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Ok, hands up who watched the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid? Starsky and Hutch? Kojak? How many of you have the DVD of, say, Bullitt? Vanishing Point? French Connection? I'm guessing most hands have gone up by now. Which means that even if you don't know that this car is a Dodge Charger, even if you've never actually seen a classic American muscle car on the road, it's still as familiar in its way as a Ford Fiesta.

Another thing you'll remember from the car chases is how these behemoths appeared to handle. They seemed to spend most of their time rolling around like punch-drunk boxers, only ever looking stable when going in a straight line. That powerful shape might have said 'Don't mess with the US', but it would have been left for dead by any European sports car of the period.

Not that it stopped us lusting after them. And standing here at the showroom of XV Motorsports, based just outside New York City, nothing has changed as far as that goes. I'm looking, wide-eyed, at a 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda, a drag-spec 1965 Dodge Coronet (with the battery mounted in the boot to put more weight over the rear tyres), and a 1970 Hemi 'Cuda with a shaker hood.

This is the kind of metal that would get Richard Hammond dancing a little jig.I massively, desperately, want one of these cars. No,all of them. Even the purple one. My mind goes into overdrive, as I crunch the numbers in my head. After all, the exchange rate is about as favourable as it's ever going to get, right?

I know that new Dodge Chargers are about $20,000, so I reckon an amazing dark green 1970 Dodge Challenger is about the same. Few years saving up £10,000, and I can do it. Then John Buscema, joint owner of XV, kindly points out that it's worth at least $40,000. And there's another 1970 Dodge Charger here that's worth a cool $200,000. A little bit of the life starts to drain away from me.