Article: Rob Maetzig

It’s the world’s most famous television car – and it’s coming to Americarna 2026.

The car is the General Lee, a bright orange Dodge Charger from the late 1960s that was the centrepiece of all the action in the massively popular TV series Dukes of Hazzard – so popular that it ranked second only to the soap opera Dallas in national viewership.

The car then featured in several Dukes of Hazzard movies that followed the TV series.

With its doors welded shut and a horn that played a signature tune of the first 12 notes of the song Dixie, the General Lee was forever flying high over various obstacles as the Duke brothers Bo and Luke evaded the hapless county commissioner Boss Hogg and his lawman Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane.

The flying really was high, too. The highest jump achieved during the series was when the General Lee soared 16 feet into the air and covered a distance of 82 feet.

Little wonder then during the shooting of the 147 Dukes of Hazzard episodes between 1979 and 1985, those jumps destroyed a total of 325 Chargers. The few remaining examples that weren’t damaged beyond repair – there is said to be 17 of them – are now in private ownership in various states of fix, with the very first example currently owned by pro golfer Bubba Watson.

Another 26 General Lees were prepared for a full-length Dukes of Hazzard movie that was shot in 2005 – some of them 1968 and 1970 models that were made to look like the famous 1969 version that featured in the TV series.

Car No 11 from that list is the Charger that will be at Americarna.

This General Lee is a proper 6.2-litre 440ci V8-powered 1969 Charger with the personalised rego plate BODUKE, and is owned by Dunedin enthusiast Paul Clarke who purchased it soon after the 2005 movie was filmed. It is currently on loan to the Ross Bros Museum in Cambridge, an extensive private collection of muscle and race cars, vintage trucks and equipment.

The museum’s owners are lending the Charger to Tokoroa car enthusiasts  Colin and Debbie James to bring to Americarna. The couple will also be bringing their 1978 Plymouth Fury which is a Minnesota State Police vehicle.

Word has it that earlier this year these two cars met up during a custom car meeting on Cambridge’s main street, and a great time was had as the pair chased each other around the Waikato town with horn singing and siren blaring.

So you can be sure that during Americarna the pair of cars will once again remain close to each other – the orange Charger with its classic ‘coke bottle’ hipline, recessed grille and blacked-out rear valance, and the Fury, the real police vehicle imported by Colin James after it had given 30 years of faithful service in Minnesota.

You can almost already hear the “Yeehas” coming from the cockpit of the General Lee…