How the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat compares to the world's other fast sedans

American sports sedans have long suffered from comparison with the European competition. On the autobahns, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and BMW regularly battle for supremacy in a virtuous evolution of the species; on American interstates, you might as well be comfortable cruising at 70 mph.

But just as American muscle cars demonstrated decades ago that high performance didn't require high European prices, the Dodge Charger Hellcat and its 707-hp engine would appear, on paper at least, to make high-speed hash of some sports sedans that cost more than $150,000.

For comparison's sake, we pulled this data on five popular European sports sedans and compared them with the Charger Hellcat:

This chart demonstrates the chief advantage of higher horsepower, namely the ability to keep accelerating well past 60 mph that gives the Charger its 11-second quarter-mile time. Most European automakers favor all-wheel-drive with complicated software management systems to handle less power than the Charger SRT will dump through its rear axle. The one area where the Europeans will likely surpass Dodge is mileage; even in their home countries regulators fuss over the efficiency of a 180-mph sports sedan.

As for price: It's unlikely Dodge will charge significantly more for the Charger than the $60,990 it's planning to ask for the Challenger Hellcat, the kind of gap that gives Corvette drivers smiles every time they pass a Porsche. Yes, a Dodge isn't as welcome at the country club valet stand as those more expensive models from Stuttgart and Munich; it's interior, while much improved, is no luxury loft, and we'll need a full driving test to see whether it can use all that energy in corners. But of all the Charger Hellcat's statistics, the data point that will get noticed overseas most may be it's sticker price.