Car Exchange: Sept. 1981

The General Lee

The General Lee was actually born on a Detroit assemblyline but became a true son of the South when he made his sparkling debut in an Atlanta, Georgia, automobile showroom in the spring of the following year as a 1969 Dodge Charger.

Ten years later, Warner Bros.' producers, looking for a stock race car that Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) Duke would whee and fly through every episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard" Friday nights on CBS-TV, found this Dodge Charger in Conyers, Georgia, where the first five "Dukes" shows were filmed.

Endowing the car with gender and rank, they named him the General Lee, changed his color to a brilliant orange, put a Confederate flag on his roof and painted a distinctive "01" on the side of both his doors, welding them shut for safety.

Equipped with a horn that toots the first eleven notes "Dixie," the General Lee is powered by a Chrysler engine with a 4-speed transmission.  The frame is weighted at four strategic points and has been fitted with gas type shock absorbers to keep the car lever during impact landings and 180-degree turns.  The General Lee sports "30" Glass Pak mufflers and Shelby rims that hold new radial tires with special inner tubes inserted.  Since finding the General in Georgia, Warner Bros.' band of mechanics have completely rebuilt him from the ground up.

Because he has become such a visible car-star on primetime television, with millions of viewers writing in regularly for his picture, the General Lee is probably the most famous automobile in America.  All the actors and crew who work on "Dukes" at Warner Bros. feel affectionate toward him, as if he were really a living being.

In a special interview with Hank Nesel, the transportation coordinator for the Dukes of Hazzard television show, we learned some interesting things about the General Lee.  Actually, there is more than one General Lee.  Nobody who has ever done any high performance off road driving could possibly believe that there is only a single car performing all those stunts for the Dukes show.  A single car would be utterly destroyed in week after week of filming, and would be useless for the close up shots of the show-car image.

Mr. Nesel related that there is a separate General Lee that travels around the country to car shows, and that this car has never been used in the filming of the TV series.  It is strictly for show.

Besides that one, the studio generally keeps three cars on the set at all times, just in case something breaks and a backup is needed.  We were also told that there is a considerable amount of sheetmetal work and suspension rebuilding being done constantly to keep the cars in shape for the filming.

Of course, stunt drivers are used in all the hairy jump scenes, but otherwise the "Duke Boys" do their own raz-a-ma-taz driving.  Foot to the wood and elbows flailing, they do a pretty fair job of rallying through "Hazzard County".

The car itself, according to Nesel, was "a good car to start with", and he tells us that he wishes Detroit still built them that way.  But, several modifications were made to the original car for improved performance and safety.  A special racing fuel cell is used in place of the regular gas tank, and a fully functional rollbar has been installed.  The engine - normally 440, but sometimes a 383 - has had Holley 1850 carburetion added for extra zip that is needed to get up speed for the jumps.  The engine is protected by skid plates, so it is not obliterated when the car arrives nose first as finale to a leap.  mag wheels and high performance wide tread tires are used, and reportedly hold up well to the hard use.

The the General Lee is a popular "personality" car hardly be denied.  More requests from viewers are received by the studio for photos of the car than for any  of the stars of the show.  And, the letters often ask for an autographed photo.  How does a car autograph a picture, you ask?  With a tire print, of course.  The photos are laid on the ground, and the General drives over them.

Ah, the love affair with the automobile lives on!