Cooters Last stand Smith Brothers Jump car ???

[PrisonHack]

  So I noticed in the thread on cooters last stand someone mentioned the jump GL was a charger body on a crown vic chassis? Anyone get good pictures of this, never heard of such a thing and would love to see how it looked close up.

[Cncguy]

I don't think that particular car was the jump car. I was there  when Smith Brothers said they restored the jump car and intended on restoring or fixing any damage to the jump car after the jump. I have the jump on video but I'm not sure how to share.

[JR]

Here's what I found.

http://www.themusclecarplace.com/tmcp-330-cooters-last-stand-dukes-fest-show-spectacular-frank-ripp-jr-james-smith-mark-bradley-rick-schmidt-from-npd-on-how-do-you-do-vacation

"Jamie Smith – Jamie is the stunt driver and builder of the General Lee jump car used at Cooters Last Stand. You may have seen Jamie on an old episode of Hot Rod on You Tube when he drove a car on two wheels with Mike Finnegan. This time he did a ramp to ramp jump, twice, once for each day of the event. He wanted to make sure the jump was safe for everyone involved, including the spectators so he built a special "jump car" using a newer Crown Vic undercarriage and drive train but with new AMD 1969 Dodge Charger body panels. Jamie's story of how he became involved with stunt driving and building is inspirational and another way the Dukes of Hazzard has influenced peoples lives."













It was apparently a crown Vic with the body cut down to the cowl, a cage built up for safety, and reproduction AMD charger sheet metal hung on it. The grille was fake, along with much of the trim. The doors were just skins with no inner structure welded in place.

I think it was a brilliant idea. Why did it take so long for someone to do this? If you're throwing a car up in the air to destroy it upon landing, what difference does it make what's underneath?

[Kern Dog]

Hell yeah that is a good idea. Fast and Furious can now go another 10 years with this idea!

[Mike DC]

I think it was a brilliant idea. Why did it take so long for someone to do this? If you're throwing a car up in the air to destroy it upon landing, what difference does it make what's underneath?

Several reinforced GLs were built for mini-jumps in the TV/movies/commercials over the years.  Some cars did numerous jumps around 4-5 feet high.

The reason nobody did it for a Dukesfest before is because the jumps were HUGE a few years ago.  The events were huge crowds and several police cars would be rolled over.  The bending Charger unibody is necessary to cushion the impact for the driver.  (Even a CV frame would be totaled after one huge jump too.)  


This CV frame & Charger skin thing starts looking more practical for smaller ramp-to-ramp jumps which don't waste the car each time.  That's a more recent development, partly because of the events being smaller.  

It also helps that all those panels are actually in catalogs now.  10 years ago people were pissed off just seeing outer-skin panels getting abused.   

[Kern Dog]

A running, driving Ford can be bought and reskinned to look like a Charger far cheaper than it is to buy a real a 69 Charger.

[Mike DC]

      
The running CV + Charger parts might be amassed for several thousand.  The Charger outer skin would probably cost more the price of the CV itself.  Those $300 rusted-out Charger hulks have an annoying habit of costing $3000 now.  

But who is gonna do the building job (and do it well enough to bet somebody's life on it) for free?  The really big Dukesfest shows in the mid-2000s weren't just fan club stuff, they were big-money events organized & done for a profit.  



It was 10-15 years ago (already!) when the Dukesfest events were wrecking a car every year.  Around 2005 a sorta-solid Charger shell with a complete set of outer skin panels was not costing $10-15 grand yet.  

But in 2017 the CV math might look better.  I dunno.  

[Harper]

yea i see that they didnt have side marker lights at all on this car.

DYNA CORN needs to build 68-69-70 charger bodys DAM IT!!! lol

[bull]

Here's a video of the build. I talked to James a little about it and he said he used a mixture of old parts and new AMD stuff (which I believe he mentions in the video). The grill description is pretty cool. It would probably take a lot of tweaking to make a nice car out of a Crown Vic but it's good enough for a jump car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk-ypusAmPk

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

This car was used again at The Good Ol Boys Fest last week and was flawless in performance.