Ahhh crap! Not again! GL Jump car

[moparfied]

The reason the Chargers flew through the air nice,and level ,on the show,was because they balanced the car. The Chevy clowns obviously did not know this. Chargers are nose heavy and will land face first everytime. By balancing the car,they were able to sometimes get several jumps out of each car. These guys did not balance it, If they had,the car may have been salvagable.

[Dale The Bold]

So how do the organizers of Dukes fest (presumably Mopar guys - or certainly Charger lovers) find themselves hiring Chebby clowns to trash a charger...??

Easy.  This event had no affiliation whatsoever with Dukesfest.

[StuntMan]

I'm not sure if anyone posted the actual video.

Here it is, in high resolution:

http://www.weracehardcore.com/HardcoreGeneralLee_Broadband.wmv

approx 18-20' high, and 145 feet in length.

Dude, your're one of the guys that jumped the car aren't you.
Welcome to the site anyway

Hey thanks. Actually, Ive been around since the original Dodge-Charger.com website started, so I am an old timer. But when that board disolved, I lost track of this one, so I'm newly registered one more time. A lot of the other old timers will recognize me.

Lets get one thing straight. Ronnie Duke, the guy who put this on is a total S.O.B., and I am in no way defending him, his company, or anything else that spoiled a$$ rich loser schemes to do.

As far as all the bantering above, the lowdown of the jumps on the series, etc. We've talked about this all before, but since there are some experts who are preaching incorrect info, let's clear it up one more time - for the sake of the professional stunt people involved.

Many cars landed nose first on the show, if not 80%. The edited in mini jump landings used to fool me too. Landing on 'all 4's' is actually the worst way to land a stunt car. Your safety gear isn't necessarily set up to protect fully a 'pancake' landing, as the shock goes straight up your spine . Your gear is set up for frontal impact, for two reasons: When landing on the nose, the impact is absorbed through the entire car, not your spine, and second, it's safer and easier to restrain the stuntman in forward/backward position, where if you streamlined the 'pancake' landing, you would have the close proximity of the roof and floorpan limiting your crumple zone.

The car had 400 lbs in the trunk, accurately set up just to give the car the correct tilt to have a nose landing, yet remain on the 4's when the deal was done. So...a perfect landing, perfectly executed.

It's easy to be an expert when your not in the driver's seat going 75 over a ramp 20' in the air. The massive amounts of armchair stuntmen out there always makes me laugh. At least Roger Ebert used to make movies...that 'frame of reference'.

As far as jumping the Charger? Almost every guy in the car hobby I've met either watches porn or goes and sees strippers regularly - which demoralizes an actual human being, for the sake of selfish entertainment - but will cry when lifeless metal is bent.

I will never understand, I suppose.

[69charger2002]

As far as jumping the Charger? Almost every guy in the car hobby I've met either watches porn or goes and sees strippers regularly - which demoralizes an actual human being, for the sake of selfish entertainment - but will cry when lifeless metal is bent.

I will never understand, I suppose

that whole statement proves 2 things
1. 2 wrongs don't make a right(porn watching and lifeless metal being bent).. both wrong. one being "worse" morally doesn't miraculously justify the other as "not so bad"
2. the guy who set up the event is a "SOB" and a "rich ass loser".. sounds like a great guy

so who wants to plan the next big jump?

[limey]

The car had 400 lbs in the trunk, accurately set up just to give the car the correct tilt to have a nose landing, yet remain on the 4's when the deal was done. So...a perfect landing, perfectly executed.

It's easy to be an expert when your not in the driver's seat going 75 over a ramp 20' in the air. The massive amounts of armchair stuntmen out there always makes me laugh.

I never said I had done it before, or I was en expert. Merely expressed an opinion that I could just about get away with the concept of the Dukefest stunt if it brought to life the jumps we all enjoyed as kids in the 70s/80's show. As you have outlined, for safety reasons as regards the stuntmen/women it is best to land nose first...well great, but I still maintain that it makes it a failed and poor imitation of what most Dukes fans would want to see in the first place, therefore utterly pointless. In light of your explanation of the safety issues involved I can see why the stuntpeople would go for the safest option and take as little risks as necessary......althought that does kind of shatter that daredevil image too......
Bottom line is..the stunt guys are doing a job...they don't car if they jump a Charger, a Camaro or a Pinto..as long as the stunt is set up in such a way as they can walk away from it......I figure most of us have the biggest beef with the organisers...
Limey

[squeakfinder]

  It makes me equally uncomfortable to walk into a strip club or watch a Charger get deliberately destroyed.

[limey]

  It makes me equally uncomfortable to walk into a strip club or watch a Charger get deliberately destroyed.

Well, I've never done either.....some might say I've never lived.....but I prefer to sleep with real girls and drive real cars....heheh
(no jibe at you rotsparts - I know exactly what you are saying, and I agree with you 110%
Limey

[JimShine]

As much as I hated the jump, I can think of a few other things that make me just as angry. Seeing Chargers left to rot away to nothing and hacks attempting to restore them and screwing them up worse than if they left them rusted.

