IN THIS FEATURE When two worlds collide... Custom car body language A hotrod that rides like a limo Engage NASCAR mode

You approach the SRT-8 for the first time. You know, intellectually, what it is and how it came to be. But the first drive is quite a surprise. We're driving away from Montreal, scene of the recent Canadian GP on which circuit we'll later circulate, and the roads are less than perfectly surfaced because the winters break them up. Yet here's this hotrod on 20in wheels and racy suspension, and it's riding like a limo. Well, not quite, but the structure feels ultra-solid, the bumps are rounded off quietly and with no aftershock, the body control is superb.

The first bends reveal steering of credible weight and admirable accuracy, and you realise that this is a North American musclecar which takes to corners like a good European. This is no overpowered, underdamped, underbraked dragstrip queen, it's a proper performance saloon. And then you switch off the ESP (it never goes away completely, just loosens its strictures) and the old race memory returns.

0-62mph takes just 5.3secs

A prod of the throttle on a tight bend flicks the tail out in instant and direct proportion to the depth of the prod, but lift your foot and the tail nips right back in again. It's ultra-controllable, probably because of that guardian ESP angel lurking in the background, and great fun. More fun than a Vauxhall Monaro VXR, frankly, because the suspension is tied down better and the steering is much more responsive. Or than a Cadillac CTS-V? About the same. Both these new-age Americans are pretty inspiring.