First General Lee To Be Auctioned At Barrett-Jackson

Just the Facts:

• The first General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard will be auctioned at Barrett-Jackson with no reserve.
• It's a 1969 Dodge Charger powered by a 383 V8.
• Its one jump appears in the opening of every The Dukes of Hazzard episode.
• After that jump it sat in a Georgia junkyard for 23 years.
• It was fully restored in 2006.

HAZZARD COUNTY, Georgia — It's the ultimate The Dukes of Hazzard fan-boy collectible: the very first 1969 Dodge Charger to portray the mythic General Lee. And next month the big watch and bigger hair crowd at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona will have a chance to bid on it. That's right, the original General Lee will be up for auction and there will be no reserve price either.

Inside Line first reported on this car back in 2007 after it made its first public appearance in a fully restored condition. That restoration was tough too, because not only was this the first car to play the General Lee, it was the first to jump. As it turns out, 16-foot high and 82-foot long jumps hurt Chargers.

Designated "Lee 1" during the 1978 production of The Dukes of Hazzard's pilot episode in Georgia, this Charger was featured in wrecked condition in a subsequent Dukes episode and then left in Georgia to rot in a junkyard until 2001. Retrieved and purchased by Travis Bell it went through another set of owners before being purchased by Marvin Murphy. Murphy than had Bell supervise the restoration of the car to its condition immediately before the jump.

Since its restoration, Lee 1 has continued to be owned by Murphy and was, says Bell, recently on display at the DuPont Registry's museum in Florida.

In an open auction with no reserve, there's no way to know how much Lee 1 might bring. However, a Hemi-powered General Lee replica owned by actor John Schneider was auctioned at Barrett-Jackson in 2008 and it attracted a $450,000 top bid. "If Lee 1 sells for less than that," says Bell, "it would be sad."

Alas, Lee 1 has only its original 383 V8 aboard rather than a Hemi. But then again, every other General Lee Charger is a replica of this one.

Inside Line says: If any 1969 Dodge Charger has the potential to attract a million dollar bid, it's this one.