manufacturer." Accordingly, the Q350 prioritizes dynamics and agility.

You had to know that someone would place white LED lights on the front of a Mustang sooner or later. That someone is H&R Springs which fitted the Mercedes E-Class-looking strings to the lower front end of the blue Mustang GT. We're not feeling the wing, but the wheels might look nice. We'll reserve finals judgment until we see it in November.

The only convertible of the Mustang bunch is this Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) GT. The folks at GAS give the convertible a wide body, two-tone paint and a Ford Racing supercharger that brings output to 550 horsepower.

Long-time body-kit specialists, 3dCarbon, brings to SEMA the 2010 version of it Boy Racer styling kit. It's an update on the body kit the company introduced in 2005. The 2010 version keeps the existing kit's close-set Eleanor-style driving lights and quarter-window louvers among other details.