Bo Duke, right and his cousin Luke Duke in their famous car, The General Lee The General Lee is the car driven by the Duke cousins Bo and Luke in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard. It is known for the chases and stunts, especially high jumps, in almost every episode. The car's name is a reference to the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The idea for the General Lee was developed from Jerry Rushing's car, which was named for General Lee's favorite horse, Traveller. This was also the name of the car in Moonrunners, the 1975 movie precursor to The Dukes of Hazzard. Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 Differing Eras of The General Lee 3.1 1. The Georgia era 3.2 2. The Valuzet era 3.3 3. The Warner Brothers era 4 Engines 5 Exhaust systems 6 "General" trivia and other references 7 Media 8 References Description The General is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger with a Rebel flag painted on the roof, and the words "GENERAL LEE" over each door. Each door also has a large "01" in black. The upper left corner of the "1" in the "01" differs on occasion, causing continuity errors. When the car's horn is pressed, it plays the first 12 notes from the de facto Confederate States anthem "Dixie" (See Media section below for sample). Though The General Lee is often used as a daily driver by Bo and Luke, the implied primary purpose of the car is dirt-track racing. The car has often been chased by the Hazzard police, being Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, Deputy Enos Strate, and Deputy Cletus Hogg. Most of the time, the car outran the police or the Dukes figured a way not to get a ticket after they were stopped by the cops. Its windows are left open because the doors are welded shut—explained on the show as a common trait of race cars, especially those used in NASCAR racing events. This leads to various entry techniques, depending on the age and flexibility of the subject. Uncle Jesse is often picked up by Bo and Luke and lifted in, feet first. When in a hurry, others enter head first. Luke sometimes jumps onto the roof from the driver's side and enters the passenger window from above, or "knee-slides" across the hood to get to the passenger side. Occasionally, as a slip-up, the wired-up doors are actually opened to let Uncle Jesse in. History According to Ben Jones ("Cooter" in the show), as well as builders involved with the show, 309 General Lees were used to film the series. Approximately twenty-three still exist in various states of repair. Among survivors is the very first General Lee known as Lee1. This car is seen in the debut episode and is the car seen jumping at the end of the opening credits of every episode with John Schneider and Tom Wopat. On average, more than one General Lee was used up per show. When filming a jump, anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds of lead or concrete ballast was placed in the trunk to prevent the car from nosing over. Stunt drivers report enjoying the flights but hating the landings. Despite the ballast, the landing attitude of the car was somewhat unpredictable, resulting in moderate to extremely violent forces, depending on how it landed. All cars used in large jumps were immediately retired because of frame damage. The General Lee takes flight. From 1979 to 1985, Chargers of 1968 and 1969 vintage were sourced and converted to General Lee specifications. Despite popular belief, all builders involved over the years, as well as the VIN list supplied to Wayne Wooten of all Chargers used on the show, no 1970 models were ever used. The cars required the front entire front clip transplant from a 1968-69 car, which was the parts damaged worst in the jumps. Obtaining cars was not an issue until later years. By that time the car was the star of the show and Warner Brothers moved building of the cars in-house to keep the cars consistent in appearance. This is when side marker and rear backup lights are seen which were deleted on 1969 models as well as 1968 (seen from the start of the show). Differing Eras of The General Lee The three eras of TV show General Lees are: 1. The Georgia era Georgia episode cars consisted of 7 Dodge Chargers. Lees 1, 2, and 3 were built in California and shipped to Georgia. The first Lee was the template. It was originally a 1969 Charger 383, AC equipped, gold Charger with tan interior, 3 speaker dash, and chrome rocker trim. Lee2 was the true stunt car with a full real stuntcage. Lee3 was the closeup car. This car is the one seen in early promos with the doors open and no numbers on the doors. This car was a real R/T 440 car with AC. This car had real tan interior and a removable roll bar that allowed installation of a camera for in-car shots. Lee4 was the first 1968 Charger converted to look like a 1969. The tail light panel and front seats were taken from the wreckage of Lee1 (after the famous jump over Rosco at the end of the opening credits). The paint on these cars was 1975 Corvette Flame red (Which would later change to "hemi orange" or "huggar orange"). Interiors not originally tan were sprayed with SEM brand "Saddle tan" vinyl dye. Only Lee 1 had a set of crossed flags below the rear window on the filler panel. One Confederate flag, one finish checkered flag. The rims were American Racing vectors throughout the show. 2. The Valuzet era Andre and Renaud Valuzet built General Lees for Warner Brothers from the start of the 2nd season into the 4th season. Viewers can also see two Georgia cars used often up into the early second season. Lee3 and a specially caged car never appearing (but built) in Georgia were used heavily in early California episodes. The Valuzets were very inconsistent in how they built cars, so this is when the most variations are found. Color tends to be 1975 Corvette Flame Red, just like Georgia cars, but there does appear to be some variance here: Interiors were rather consistently dyed a brown color and sometimes SEM Saddle Tan. It has been said the Valuzet's charged Warner Brother $250 a week per car for rental and a lump sum of $2000-3000 upon destruction of the vehicles. This included police cars as well. Warner Bothers mechanics had to maintain the cars at company expense. Trivia: The money generated by building General Lees financed the Valuzet family project of restoring Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. This ranch is where many classic Westerns were shot as well as Gunsmoke. It burned down in the 1960s. Today, it is a fully-functional movie ranch where shows like HBO's Deadwood are filmed. 