Another General Lee is gone...

[70charger_boy]

No, I kind of vomit when I see any classic car destroyed for no good reason.

Fair enough.  But everyone has a different idea of "destroyed for no reason."   

I'm sure that plenty of now-famous NASCAR drivers probably destroyed a ton of classic Chargers and parts on small-time dirt tracks from 1979-1985.  That was nothing more than destroying cars for entertainment too, and yet there's never any venom aimed at those racers nowadays like there is for the DOH television show.  (And car for car, I'll bet the DOH wrecks ultimately did the hobby LIGHT-YEARS more good in this case.)   



It's all just an opinion about whether one form of destruction is more "appropriate" than another. 

 

Good point.  I don't see the wing guys crying about buddy baker or bobby isaacs running their daytonas in a wall or petty crashing a bird.  That was back in the day when a stock car was really a stock car.  Not this crappy tubular plastic body crap

[Chris G.]

I don't see the wing guys crying about buddy baker or bobby isaacs running their daytonas in a wall or petty crashing a bird. 

wow  You are not really comparing Nascar and the Dukes...are you? 

Even Shiloh misses Brock. 

[70charger_boy]

I don't see the wing guys crying about buddy baker or bobby isaacs running their daytonas in a wall or petty crashing a bird. 

wow  You are not really comparing Nascar and the Dukes...are you? 

Even Shiloh misses Brock. 

You better get shiloh to apologize to my buddy brock.  It's not like him to go a few days without posting

[Chris G.]

Brock's out camping in his new stalker mobile so calm down, he will be back soon.

But seriously, I'd like to know your Dukes/Nascar comparison???

[70charger_boy]

Brock's out camping in his new stalker mobile so calm down, he will be back soon.

But seriously, I'd like to know your Dukes/Nascar comparison???

Ok, the dukes was a tv show about 2 good ole country boys.  The show revolved around the star"The General Lee"  The general lee's job was to act all silly and shit and jump every bridge and sand mound

Nascar
It is the race car drivers job to drive around this car with a big ole wingy thing and go really, really  fast, only turning lefts.   

Both of these scenarios defy logic and common sense.  When you defy logic and common sense, shit get broke.

Some times the shit is painted orange wit a little rebel flag thingy on da roof
and other times its a thing with a slanted nose, big wingy thing and numbers all over the place

either way  they get smashed but the nascar birds and daytonas are 200 times more money than a rusted piece of hlpag shit that some redneck wants to jump

I know this is poorly written.  I promise to buy hooked on phonics

[Mike DC]

 
Both motorsports and DOH were about using Chargers as race cars for entertainment, and they both involved consistently wrecking a couple of them each week.

Wing car guys can moan & groan & get indignant, but it's not THAT different when you get right down to it. 

   

[HemiDave]

Why can't they jump some new 'Chargers'? No one give a flying leap!! 

Dave

[warriorbass05]

 
Both motorsports and DOH were about using Chargers as race cars for entertainment, and they both involved consistently wrecking a couple of them each week.

Wing car guys can moan & groan & get indignant, but it's not THAT different when you get right down to it. 

   

For sure!!!!  Everybody get their undies out of knots and chill...it is all the same...my charger is still swiss cheesed in the garage because parts are expensive....have I saved it??? yep, it's in the garage....now the work begins....it is for entertainment that I have this car...I am not planning on jumping it, heck it will be 3-4 cars worth of parts to get it right...happens all the time....crawl thru the boneyards and you will see tons of "classics" sitting there rotting away to be stripped and crushed.....and??

[Ghoste]

So what if someone was buying up wing cars TODAY and then taking them out and deliberatley smashing them into a wall at 150-180 mph?  Would that be considered okay since it was for entertainment or would the comparison to DOH still hold water?
And for the record, I'm not holding the original series up for trial here (although I didn't like the Charger smashing even then, perhaps I was ahead of my time on that part) but the people who jump them today.

[JMF]

Has anyone got any pictures of what type of condition these cars are in before they get jumped at these redneck shows?

[Chris G.]

Both motorsports and DOH were about using Chargers as race cars for entertainment, and they both involved consistently wrecking a couple of them each week.

Mike, you really see a similarity between the two? I'm not sure how you can compare a production car bought off a dealer lot years after the car came out, compared to a race car sanctioned strictly for racing. The wing cars used in professional sports had nothing to do with production cars built for the street. It's the exact opposite for the Dukes car. I think Ghoste mentioned that if some guy decided to go race a bunch of wing cars at Darlington or wherever, you can best believe there would be an uproar.  Personally I could care less if they jumped and killed 2,000 Chargers for the Dukes show or movie. There are still plenty to go around. And many of the people that complain about the jumps, have no problem knowing that the show may have actually helped the value of their car.

There are multiple 2nd-gen Chargers for sale every single day of the year, every year.  Thousands have changed hands in the last couple of years.  Cars in every price range & condition level. 

Show me a guy who "can't find" a 2nd-gen, and I'll show you a guy who can find dozens of them but just can't find one priced far enough below the average to get it. 

Very very true.    People always complain they can't find a car, but like you said, it's much easier than it looks. The same people that complain about high priced cars, are the same people who would want a ton for their own car.

[pettybird]

well, buddy baker wasn't guaranteed a win every week.  how many of those jumps did Roscoe survive?   



fake jumps for TV (and a bad TV show at that--I was a kid when the show was out, loved it, had all the toys, but can't watch an entire episode anymore) and racing for position, showcasing skill are two different things. 


just because you don't like NASCAR doesn't mean those guys weren't putting their lives and health and the line every week, for small paychecks. 

