General Lee Stock Car

For Season 5 of The Dukes of Hazzard, John Schneider and Tom Wopat left the show due to royalty disputes with WB. The explanation for their departure in the show was that they had signed on with the NASCAR circuit to go racing professionally. In the show, Bo and Luke were replaced for their farm duties with their cousins, Coy and Vance, and they left the General behind.

I’ve always thought it would be interesting if the story actually followed them on the racing circuit, and especially if they had taken the General with them. What if they had retrofitted the General Lee to NASCAR safety and light-weighting specs? What would the car look like…?

This is my vision of Stock Car General Lee. First, they’d have to lose the push bar. Add a front splitter and replace the ’69 Charger grille with an aluminum dummy panel. Holes would be drilled in the front panel for airflow to the engine. Hood pins would be added for safety. The Shelby American Vector wheels would be safely stored in Uncle Jesse’s barn and replaced with steel D-slots mounted on Goodyear slicks. Finally, side-exit boom-tube exhaust would channel spent gasses out in front of the rear tires.

This sketch was done with pencil, Copic markers, and Faber-Castell ink pen on 8.5×11 printer paper.