3. The Warner Brothers era By 1983, Warner Brothers had assumed total control of building General Lees for two reasons: The Valuzets were caught selling back wrecked cars that had been somewhat fixed-up and tagged with forged VINs; and The General Lee was now the highlight of the series. Warner Brothers was receiving an enormous amount of fan mail that nit-picked the inconsistencies of the cars. Because the General Lee was now so famous, WB had their staff mechanics build the cars to a strict appearance, even on the underside. All graphics had to meet specifications, all side markers and undercarriage chrome was to be removed, and all roll bars and push bars had to match. However, some changes were made before the specifications were laid-out: the pushbar became wider, the interior became a light beige color, and the roll bars were covered in a black foam padding. During this period, the only true way for fans to distinguish the 1968 conversions from the 1969 originals is by the shape of the dashpad. As the WB era rolled on, finding the cars became an issue: Piper Cubs were hired to search out 1968 and 1969 Chargers amongst the populace; the jumped cars were now no longer scrapped after one jump if deemed salvageable, and were patched up and used until they could no longer function; and, as part of a last resort, miniature models were also brought in toward the end of the series, replacing most of the big stunts, thereby saving more cars. Taking full control also saved some money as now WB had the ability to buy cars, recondition them, and use them without paying daily rental fees. Considering that there were often a dozen General Lee's on the premises, this was far more economical than renting. Engines Engines in General Lees were all sorts: 318, 383, and 440 were all used. The special purpose built "Ski Car" (the car that drives on the two-side wheels) had a 318, as it was lighter weight. Most of the workhorse stunt cars had 383's. The stunt drivers tended to prefer 440's for jumps, which were often saved for the higher and longer jumps (440 engines were often transplanted into other cars for this purpose, too). And, though sound effects lead many people to believe otherwise, only a very small handful of Chargers on the show were actually manual transmission cars. Exhaust systems Exhaust systems were basic: some had glasspacks, but most had standard exhausts with the pipe cut just before the rear end. The sounds that can be heard in most of the California-era Lees is a glasspack/cherry bomb sound, but the sounds were dubbed in after the scene was filmed. "General" trivia and other references Though they did not perform any of the jumps for which the car is famous, actors John Schneider and Tom Wopat (Bo and Luke Duke) routinely drove The General quite aggressively on camera. Johnny Cash performed the title song for the car on a Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack, called "The General Lee". John Schneider and Tom Wopat drive a WB Dukes movie promo General Lee in an episode of Smallville, Season 5 Episode 6, "Exodus". [1] After a long hiatus, The General Lee reappeared on American television in 2005 in the TLC Network car television series Rides as "Xtreme Lee": a modified General Lee owned by performer Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The vehicle was originally unveiled at a 2004 SEMA show. It was upgraded to a 550hp V-8 engine with six speed automatic transmission. The paint job kept most of the original elements intact, but with slight changes, including a stylized Confederate flag with apparent wind movement and minor battle damage. General Carbuncle by James R Ford is a sculpture using thousands of toy cars to create a British version of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. In an episode of Family Guy, ("To Live and Die in Dixie"), Peter Griffin modified his car to look like The General Lee, and at one point crashed the station wagon General into the cabin where the Griffins were taking refuge. He and his dog Brian then rode it along a back road in the style of The Dukes of Hazzard, complete with voiceover commentary by Waylon Jennings. This is referenced in a later episode ("The Fat Guy Strangler") when Brian throws a stone at Peter claiming "That's for rolling up the window when I tried to jump in The General Lee." The music video for "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies features a car chase segment with some band members driving in the General Lee while others drive in the car from Starsky and Hutch. The General Lee is also featured in The Simpsons episode "Beyond Blunderdome". The front grill of the car is in the line-up at the car museum before Homer and Mel steal the road warrior car. In a Daily Show correspondent piece on the feature film, Stephen Colbert drives The General Grant, a parody of The General Lee, a black car with the New York Yankees logo figured prominently, with a horn that plays "Hava Nagila". A running gag in the webcomic PvP features Cole Richards and Brent Sienna jumping a hill in the General Lee. Three Wishes: In the episode taped in Covington, Georgia, Amy Grant opened the show driving The General Lee. The General Lee appears in the carport in the music video for "You Never Met a Motherfucker Quite Like Me" by Kid Rock. A 1:25 scale plastic kitset model has been a staple of AMT's model line for years, and its boxart has frequently tied in with the various Dukes of Hazzard productions. However, the model itself has been a bugbear to experienced modellers, particularly as the bodyshell is that of a Charger 500 (rear window flush with the bodywork) rather than the regular Chargers of the TV show. Worldwide, people build replicas of the General Lee, often as send-ups of the car. Examples painted in the General lee include early Toyota Corolla coupes, Morris Marinas and Hillman Hunters! Media References TV Guide article (1982) by David Barry The 20th Anniversary Hazzard County Barbecue General Lee specifications Wolo Manufacturing Search Term: "The_General_Lee" Categories: Dukes of Hazzard characters | Fictional automobiles