This General Lee Dodge Charger stunt car is secretly a Crown Vic police interceptor
This General Lee Dodge Charger stunt car is secretly a Crown Vic police interceptor.
Folks have loved watching cars get bashed by trained professionals since well before disc brakes were a thing, and consequently “Dukes of Hazzard”-themed stunt shows remain popular county fair fare. But while everybody loves it when somebody goes for it and totally freaking sends a vintage Charger over a wicked jump, nobody likes to talk about the consequences of an extra-spicy landing: yet another irreparably taco-d B-Body.Fortunately, we don’t need a Sarah McLachlan-backed “Save the Chargers” campaign, because stunt driver James Smith is here to show us how you can build a serviceable replica of the infamous General Lee-liveried ’69 Charger on the bones of a Crown Victoria police interceptor. It’s wonderfully subversive, building the subject of countless police chases on the frame of an old cop car and all, but it makes sense. Smith raises a point that we’d never really thought of: If a car is too far gone to be worth restoring, it’s too far gone to be used as a safe stunt car. On the other hand, the amount of work it would take to make it a rusty-but-salvageable car safe for stunt shows might as well be invested in restoring it as a driver.