Video: Edmunds Compares Original General Lee to The ’11 Charger R/T

In 1979, a little television series called The Dukes of Hazzard was catapulted into the national spotlight as the Duke boys ran a ruckus around Hazzard county. What many people remember more than the plot lines of even the long legs of Catherine Bach (the original Daisy Duke) were the General Lee. This 1969 Charger was actually many cars over the seven-year run of the series, and it is estimated that as many as 321 ’69 Chargers were destroyed making the show.

Edmunds Inside Line was able to track down one of the 17 survivors from when the show ended and line it up for a comparison to the all-new 2011 Dodge Charger R/T.

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This original General Lee still bears the many dents and battle scars that came with being a part of the Duke boys’ weekly shenanigans. Bob Hartwig owns this car, having bought it from someone who bought one of the 17 original General Lees that survived the show’s cancellation in 1986. It’s also the only 440 R/T to have survived, and Hartwig rebuilt the beast to be even badder. Most of the car is original, including around 60% of the paint (though the Confederate flag is all new.)

It sounds like a wicked classic that the testers found difficult to stop and even harder to handle, especially compared to the 2011 Charger. The new Charger looks nothing like the classic, but it certainly is bolder than the original 2006 model. Check out Edmunds Inside line for more pictures and all the details in this comparison, but just know this; the original General Lee wins, and rightly so.