Dukes of Hazzard - The Car

Few cars are as instantly recognisable as General Lee, that bright orange 1969 Dodge Charger driven by Duke cousins Bo and Luke in the US TV show ‘Dukes of Hazzard’.

This iconic vehicle has secured its place in television history after years of performing death-defying stunts; ‘Lee 1’ famously jumped over a Hazzard County police cruiser in the very first episode.

There were more than 150 stunts that sent General Lee flying through the air, which is why hundreds of 1968 and 1969 model-year Chargers had to be brought in and converted for filming; the muscle cars rarely survived the fall and would buckle on impact.

Many cars on set had 318s and 440s engines, with most ‘close up’ Lees being 382-powered, while the exhausts were kept fairly standard and the pipe was always cut just short of the rear end; however, sounds from a Thrush brand glasspack featured on many California-era episodes.

General Lee was fitted with racing wheels, usually B.F. Goodrich Radial T/A, sized P235/70R14 or P235/70R15, and it may surprise you to learn that the majority of Chargers had 727 TorqueFlite automatic transmissions and only a few were in fact manual.

Getting in and out of the car was actually quite a challenge for the cast because both doors were welded shut for continuity and structural rigidity purposes – because of this, charact/ers were forced to climb through the windows, leading to many comedic moments!

The Charger was a big hit from the moment it was launched by Dodge in 1966, thanks to its fantastic design and spacious interior that really made it stand out from other muscle cars available at the time.

432 vehicles were equipped with the famed ‘Hemi’ V-8 engine, fed by four-barrel carburetors which, unlike other temperamental supercar engines, had no problem handling traffic.

Following the success of the Charger, along came the 500 and Daytona with improved aerodynamics, helped by a flush grille and recessed backlight.

There are General Lee enthusiasts all over the world (the car was sent over 35,000 fan letters while the show was running!) and there are countless General Lee replicas out there, so it seems that even after all these years this orange Charger’s popularity is not going to slow any time soon.

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