[mikepmcs]

what you tryin to say Jim?

[StuntMan]

Hey Limey,

that was actually a great post. Very thoughtful and I appreciate the answer. I wasn't so much referring to you as to some others. Personally, I don't know of any stunt man who is a daredevil at all. Every one I know of and me included will walk away from a stunt in a heartbeat if it isn't entirely set up meticulously, with every possible angle/outcome considered. In fact, stuntmen are exact opposite of what you may think; reckless, careless, etc. They are some of the most prepared, intelligent, and educated people out there.

As far as the repeated claim that another jumped Charger means one less for people to buy, and in light of 69charger2002's comments, I think he may be the one you want to talk to, as he hords them up in his back yard. They may as well be jumped regarding the 'availability' factor. In both cases, they are not available. I just found it humorous that he would complain when he's got 50 he's keeping from Joe public.

that's just me,

stunt

[69charger2002]

that's hilarious. you don't even know what you are talking about. my cars are very available..all but say 2 of them. i am not keeping 50 from any one. all you gotta do is show up here with enough cash.. yeah travis is REALLY a bad guy for collecting chargers.. but since we're taking shots.. i'll stoop to 3rd grade level for a moment.. i would rather hoard my 25 chargers in my backyard than have just one that i repeatedly advertise as some "one of one" stunt creation that has done everything movie and tv related and is such an IMPORTANT historical general lee..... but yet in almost the same moment you slap it on ebay after it's last "historical adventure"  begging to get $50k for it(hmm, didn't sell the first go round..) so now a few months later $30k for it.. no bids.. and now $19k. so if it has all that fame and you hype it up so much.. why throw it on ebay? you have the coolest lee ever! right??
anyway.. i just choose to spend my $$ on lots of them.. and if most members on here could find them and get them, and had the place to put them.. don't think for a second they wouldn't, because 75% of people i know on here would in a HEARTBEAT.. i can tell by the emails and compliments i receive daily. so come on down "Joe public" with a wad of cash after you sell that "one of one" historic general, and you are welcome to leave here with one of my 50 hoarded cars

[moparfied]

Hey Charger 2002,I am glad that you have rounded up all those Chargers. I think you have probably saved many of them from being wrecked,or crushed. I think you are more the guy who goes around buying all those cars that are wasting away in peoples yard,and putting them back into circulation. If I could have a couple hundred of them in my yard I would! And I would do it for the same reason you do,the love of these cars!

[terrible one]

Hey Charger 2002,I am glad that you have rounded up all those Chargers. I think you have probably saved many of them from being wrecked,or crushed. I think you are more the guy who goes around buying all those cars that are wasting away in peoples yard,and putting them back into circulation. If I could have a couple hundred of them in my yard I would! And I would do it for the same reason you do,the love of these cars!

[mikepmcs]

 
Just a general comment about GL jumping, not directed at anyone specific:

It's very easy to get self-righteous about the wrecked cars when you're not really a GL fan in the first place.

I mean, suppose NASCAR wanted to try doing a few races next summer with 1960s stock car bodies again, but it meant hacking up a few original Mopar bodies?  I'll bet that would be excused by most of the hobby as a "worthy sacrifice" for the greater good of the hobby, even if it tore up 15-20 cars every year. 
But nobody excuses DOH fans watching a Charger get wrecked when it as a rebel flag painted on the roof.  Just one single bondo-bucket car for 35,000 fans. 

What's the difference here?  A lot depends on your perception.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've nver been more than lukewarm on the idea of real GL jumps in the modern era, even though I attend the events religiously.  And I don't support wrecking R/Ts at all.  And I agree that the whole thing has gotten out of hand with yearly jumps at this point. 

But at the same time I think the DOH fans take a beating on this issue that's not aways fair.  There are a lot of Dodge Chargers getting permanently cut-up/wrecked/altered all the time in this hobby.

 

but i'm all for the cuttin' up if it's making it something better like those darn aero threads, those guys are genious.

i wish i had those smarts

[Mike DC]

 
It's funny that you highlighted & responded to my post so quickly, because I had just finished deleting it to make some changes! 

Maybe it's better to just leave it like you have it up there now.

 

[mikepmcs]

you make alot of good points on a lot of threads Mike, very interesting stuff you say. 
like a sanity check at times. i don't agree with everything you say but i'm intent on what you post all the time, does that make sense?

[Mike DC]

Yeah.  Thanks for the kind words, man!   

[moparfied]

Thrers no excuse for what those clowns did,they wasted a solid 69 Charger R/T 4 speed Dana car,to replicate a thirty second cheap thrill stunt that was done over and over again on a TV show! How many times does it have to be done! Its just stupid senseless shit repeated over and over again,by stupid senseless people!  I think the fifty toothless rednecks that were cheering this stupid stunt on,could have found a better use for their time,like maybe visiting a DENTIST!!!!!

