The General Lee Car Had Plenty Of Stunt Doubles
The Dukes of Hazzard
Naturally, The Dukes of Hazzard car wasnt able to truly survive all of those daredevil leaps. In fact, the General Lee had plenty of stunt doubles ready to replace it whenever the car got totaled which was typically at least once per episode.
In fact, the General Lee had about 300 doubles while filming The Dukes of Hazzard television show, and around 26 doubles in the 2005 feature film.
Every single one of these Dukes of Hazzard car doubles was destroyed during filming. Thats 300 Dodge Chargers smashed and bent for the show. Its only natural that they had to be replaced.
General Lee: 10 Bizarre Facts You Never Knew About The Dukes Of Hazzard Car
General Lee, the iconic car from The Dukes of Hazzard, is much more than a car. Here’s everything we didn’t know about this 1969 Dodge Charger.
Over the years, audiences found themselves getting attached to famous vehicles that became characters on their own rights, and one such car is General Lee: the iconic 1969 Dodge Charger used by cousins Bo and Luke Duke used in The Dukes of Hazzard.
Theres A Secret Behind Those Crazy 180 Degree Turns
There were several instances during the TV series when General Lee pulled some pretty breathtaking bootleg turns to shake off pursuers. No ordinary 69 Charger should be able to do that so effortlessly. Well, it so happens General Lee is no regular Charger. The truth was that the brakes of General Lee had to be specially modified by the prop masters before the show. It was the only way those stunts could be performed.
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For Years Fans Have Wondered About The Exact Paint Color Of One Of The Most Famous Cars Ever Now We Finally Know
Whether or not you grew up watching the Dukes of Hazzard, you surely know all about the General Lee. It’s easily the most famous 1969 Dodge Charger in the world.
Several folks have realized their childhood dreams by building replicas of the General Lee. This requires a lot of research, which means, of course, obsessively watching episodes of the show.
The process of building a General Lee replica is well-documented, with one exception the paint color. Until now, nobody has known the exact color of the original General Lee.
The truth is finally revealed in the latest VINwiki video. Travis Bell is the preeminent General Lee expert, and he explains how he found out the information.
Lots of folks think that the General Lee is Hemi Orange. It’s certainly the most sensible option. According to Bell, though, Hemi Orange looked brown on film, so it was scrapped.
Others think it’s Chevrolet Hugger Orange, which appeared on the 1969 Camaro. That’s not it, either, as it was so bright and shiny that it picked up camera reflections during filming.
For years, it was thought that the General Lee was painted Flame Red, a 1975 to 1978 Corvette color. It’s pretty close, but that’s not the real color.
Incredibly, Bell had the opportunity to scan the trunklid of the original General Lee, and that’s when he discovered the true color of the car.
It’s an exact match for a color called TNT Express. It was never a factory car color, but it’s used by a shipping company on their delivery vehicles.
What Was The Dukes Of Hazzard Car
Written by Jack Stewart in Classic Cars, Dodge, Sporty/Performance Cars, TV and Movie Cars, What was…
What was the Dukes of Hazzard car?
Dodge Charger fans have a love-hate relationship with The Dukes of Hazzard TV show. On one hand, the shows main prop, the General Lee, is perhaps the most famous TV car ever and did much to raise the profile of the 1969 Dodge Charger. On the other hand, all those jumps and other stunts took their toll on the supply of Chargers. Estimates range from 200 to over 300 cars used during the shows run from 1978 to 85. Only 18 Chargers survived the series.
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Hank Willis Thomas Opens A Black Righteous Space At The California African American Museum
In the early 2000s, he became known for a series of images that showed fragments of black bodies branded with the Nike logo works that riffed on consumption as much as they did on the utilitarian ways in which black bodies have been regarded throughout U.S. history. Another series from that decade, Unbranded, took advertisements featuring African Americans and stripped them of text and product to reveal their subliminal messages.
These excavations extend to three-dimensional forms. The artist designed the public monument Raise Up at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., which opened in 2018, and explores the violent legacy of lynching in the U.S. Willis poignant piece shows a row of black men, their arms raised, emerging from a concrete plinth.
Raise Up is sculpture, but it is ultimately derived from the artists interest in the photographic image. Specifically, a 1960s picture by South African photographer Ernest Cole, that shows a group of black miners being subjected to a group examination. This humiliating ritual evokes the gesture of Hands up, dont shoot used by protesters in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.
The General Lee Was A Modified Charger
Using the General Lee, the Duke boys pulled off amazing stunts that would make professional racers envious. But in reality, a retail-bought Dodge Charger wasnt capable of such tricks, forcing the prop masters and mechanics to modify every Charger used for the show.
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Some of its modifications include: custom wheels and tires, heavy-duty suspensions, a powerful Magnum V8 engine, and loosened brakes to make the car capable of making 180-degree turns. Each General Lee was fitted with interior steel roll bars and cages to give the driver and passengers added protection.