[70charger_boy]

well, buddy baker wasn't guaranteed a win every week.  how many of those jumps did Roscoe survive?   



fake jumps for TV (and a bad TV show at that--I was a kid when the show was out, loved it, had all the toys, but can't watch an entire episode anymore) and racing for position, showcasing skill are two different things. 


just because you don't like NASCAR doesn't mean those guys weren't putting their lives and health and the line every week, for small paychecks. 

Whoa there killer   I loved nascar 30 years ago, when they were racing real cars.  Yes, their lives were on the line every damn week.  Those cars were smashed up and banged up every week.  Alot of it was done on purpose (bumping)  Noone had any clue what those cars would fetch today.  The nascar wing cars were brand spanking new
The general lee's were 10-15 years old.  They had no clue what they would be worth.

If you had a time machine and went back to 1969 and told a wing car owner his car would be worth 200 grand.  They wouldn't stop laughing

[Mike DC]

 
Those "fake" jumps & rollovers on Dukes were done with real-live drivers who "risked their lives every week" for small paychecks too.  Even the crazy huge GL jumps over rivers & barns & freight trains & tractor trailers. 

That stuff was instrumental in inventing better safety gear and better/more reliable ways to do all those stunts.  Which has helped the "car movie" still exist because the chases & stunts can be so impressive w/o computer crap.  Which has helped these cars remain visible in the eyes of younger generations.  Which has helped keep up the hobby for us all.     

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


I see a hell of a lot more people (of all ages) wanting & building Hollywood-inspired Charger replicas than I ever see 1960s NASCAR replicas.  Same with the toys/merchandising of it all.  What does that say about influencing people? 

 

[jaak]

I love reading these debates everytime they come up, the "pro-dukes" crowd vs the "oh no another car destroyed" bunch.  Like I said before in another discussion like this one, My take is I have a Charger, its in my shop, thats all that matters to me. 

People bitch and cry, why?  The bottom line is MONEY. You think cars are Jumped to entertain Duke fans, of course not, its to charge duke fans, hell that was the bottom line for the show, pay a few $$$, crash a few Chargers, CBS and WB made a fortune off Advertising and Merchandise.

So thats why its done, the oldest and most common reason, money.  Heck I love mopars, especially Chargers, have all my life. I wouldn't jump my project, but if I had a slapped together parts car and can charge 20-30 bucks a head to paint it orange and jump it, would I do it.... you bet your ass I would then take the huge profits and finish my car, lol.

Jason

[Khyron]

I see a hell of a lot more people (of all ages) wanting & building Hollywood-inspired Charger replicas than I ever see 1960s NASCAR replicas. 

ummm, I don't know what you're talking about 

Get if I ever get my hands on a old belvie you bet your butt she'll get some petty Blue on her     

[Mike DC]

 
I'd love to do a real NASCAR replica too.  Maybe a Daytona racer.  Those were the ultimate NASCARs as far as I'm concerned.  It was all downhill from there.


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

I've actually wanted to do a "General Lee" version of a dirt-track NASCAR from the 1970s for a long time too.  Build the car that the fictional GL would have been if DOH was real.

Occasionally you do see an orange paintjob & 01 numbering on a dirt track car, but it's always just a modern racer of some sort.  Whereas I'd wanna do a real Dodge Charger chassis/body with all the 70s-accurate details. 

 

[70charger_boy]

Does anybody know if the Chargers that were jumped in the movie or TV show were driven by Actual people and if anybody got hurt during the jumps?  I just saw an episode of Mythbusters where they recreated a 175 ft jump off of a dirt ramp and they said that there would be no way anybody would survive that jump.  Oh, the car was rigged to run on remote control

[0X01B8]

I like the Mythbusters show and that jump was good.  The car hit the ground at something like 45 degree angle and the damage was pretty impressive.  They had one where they wanted to see if you could stop faster by shifting into reverse than using the brakes, which of course didn't work.  But they would just shift into reverse and the motor would stall.  I was yelling at the TV, "you gotta FLOOR it when you shift!"  FLOOR IT!  oh well.

[70charger_boy]

I like the Mythbusters show and that jump was good.  The car hit the ground at something like 45 degree angle and the damage was pretty impressive.  They had one where they wanted to see if you could stop faster by shifting into reverse than using the brakes, which of course didn't work.  But they would just shift into reverse and the motor would stall.  I was yelling at the TV, "you gotta FLOOR it when you shift!"  FLOOR IT!  oh well.

  How about Kari?  She's hot!!!!

[0X01B8]

  How about Kari?  She's hot!!!!

oh yeah!  Gotta say I'm slightly disappointed charger_boy...   You seem to have a picture ready for every occasion......

[TruckDriver]

  How about Kari?  She's hot!!!!

oh yeah!  Gotta say I'm slightly disappointed charger_boy...   You seem to have a picture ready for every occasion......

You just noticed that

[70charger_boy]

Sorry, I didn't post a pic.  I had to retrieve this from my spank bank


and you have to check this out 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykhSLNlx3n0

[TruckDriver]

Did you know, and I'm dead serious here, Kari got the job on Mythbusters because of her ass. Look it up on the Mythbusters web site.

[70charger_boy]

   I thought it was for her can cans