Police Finally Catch General Lee

[HossC]

It looks like the British police have finally done what Boss and Rosco struggled with - they've caught the General Lee.

 

The car in question was a replica which had broken down with gearbox trouble (I thought the General only got the vapors!). The police took the opportunity to make a couple of tweets, but admitted that the car was "fully road legal" and no offences had been committed. Full story at www.bbc.com.

[Roth Potter]

Wasn't it a few years ago that someone else from the UK got pulled over in a General Lee, but that time is was for using the Dixie Horn? I could be wrong but what I remember was his surname was Duke and the couple inside was just married.

[HossC]

Well remembered, Roth. That was Wayne Duke down in Dorset (south-west England) back in 2014. I know I posted about it at the time, but you can read an update saying that the charges were dropped at www.dorsetecho.co.uk.

[Andrew D Charger Chaser]

Fascinating stories, both!

Interesting to see also that the vehicles didn't have to be changed to right-hand-drive...I remember once being in a Caribbean island country with right-hand drive vehicles (had been a British Commonwealth nation) and someone cut us (tour bus) off in a US-style left-hand-drive car. Our driver was furious saying "Those things shouldn't be allowed on the road here!!" Was clearly implying a safety issue.

[HossC]

Even though left-hand-drive is the standard in Continental Europe, we get very few here (other than tourists). It tends to be only a handful of US and European cars of a certain age which were never made in right-hand-drive. Believe it or not, 2016 was the first generation Mustang available as right-hand-drive from the factory, although small companies in the UK used to convert them. In the UK there's a market for used cars imported from Japan (Nissan Skylines etc.), but Japan is also a right-hand-drive market.

 

The main problem with vintage American cars in the UK and Ireland (other than their size and fuel consumption) is the lack or orange turn signals. There are some clever conversion kits which preserve the original look of the car, while other owners just wire in temporary lights to pass their annual test. I spoke to a General Lee replica owner at a US car show a couple of months ago, and when he took his car to be tested, the tester told him he couldn't test it because it didn't have headlights!

[Roth Potter]

I'm not sure how it work with turn signals over here but I've seen american cars with the tail lights on one side blinking once way long ago, i believe it was an 03' Mustang. I dont know how they would function on the front.

What I do know however is that your not allowed to have a horn with more than one tone, meaning you can have a musical horn but only if you wire it so it doesn't function as the original horn you use with the horn ring/button on the wheel.

Also you can not have the wide pushbar over here as the pushbar on those are directly welded to the frame. Your not allowed to have something which alters the cars' crash structure. Knowing this the small pushbar would'nt be allowed here either but I've seen pictures or people using them so i guess they make an exception for that as the crash structure still works normally I guess.

I don't know the rules for this in the UK but went I was in the UK I went to a museum and saw my first ever general lee painted charger (it was a 68, still better than none). it had a wide pushbar, and I just had to know if they welded it to the frame there. This is the only time I ever layed on the floor of a museum to take pictures. this is what I saw.

Welded to the frame. I wonder if it was street legal.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Roth Potter

[RogerDuke]

If I was a cop and saw a General Lee I'd probably pull it over and tell the driver the tail light was broken....just for fun....(I might get fired for it but it would be worth it)