When I was a kid, my parents gave me a choice: I could either go to bed at 9pm like the good first grader that I was, or I could watch the Dukes of Hazzard until 10 and be “punished” by not watching Saturday morning cartoons. Once in a while, I made the great sacrifice and watched the hijinks of the Duke family as they continually confounded Boss Hogg and his corrupt grip on the law.

Image: dukescollector01 on eBay

That show certainly is one of the big reasons why I much prefer the ’69 Dodge Charger over the 1968 and 1970 editions (other than it simply has the nicest grille and taillights of the bunch!). While old age has set in and I much prefer a stock R/T over the General Lee, there are some people who feel the opposite. For those people, your dream recently came true on eBay this week.

A 400 sits where a 383 may have resided. Image: dukescollector01

The VIN says it’s an XP29 car, which means it originally was a base 1968-69 Dodge Charger or a 1970 Charger 500. Confused? That’s because the TV show snapped up all the Chargers it could, then added the ’69 trim.

As the seller doesn’t tell us the rest of the VIN, we don’t know what year it really is or what engine it came with originally. However, we do know that it could be anything from the Slant Six up to the 383 four-barrel. Currently, it has a 400 – look at the engine bay and you’ll also notice the original “F5 green” paint.

If you take a look at the selling price, it seems abnormally low for a car that’s pedigreed from the TV show – what gives? For starters, “The car runs and drives okay but is not street legal.”

Another thing is the claim, “This car is one of about five General Lees that do not have paperwork direct from [Warner Brothers]. Only the 17 cars that were sold off by WB in 1991 have WB paperwork.

Notice the authentic Dukes damage!

Autographs of those from the show. Image: dukescollector01

“This car was built and used when Ken Fritz was under contract to build the cars (’83-’84). This is a stunt car and all of the stunt cars had all tail lights, headlights, signals, etc. removed or disconnected. The only thing wired up on the car is what was needed to make the car run and drive. Being a stunt car, most all of the interior was removed. All of the jump damage was left in the body.”

Okay, so maybe the lack of air-tight documentation kept the price down. But then there’s some promising evidence from the stunt driver: “This car was contracted by Ken Fritz’s crew to be built in around ’83-’84. The certificate of authenticity was issued by the stunt driver Jimmy Lynn Davis, who jumped the car and owned it until 2000.”

So what we have here is a car whose purported pedigree may be true, but it’s no more than a very expensive toy. Is that good enough for you? Or would you rather have an R/T instead?