1997 Dukes of Hazzard Reunion: "GL 2"During the Reunion Movie, this car was titled as "GL 2". It is a 1969 318 Charger. GL 2 would be considered the #1 “Hero” or “Close Up” car. This car was the nicest of the three cars and was used for almost all of the interior shots. GL 2 was mostly used for close-up driving scenes. John Schneider drove this car a lot during filming. This car also had the cleanest engine and bay. In the fast action scene where the Dukes and Cooter are fixing the General Lee in the garage, that is this car. If you watch carefully you can see a lot of the parts that were used on the engine.
GL 2 Characteristics:
|
|
2000 Hazzard in Hollywood: "GL 2"The car's appearance didn't change from 1997-2000. This time, the two nicer cars from '97 took a back seat to John Schneider's General Lee. The car was still a "Close-Up/Hero" car for the 2000 Reunion.
GL 2 Characteristics:
|
|
2005 Dukes of Hazzard Movie: "GL#003"For the 2005 movie this car's new title was "GL#003". #003 was the first of two extremely elaborately constructed Remote Driven Vehicle (RDV) Chargers. These were heavily modified by the special effect unit to mount a driver on top of the car's roof while leaving the rest of the car looking normal. This car was in very nice condition until it was cut up for the massive amount of cage. When #003 arrived in Baton Rouge, it was still wearing it's Reunion General Lee paint job.I remember the first time I saw the car in person on Oct 30, 2004. At the time, I wasn't aware that it was a screen used General Lee. From the way it looked, I assumed the crew painted the car and applied the decals... then the modifications began. I remember thinking to myself, "Why would they have gone to the trouble of putting the flag and lettering on the roof, just to turn around and punch holes through it?". If I only knew then what I know now, I would have snapped more pictures of it. During that time, the car was still very original to the way it was on the Reunions. GL#003 was the first of two RDVs that were completed. Being the first, a faded orange "Pre-Cooter" paint job was applied. All of the mechanical systems on this car were operated via the electrical and hydraulic connections on the roof. A custom built driver's pod could be bolted onto the roof in about an hour and the systems all hooked up quickly. There were two RDVs built, but only one driver pod. GL#003 was caged heavily from the radiator core support back to the tail lights. The wiring harnesses in this car were incredibly complicated. It had a very small fuel cell in the trunk, perhaps a two gallon unit. There was an enormous steel skid plate mounted under the car which completely shielded the engine and transmission. There were air bags at all four corners, front and rear sway bars, and coil over shocks all the way around. The car had Wilwood 11inch disc brakes on all four corners with two calipers per rotor. This car had a somewhat shaggy black interior and was used quite a bit during early filming in November '04. This car was used for low speed driving scenes where it was desired to show the actors within the car while allowing the camera to pan around the car and show that it was being driven and was not a conventional mic-rig car. When you see shots of the actors in the car and it's moving, then the camera pans back or around to show them inside a rolling, driving car, notice that you'll only see the car from the roof down. Those scenes were done using these RDV cars. Interestingly, neither RDV car had Charger tail lights. Both #003 and #013 used plain aftermarket trailer-type tail lights in the large openings for brake lights, which indicates no footage was used from behind the vehicle. These were extremely heavy cars due to the cages and shielding, so they were built on very solid Chargers. The empty weight of this car was reported to be 6800 lbs, GL#003's filming wrapped up in December '04 and it remained parked in the back of the FX building throughout January. While parked, #003 was being robbed for parts to keep the other RDV (GL#013) on the set. On Jan 25, the driver's seat was out, the hood was up, and it looked like a number of small components were missing under the hood. During many trips to the lot on the first week of February, #003 was missing. A number of components, such as the air bag shocks and suspension components were lying around on the FX shop workbenches. GL#013's suspension was badly damaged following a bottoming out incident, so GL#003 was rushed over to the paint booth and repainted again in Post-Cooter colors. The fresh tan interior out of GL#013 was swapped into GL#003 and then went out to finish filming in the place of GL#013. GL#013 was placed in the local storage warehouse and was then out-of-view for the remainder of filming. On Feb 10, 2005 GL#003 was parked near the FX building with the driver pod removed as well as both doors. It appeared that a number of parts had been taken off the car. On Feb 16, 2005 the car left Baton Rouge for California still minus it's doors. There was barely enough room on the car hauler and GL#003 hung off the rear of the trailer with a red flag on the bumper. In early May 2005, Elia Popov reported that GL#003 literally rolled off the back of the trailer and suffered major rear suspension damage and had severe damage to both quarter panels. GL#003 was intended to do green-stage filming in CA but since the accident, GL#013 was repainted Pre-Cooter and filled in.
|
|
