Taking time off from messin' with the plans of a certain Boss Hogg, the Duke boys, Bo and Luke, agreed to give us the benefit of their incomparable Dodge Charger knowledge. Herein they evaluate the newest and most powerful model, the SRT8.

Us: Welcome boys! What's your take on the new, 6.1-litre, 425bhp Hemi engine?

BO (the blond one who always drives): Huh? How many cubes is that?

TCE: That's... uh, 370 cubic inches.

BO: That's a heckuva lot o' power from that small a motor! Well, like I was sayin': it goes like a raped ape! Gobs of low-end grunt for leavin' Sheriff Rosco in the dust, and revs like b'jesus! Maybe too many gears in the tranny though - I got kinda confused...

LUKE (the dark-haired, smart(er) one): Bo, you could lose your way on a racetrack. Don't yawl get it? It's a Mer-cedeez five-speed gearbox, with manual override. The whole package rips off 0-60 in under five, and tops out at a buck-seventy-three.

BO: Aww, lay off, will ya? Jus'n be glad I can still tell left from right when yer hollerin' directions at me during one of our weekly escapes from the law. It does pull hard, and it corners good an' flat, though yawl can tell there's a lot o' weight bein' hustled around. Steering's good an' tight, and quick-heaps quicker than the ol' General Lee.

LUKE: Yep, the body control is excellent. An' it sure rides well on a smooth road, despite those 20-inch rubber-band tyres. But, boy it shakes you like a hound-dog with a duck in its mouth on the dirt roads we have ta use for getaways.

TCE: There's been a lot of angst about the four-door configuration.

BO: Con-figur-what?

LUKE: I kinda admire what they done. I was sickn' tired of slidin' through the windows anyway. But maybe I'm getting' old, 'cause four doors seems like the nest step for my tired back.

BO: Well, ya gotta point there, cus'. An' it does look dang good, don' it?! Those huge wheels, squinty lights and wings an' stuff. An that big ol' hoodscoop-yee haw!

LUKE: Ya need those wheels fer those big Eye-talian 'Brembo' brakes. Sure's shootin' they hall this bad-boy down from felony-speeds, time and again.

BO: It's one right terrific package if y'awl ask me. Those seats hold my butt in place a lot better than those in the General, and bein' able to move the steering wheel up, down, and all 'round-wow! And power everything! Looks a lot better inside than the rental-rocket Charger we drove over here from the NoTell Motel.

LUKE: Yep. Amazin' what some leather n' red stitchin' will do. An' I'm kinda glad they replaced the 8-track with that satellite-radio. An' I love that navigation system, but I sure do wish it'd show what bridges are out.

BO: Yeah, it's not the best thing for jumpin' the creak. The spoiler's pretty low, an' all them doggone airbags keep goin' off when we hit somethin'!

LUKE: The thing that gits my goat is that ya can't turn off that infernal 'stability control' system, even though there's a darn switch right there on the dash that says "OFF". I was jus' startin' to get a good ol' powerslide goin' and the silly thing cuts the power, or hits the brakes, or somethin'.

TCE: Well, boys, the corporate parent of Dodge, DaimlerChrysler, feels that you need these safety systems to watch out for you, no matter your level of expertise. And you do get the SRT Track Experience when you buy the car.

LUKE: Who cares?! If I'm buyin' a 425bhp rear-wheel drive car I wanna be able to do all the donuts I darn well please.

BO: Yeah! And our clan's been fightin' big brother since before they plum wrote the Declaration of Independence.

TCE: That hot-button topic aside, any final thoughts?

BO: Well, okay. It's a heckuva machine! Looks bad as an American car should, goes like stink on a skunk, and it's got so many gizmos Luke you'd need another TV season jus' to figure 'em all out.

LUKE: Bo, since you drive like my Aunt Fanny whips butter, yawl got no right to talk! Any-hoo, I love it that we don't gotta change the sparkplugs all the time, 'cause I don't look as good with my shirt off no more, and I can't think of anything else that's this big that goes like this for the money.

TCE: Well boys, thanks again for taking the time to help us redefine a classic piece of Americana. Good luck driving back to Hazard County, and Godspeed!