The General Lee Car of the Dukes of Hazzard was fast, orange, and often airborne. You know the car, but here are some interesting bits of trivia you might not know.
There’s Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T., B.A. Baracus’ A-Team van, and Magnum P.I.’s Ferrari but far and away the most iconic, recognizable, and, dare I say, beloved hero car of 1980s TV is The Dukes of Hazzard’s the General Lee. The Duke boys’ orange 1969 Dodge Charger was the ultimate bootlegging muscle car. Nearly every episode of the series saw the General Lee careening down dirt roads and making death-defying jumps with Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in hot pursuit.
Bo and Luke, with a little help from Cooter, transformed a junked black Charger into the brash and bold General Lee. In the first episode, they dropped in a new engine, added a roll bar inside and a push bar up front, and welded the doors shut. Then, for added character, they painted the car orange, added a Rebel flag and the name “General Lee” to the roof, 01 was painted on the doors, and, as a final touch, a horn that played the first 12 notes of “Dixie.”
1969 Dodge Charger General Lee – carsforsale.com | Shop 1969 Dodge Charger on Carsforsale.com
Most of the mechanical upgrades were to make the General Lee race worthy, even if most of the racing Bo and Luke did was racing to evade law enforcement. The cosmetic additions, aside from that awesome orange paint, are a bit cringeworthy by modern standards. Now it’s more than a little ironic seeing the fun-loving mischief of the Duke boys wrapped up a Confederate flag, but back in 1979 “Southern pride” read very differently than it does today.
You can watch the initial build of the General Lee here.
You might be familiar with the General Lee car but there are a ton of interesting facts behind the production of The Dukes of Hazzard that might surprise you.
The Dukes of Hazzard was the kind of family friendly, slapstick comedy you don’t see much these days. It gave us Daisy Duke, Boss Hogg, and Bo Duke blowing up an outhouse with a dynamite tipped arrow. But by the far the greatest legacy from the show are all those totally rad jumps with that totally rad orange Charger known as the General Lee.