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Home / New Zealand

Leading the Charger ...

By Alastair Sloane
NZ Herald·
4 Mar, 2008 04:00 PM2 mins to read

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Documented General Lee Dodge Chargers are now very collectible.

Documented General Lee Dodge Chargers are now very collectible.

KEY POINTS:

Most car enthusiasts recall the sinister black Dodge Charger stalking Steve McQueen's Mustang through the streets of San Francisco in the cult movie Bullitt.

However, the best known Charger will always be the famous General Lee - the bright orange 1969 model with a Confederate flag on
the roof that played a starring role in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard.

Driven by Luke and Bo Duke, the General Lee was used for a variety of high-speed pursuits, jumps and stunts, and became a celebrity in its own right.

Between 1979 and 1985, more than 300 Chargers were used in filming the The Dukes of Hazzard - they were routinely destroyed at the rate of one or two per episode while performing punishing stunts.

The first was built for Warner Bros by stunt car specialists Andre and Renaud Valuzet, before production shifted in-house.

From then on, each vehicle had to meet strict guidelines for filming continuity.

Of the Warner Bros originals, only an estimated 23 survive today.

Documented General Lee Dodge Chargers are now very collectible, as shown by the record auction price in the United States of more than $11 million for the original Lee 01.

Australian auction house Shannons had one of the rare surviving General Lee Chargers at the Melbourne international motor show auction on Monday.

The auction car is based on an original 440 R/T and was converted to General Lee configuration by US company General Lee Enterprises in the early 1980s.

General Lee Enterprises built a small number of cars that Warner Bros used for promotional work and some close-ups in filming.

The car subsequently spent 20 years in storage before being restored and sold to an Australian last year.

The Charger was offered for sale equipped with the number plates "GN-LEE" along with a Victorian roadworthy certificate. The Dodge comes with supporting documentation, including American titles.

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