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Some Mistakes Made The Final Footage
The Dukes of Hazzard TV series involved a lot of hair-raising car chase scenes and insane driving. Against this backdrop, it is understandable that there were a few mishaps when drivers lost control of the cars. Thankfully, no lives were lost and the producers ingeniously decided to weave some of these accidents into the final footage.
More Than 300 General Lees Died
If the General Lee could be considered to be a character in The Dukes of Hazzard, it only makes sense that it had stuntmen. In total, the Lee had around 300 doubles all of which died during filming.
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The charger may be built for speed, but its not designed to sustain continuous damage. The only reason why the General Lee seemed impervious to constant punishment in the series was because it was constantly repaired or replaced. On average, one charger was totaled per episode, resulting in some dire and unforeseen consequences.
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The General Lee Had Three Different Discplacement Engines
The engines cubic inches varied across three different displacements, including 318, 383, and 440 cubic inch variations. Every engine was fed by a single 4-barrel carburetor backed by a 3-speed Torqueflite automatic transmission. Contrary to widespread rumors, the production team didnt use any 426 CID V-8 Hemi engines during filming.
The General Lee Needed Weights
Every time the General Lee made one of hundreds of daredevil jumps, it soared in the air and landed rear-wheels first. Realistically, this was impossible because the bulk of a cars weight is in the front, meaning that it would nosedive into the ground.
To avoid this from happening, the General Lee was loaded with extra mass by placing concrete ballast, sandbags, or weight boxes in the trunk. This meant that its heaviest side was now in the back, allowing the Charger to briefly fly in the precise way that the directors wanted it to.
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California Hazzard County Cnh 320 License Platered 76
Soon after filming moved to Southern California, the General Lees license plate was modified to include Hazzard County at the bottom rather than just Hazzard. This change to include the longer text was carried throughout the entire run of the series.
During one episode, Rosco tried to replace the license plate on the General Lee with a plate that was used in a robbery in an effort to frame the Dukes Boys! In this episode you can get a nice clean shot of the CNH 320 red plate while Rosco is unscrewing it from the General Lee.
Here are a few shots of the Atlanta plate he placed on the General Lee.
Doesnt Daisy Duke look confused about the license plate?
Early 1960s: Drag Racing Influences
The popularity and performance of muscle cars grew in the early 1960s, as Mopar and Ford battled for supremacy in drag racing. The 1961 offered an for $53.80, which consisted of a 409 cu in V8 engine producing 425 hp along with upgraded brakes, tires, and suspension. The 1962 had a 413 cu in V8 which produced 420 hp and could cover the quarter-mile in under 13 seconds.
In 1963, two hundred “R-code” cars were factory-built specifically for drag racing, resulting in a full-size car that could cover the quarter-mile in a little over 12 seconds. Upgrades included fiberglass panels, aluminum bumpers, traction bars, and a 427 cu in -based racing engine conservatively rated at 425 hp . The road-legal version of the Galaxie 427 used the “Q-code” engine which produced 410 hp . The following year, Ford installed the proven 427 engine in the smaller and lighter Fairlane body, creating the . The Thunderbolt included several weight-saving measures and a stock Thunderbolt could cover the quarter-mile in 11.76 seconds. The Thunderbolt was technically road-legal, however, it was considered unsuitable even “for driving to and from the strip, let alone on the street in everyday use”. A total of 111 Thunderbolts were built.
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The Dukes Of Hazzard’s Famous ‘general Lee’ Car Was Destroyed In Hurricane Ida Actor Reveals
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A ‘General Lee’ car from the Dukes of Hazzard was destroyed during Hurricane Ida.
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Actor John Schneider shared images on Facebook of the crushed vehicle at his Louisiana studios.
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Hurricane Ida battered Louisiana, leaving more than a million people without power.
An instantly recognizable “General Lee” car, which became a controversial symbol of The Dukes of Hazzard, was destroyed during Hurricane Ida, actor John Schneider has revealed.
Schneider, who played Bo in the CBS television series, shared images of the crushed 1969 Dodge Charger on his Facebook page.
“When something like this happens you have two choices,” wrote the 61-year-old actor in a Facebook caption. “Tears and laughter. I choose laughter.”
The post asked fans to caption the image of the vehicle, with Schneider sharing his own: “Miss Ida stopped by to see the General at Miss Shirley’s last night.”
Schneider said that this particular car model was used for stunts and, according to Getty Images, it was used in the film “Christmas Cars.” He has several other replicas of the vehicle, the Daily Mirror reported.
The actor’s home and studios in Holden, Louisiana, were damaged by Hurricane Ida, the fifth most powerful hurricane to ever strike the United States, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Read the original article on Insider
The General Lee Jumped A Record Making 16
On November 11, 1978, a stuntman launched one off a dirt ramp 16 feet high and 82 feet long. The opening credits of the show featured this iconic and historic police car jump off of a dirt mound.
