Signed, sealed and can be delivered
Signed by all the major cast from The Dukes of Hazzard, this replica General Lee is awesome.
We’ve all done it — slid across the bonnet of our car while pretending to be one of the Duke boys from the classic 1980s TV series The Dukes of Hazzard.
It usually only results in — at best — a pathetic sort of half-slide, half-fall down the front that just makes you look sad and old, or — at worst — a massive scratch in your bonnet from a rivet in your jeans and a serious back injury.
But now there is a far easier, safer and immensely cooler way to make yourself feel like the coolest guy in the world (in the eyes of the inner-12-year-old that lives inside every adult male on the planet).
It is very simple — buy your very own General Lee, right here in New Zealand.
That’s right, for sale on TradeMe right now (provided it hasn’t sold before you read this) is an awesome replica of the iconic 1969 Dodge Charger that was the star of the classic TV show.
But wait! Not only is it a pretty much exact replica of The General (right down to the horns, teardrop antenna, roll cage, CB radio and a full restoration based on the specs from the TV show),
the dashboard is also signed by Ben Jones — better known as Cooter, the Duke boy’s mechanic — and the legendary (and sadly recently deceased) James Best, otherwise known as Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane.
And if that wasn’t enough, the boot lid is also signed by Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke), John Schneider (Bo Duke), Tom Wopat (Luke Duke), Byron Cherry (Coy Duke) and Rick Hurst (Cletus Hogg).
It can also back up its legendary looks with a big-block 440 Six Pack V8, Eagle headers, a custom 8.9cm exhaust system and much, much more.
The seller is asking a cool $170,000, but if you ask us, it is well, well worth it. Head to Trade Me and search for listing #891479780 to check it out.
We are the world
■Only in America: a man in Indiana was recently arrested for allegedly trying to choke his fiancee because she wouldn’t agree with him that Nascar was better than IndyCars. David Wilson’s fiancee called 911 to report his actions (which occurred while she while trying to listen to the Indy 500 on the radio), but Wilson took over the call and reported “everything is fine here” before hanging up the phone. Police weren’t fooled.
■Police in Shelby, Michigan, had a domestic disturbance of another kind on their hands when a woman called them to report a pig on the loose. The woman, who clearly wasn’t a fan of bacon, said she “didn’t know what to do” when the pig came into her yard. It chased her into the front yard where, we kid you not, it was “distracted by a decorative ball”. As pigs are known to do. The police officers who responded said the pig didn’t give them much trouble as they captured it and put it in their car, but when they arrived back at the station they realised the one downside to putting livestock in the back seat of your car.
Teen driver says tanks for nothing
The British Army never yields.
A student driver in Germany made the unfortunate mistake of pulling out in front of a British army Challenger II battle tank in their Toyota Yaris.
It didn’t end well.
In an incredible stroke of luck, the teenage student was unhurt, the tank was unscathed and the Yaris’ boot still opened.
While the great battle of the German backroad, appropriately named Panzerringstrasse, won’t make the battalion archives, you can guarantee the Yaris’ driver will look both ways from now on.
UK artists make model citizens
The Good Oil found it all but impossible to not modify toy cars as a child. Not the favourites, of course: the slightly chipped one; a weird no-name Eastern European car; the one that could’ve been cool, except it was in a crap colour; or the one you nicked off the neighbour kid when he wasn’t looking — they were all ripe for enthusiastic, but poorly done modification.
Well, now it turns out Good Oil wasn’t “just wrecking perfectly good toys”, as mother may have liked to claim, Good Oil was creating art!
At least that is the excuse 12 UK artists have used for doing stuff to 1:18 scale Rolls-Royce Ghosts in the name of charity.
To raise funds for Breast Cancer Care, the model motor Rollers have been transformed to create “an extraordinary collection of one-off art pieces”, by artists including Maggi Hambling, Richard Wentworth, Gavin Turk, Mark Wallinger, JJ Adams, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Charming Baker, Natasha Law, Angela Palmer, Andrew Salgado, Stuart Semple and Yinka Shonibare.
They range from an intricate moss-covered creation to a Back to the Future time machine, to ... well ... a model Rolls with paint dripped on it. But, hey, it’s all for a good cause. And it’s art. Apparently. See mum, I knew what I was doing all along ...
Nissan back in retro blue
Nissan’s No21 car for this year’s Le Mans honours the livery of the No24 1990 record-setter, top. Pictures / Supplied
Mazda may still be the only Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Nissan has a milestone of its own to celebrate when it returns to the legendary race this year with its revolutionary FWD LMP1 car. It is the 25th anniversary of Mark Blundell’s staggering 3 minutes 27.020 seconds pole-grabbing qualifying lap, which also set a record that stands to this day — a 366km/h top speed on Mulsanne straight, with the chicanes!
While the brutal Group C Nissan R90CK didn’t finish the actual race, Nissan is commemorating the remarkable record by running the third GT-R LM NISMO LMP1 car in the same livery as Blundell’s record-shattering 1990 car.
“That lap of Le Mans is certainly a very fond memory for me,” said Blundell. “It was one of those moments where time stood still and everything went perfectly. You remember those moments, as they don’t happen all that often.
“It’s great to see Nissan celebrating that time with the retro livery on the No21 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO.
“I can’t wait to see it on track at Le Mans.”
The Good Oil is always a fan of good retro livery. And this is a very good one, even if the odd-looking GT-R LM has yet to completely win us over.
Number Crunching
320 DODGE CHARGERS
The number of Chargers used during The Dukes of Hazzard TV series.
17 DODGE CHARGERS
The number of undamaged Chargers that survived the series.
450 KILOGRAMS
Weight put in the General Lee’s boot to stop it flipping over after jumps.
7 GENERALS
The car was named after Robert E Lee, one of seven General Lees.