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.

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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 (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) Duke used in The Dukes of Hazzard.

Decades after the series ended and an ill-advised theatrical motion picture released in 2005, the former moonshiners’ legendary car remained a vehicular monument in the halls of pop culture. To this day, old-school fans of the show and newcomers alike admire the General Lee and spend vast amounts of money to acquire a replica or even a miniature of it. To celebrate the show nearing its 40th anniversary, here are 10 bizarre facts about General Lee that you may not have heard before.

10 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 wasn’t capable of such tricks, forcing the prop masters and mechanics to modify every Charger used for the show.

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.

9 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 car’s 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.

8 The Dixie Horn

The General Lee is known for many iconic features, one of which is a horn that plays the Confederate song “Dixie.” But unlike the show’s intricate stunts and car chases, the use of the Dixie horn was the unplanned result of pure luck.

According to the show’s creators, they were on the road when they heard a passing car blare its horn to the tune of Dixie. They chased the car down and bought the Dixie horn from the driver for $300, thus upgrading an already iconic car to a legendary status.

7 The General Lee Broke A World Record

The General Lee is known for making breathtaking jumps, with its highest peak being 16ft high across a distance of 82ft before crashing down. This jump over the squad car capped the show’s premiere episode and cemented the stunt that would become synonymous to the Duke boys.

The jump broke records and ratings, landing its way into television history even if the car itself got totaled. The Charger that made this jump is also the only General Lee to appear in every episode of the show, with its archive footage being used in the opening credits.

6 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 (26 in the movie) – all of which died during filming.

The charger may be built for speed, but it’s 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.

5 The General Lee Caused A Dodge Charger Shortage

Due to the number of Chargers bought and destroyed by the show’s production, the General Lee inadvertently caused a Dodge Charger shortage. This caused problems for the action-oriented and car-loving show, since this specific model was basically its lifeline and main attraction.

To work around this, the production designers bought orange AMC Ambassadors and modified them to resemble the Charger. Crewmembers even went as far as conducting aerial searches to find as many Dodge Chargers as they could while leaving flyers on Chargers’ windshields, asking their owners if Dukes could buy their car.

4 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 weren’t damaged or outright destroyed.

The move proved unpopular, with some viewers mocking it while others (including both the show’s cast and crew) 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.

3 The General Lee Was More Popular Than The Cast

In its prime, Dukes of Hazzard inspired a dedicated fanbase to send letters to each member of the cast – including the General Lee. The show received roughly 60,000 letters per month, with 35,000 of them either asking about the General Lee’s specs, requesting pictures of it, or literally dedicating messages to it.

Based on these numbers, the show’s main characters Bo and Daisy where only a fifth as popular as their car. The General Lee was so famous that it generated $100 million of the show’s estimated $125 million worth of sales through merchandise and other licensed products.

2 The $10 Million Hoax

The General Lee is arguably the star of The Dukes of Hazzard, and this was best shown when it went up for sale. In 2007, John Schneider put his personal 1969 Dodge Charger up for auction on eBay and sold it for exactly $9,900,500.

This would’ve made Schneider’s General Lee the second most expensive car ever auctioned – if the bidder actually paid for it. After investigating, eBay deduced that the winning bid was a hoax after the winner didn’t answer their correspondences. The post itself was filled with false bids, and eBay stepped in more than once to stop it.

1 Warner Bros. Stopped Selling The General Lee

Due to the rise of far-right terrorism where the use of Confederate imagery was rampant, Warner Bros. canceled The Dukes of Hazzard reruns and recalled all affiliated merchandise featuring the Civil War symbols. Because of the giant Confederate flag on its roof (among other things), the General Lee suffered the most when Dukes products were pulled out of the market.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/dukes-of-hazzard-car-facts-didnt-know/