THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO

There won’t be many people of a certain age who haven’t seen an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard — in the US its popularity was second only to Dallas — and fans of car stunts will surely have seen quite a few of them.

It’s fair to say that ahead of James Bond’s Aston, Bullitt’s Mustang, and even the talking Pontiac Firebird also featured in these pages, the General Lee is the most famous film and TV car of them all. This is not least because of repeated exposure over 147 episodes in seven series, two films and, of course, every episode’s signature stunt — the General Lee hitting a ramp and flying free as a bird, accompanied by triumphant driver Bo Duke’s “Yee-haah!”

For viewers burdened with some mechanical sympathy, it could be a tough watch. Lots of launchings were filmed, but few landings — for obvious reasons.

147 episodes, two films and, of course, every episode’s signature stunt — the General Lee hitting a ramp and flying free as a bird, accompanied by triumphant driver Bo Duke’s “Yee-haah!”

You just knew those cars would not be driving away from that. The jaunty little bounce that the Duke boys laughed off and powered away from was clearly the aftermath of a tamer jump. Meanwhile, what you suspected — that the pancaked stunt car would be towed away to the scrap heap — is what really happened.

ROLL OF HONOUR

The show wrecked roughly two Dodge Chargers per episode, more than 300 in total. Such was the rate of destruction, it was hard to keep count. One web source estimates 256 to 321 Dodge Chargers were destroyed over the course of the