[69Chrgr]

First off, thanks to these GL jump cars, guys like me end up spending about an extra ten thousand dollars in parts. I had to wait an extra 3 months from Stephens performance to get my hood, fender and other parts as he told me I would have to wait for the movie production people to get their parts first. Then they just tore up more Chargers after that. Guys, I'm sorry, but this has to be the stupidest damn thing and worst thing for a Charger enthusiast. We are being laughed at by others in the hobby due to these stupid acts. They totally ruin the true heritage and value of our cars. Why can't they tear up some Camaro's or Mustangs instead of our already damn near extinct Chargers? Geez these guys are making me mad!!!!

[Ghoste]

Agreed.  I've slammed on Charger jumping before and been called a DOH hater for doing so.  I'm not, I just never saw the value of wrecking more cars.  Even jumping a bondoed out shell just encourages clowns to do what these guys did.  And rest assured, they jumped the car precisely because they DO hate it.

[moparfied]

This unfortunatly is the legacy of the Dukes of Hazzard show. I grew up watching the show,as most of us did. When the show first aired,I was thrilled to see a Charger on TV. A few people in my family had Chargers,and I grew up in and around these cars. In 1978,Chargers were started to be handed down in the family,and were just old cars.people did not think too much about them wrecking an old Dodge! If you had $500 in 1980,when I bought my first Charger,you could own one. If you had a grand or more you could buy a nice one. A nice R/T could be had for around 2 grand,and a Hemi Charger could be had in running condition for around 5 grand. When I bought my first Charger,it was a 69 318 car,I paid $250 for it. Right on the same street,there was a 70 sublime 383 car,for $300. I would have bought that one if I had known it was forsale at the time. The show made these cars popular again,but it did not come without a price,and were still paying it. You cannot buy these cars for chump change anymore,those days are over! If you watched the credits in the new Dukes of Hazzard movie, then you saw what I saw,and that was the total distruction of about ten Chargers! TV,the movies ,and Hollywood in general loves wrecking these cars,they are nothing more than props. It ticks me off to hear that people are standing in line behind the movie people to get parts for cars that they want to restore,verses cars to be destroyed. There are eight seasons of footage of Chargers doing jumps,and stunts in the Dukes of Hazzard series,they could have easily used footage from the original series,and made that movie,without a single Charger being damaged! Maybe its just me,but an orange Charger doing a jump in 1983,looks the same as an orange Charger doing a jump in 2005! When I bought my first Charger back in 1980,there was no aftermarket,so the only way to build a Charger was to buy up two or three of them,and build one car out of the three. I am not without blood on my hands either,I parted out a few Chargers back then too,they were very rusted New England cars. But I do not part them out anymore. They are getting to hard to come by these days! I just think these guys who wrecked this car to do there own Dukes stunt was stupid,and unecessary,just atotal waste of a valuable muscle car!

[Mike DC]

 
What is so different about jumping a car in front of spectators, versus racing a car in front of spectators & running a real risk of wrecking it?  (Remember that the number of weekend racers & street cruisers risking their cars COMPLETELY outweighs the number of GLs that have been jumped in the last couple of years.)  It's only a matter of opinion.  It's probably not costing the hobby any more or less cars.

-----------------------------------------------------

And then there's Pro-street backhalving jobs, and G-machine & customized cut-ups:

Every time some magazine glorifies one of these buildups (often from another over-rich Chevy shop that isn't interested in stock Mopars), then it "just encourages more people to go out and do more of this" . . . does that language sound familiar?  Everyone in the hobby kisses these guys' nuts just for putting ricer wheels & coilovers onto a decent Mopar.  And half the time they start with a nice complete car to "get a solid foundation" and then proceed to hack it up.  Where's the frustration about this issue? 


You're worried about your next project Charger being jumped by its owner after seeing a dumb movie?  Okay.

Well, maybe I'm worried about MY  next project Charger being tube-chassied by its owner after seeing a dumb magazine.

 

[Ghoste]

Well, if you are talking about drag racing or streeet cruising, then it's only a maybe that it will get wrecked.  If you jump a car, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the car is finished.  When it comes to stock car racing or back halving, I'm likely on the same page as you are.

[Mike DC]

Well, if you are talking about drag racing or streeet cruising, then it's only a maybe that it will get wrecked.  If you jump a car, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the car is finished.

 

That's true.  That was what I meant about pointing out that there are so many more racers than DOH jumpers. 

Aside from the occasional TV show or Chevy shop's event, the DOH fans have only had anything to do with one Charger being wrecked at the shows per year lately (and we didn't exactly get to cast ballots on that, either).  I'll bet a person could easily come up with instances of more than one or two Chargers per year getting totalled while racing in some form.

   

[69Chrgr]

Well, I do know this. My dad gave me a 67 Chevy C10. When the Charger is completed, which I hope is soon, I'll be putting a 360 Mopar in the Chevy. It's getting a cab off resto, however it will be Mopar powered and advertised as such on the back window.