In an effort to keep the Charger level during the jump, multiple bags of cement filled the trunk to help counterbalance the front end to prevent it from flipping. Due to the height, speed, and weight of the vehicle, it was totaled upon impact with the ground.
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Secrets Of The General Lee
The General Lee of Dukes of Hazzard fame continually ranks as one of the most popular and beloved screen cars of all time and is in large part responsible for the immense popularity enjoyed by the 1969 Dodge Charger as a collectible. Die-hard Mopar fans are hard to stump, but for the rest of us, here are some trivia bits about the General Lee.
The General Lee appeared in all but one episode of the series. Tom Wopat and John Schneider were under the impression that they were the stars of the show, but the car actually appeared in 144 out of the 145 episodes while Wopat and Schneider appeared in 126 .
The doors really were welded shut. Not just because Bo and Luke looked cool climbing in and out, but because of racin rules as the Duke boys explained. In the early days of NASCAR, there was a fair amount of commonality between cars that ran around oval tracks and cars that ran shine. Ironically, the standard B-body Dodge Charger of 1968-70 wasnt very successful on the NASCAR circuit and it was up to the Charger 500 and Charger Daytona to uphold Dodges honor in those days.
The wheels are nearly as famous as the car. As every fan knows, the wheels on the General Lee are not Mopar items theyre aftermarket American Racing Vector turbine-style wheels. American Racing still sells them, in large part because of the demand created by the General Lee.
Heres How To Spot An Incorrect General Lee Clone
There are few cars as iconic as General Lee, the bright-orange Dodge Charger of Bo and Luke Duke, better known as the Duke Boys from the hit TV show The Dukes of Hazard. Its an often replicated piece of TV history, but not every General Lee you see is accurate. John Schnieder, who played Bo, posted a YouTube video to his channel where he breaks down the five mistakes he sees on General Lee clones by showing off his own clone.
If the video proves one thing, its that the details matter. One mistake Schnieder often sees is the incorrect interior color. The orange Lee never had a black interior its always been tan. Hes also seen clones with a passenger-side mirror, which the TV car did not feature. Its one way to spot the difference between a 1968 and 1969 model. Another mistake he often sees is an orange rear panel around the taillights it should be flat black. Another minor detail many clones get wrong is the word Fuel on the cap. Its missing on many.
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Season Seven’s Infamous Miniatures
As the Dodge Charger shortage worsened and with funds drying up, Warner Bros. decided to use their last resort: miniature cars. These remote-controlled vehicles were used during the bigger jump scenes, so that any still-existing General Lees werent damaged or outright destroyed.
The move proved unpopular, with some viewers mocking it while others decried the miniatures for how unconvincing they were. Because of this, the latter half of season six and the entirety of season seven are considered to be the series worst by fans.
How The General Lee Works
When the first General Lee rolled onto the set, it was one of a kind — a 1969 Dodge Charger painted “hemi orange” with a Confederate flag painted across the roof. The doors were numbered “01,” and the only way in or out of the car was to climb through the windows.
It didn’t take long before the General Lee wasn’t quite so unique anymore. For scenes filmed with Bo and Luke actually in the car, a”first unit” General was used. This version featured a 375-horsepower, 440-cubic-inch, Magnum V8 engine, according to the studio. It had been souped up with a racing carburetor, heavy duty suspension parts, and custom wheels and tires. A glasspack muffler helped give the General its signature throaty roar. A padded roll bar was installed in the driver’s compartment, and a custom push bar was mounted to the General’s front end.
The stunt crew used an entirely different General Lee, this one modified even further both for performance and safety. A full steel roll cage protected the driver and passenger and a special weight box was placed in the trunk. The crew could vary the amount of weight by several hundred pounds to help balance the car for different jump distances. This was important to keep the car from flipping over in the air. Each jump was planned very carefully, including the length and height of the jump, speed of the car, angle of the ramp, and weight in the trunk. Some of the longest jumps needed 600 pounds of weight in the trunk-mounted weight box.
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General Lee Jumped A Lot Of Times
Every single episode of The Dukes of Hazzard featured at least one jump scene. Thats a total of over 100 jumps across the seven seasons of the show! That is an insane amount, especially as some of those scenes would have required retakes with a fresh car for each attempt. Now, it suddenly becomes clear why the TV series went through the cars like tissue paper.
The General Lee Car Horn Played The First 12 Notes From Dixie
The first 12 notes of the song Dixie, also known as Dixie Land trumpet out of the Duke Boys iconic musical car horn. Dixie was popular in the South and was a 19th-century composition by Daniel Decatur Emmett.
The distinctive horn came about rather accidentally when the shows producers were out scouting for Dodge Chargers when they heard the horn emanating from another vehicle that was driving nearby.
The producers flagged down the driver of the vehicle and paid $300 for the five horns and all their component parts
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