Fifth Gear puts two of television’s most famous cars head to head: the Dukes of Hazzard’s General Lee against Starsky and Hutch’s Striped Tomato Gran Torino. Vicki drives both to find out how a stunt-driven Dodge Charger and a color-coded Ford compare once the cameras and choreography are stripped away. Decades after both shows ended, these cars remain instantly recognizable. Watch to see which TV legend comes out ahead.
Two of television’s most recognizable cars have never actually raced each other on screen, not really, not until Fifth Gear decided that needed fixing. On one side, the Dukes of Hazzard’s orange Dodge Charger, a car so famous it arguably has a bigger following than the show it came from. On the other, Starsky and Hutch’s red-and-white striped Ford Gran Torino, a car so tied to its show that saying the model name barely matters anymore, everyone just calls it the Striped Tomato. Vicki got behind the wheel to settle something decades of syndicated reruns never could.
The General Lee’s Hollywood Legacy
The General Lee’s Hollywood Legacy
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The Striped Tomato’s Quieter Fame
The 1969 Dodge Charger built into the General Lee became arguably the most famous stunt car in television history, largely because of how it was used rather than how it looked. Welded-shut doors meant every entrance and exit happened through the windows, and that horn playing the opening bars of Dixie became as recognizable as the car’s paint job. The production reportedly went through an enormous number of Chargers over the show’s run, jumping and wrecking cars at a pace that would be unthinkable for a production budget today, with some estimates putting the total number of Chargers destroyed across the series well into the hundreds.
Why Fifth Gear Keeps Revisiting TV and Movie Cars
The Striped Tomato’s Quieter Fame
Putting Two TV Legends on the Same Track
The Gran Torino never needed rooftop jumps to become iconic. Its red paint and white racing stripe did most of the work, turning a fairly ordinary mid-size Ford into one of the most recognizable liveries in television history, one distinctive enough that reproductions and tribute cars still circulate at car shows decades after the show ended its run. Where the General Lee earned its fame through stunts, the Striped Tomato earned its through sheer visual consistency, appearing week after week until the color combination became inseparable from the show itself.
Why These Cars Still Matter Decades Later
Why Fifth Gear Keeps Revisiting TV and Movie Cars
This is not the first time Fifth Gear has pulled an iconic screen car out of nostalgia and onto an actual track, and it will not be the last. Matchups like this one work because they translate a purely cultural argument, which car is cooler, into something that can actually be measured, how each one handles, accelerates, and behaves once the cameras stop dictating the action.
Putting Two TV Legends on the Same Track
Taking both cars out of their television context and onto an actual track strips away the stunt choreography and camera angles, leaving nothing but how each car actually drives. A Charger built for muscle car straight-line presence and a Gran Torino built more as a comfortable mid-size cruiser were never designed with each other in mind, which is exactly what makes putting them head to head so interesting.
Why These Cars Still Matter Decades Later
TV cars occupy their own strange corner of automotive nostalgia, valued as much for the shows they represent as for anything mechanical underneath them. Decades after both series left first-run television, the General Lee and the Striped Tomato remain instantly recognizable to people who may have never seen a full episode of either show, which says everything about how far a distinctive paint job and a good stunt reel can carry a car’s legacy, long after the actors, plotlines, and even the networks that aired them have faded from memory.
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Torino
Mopar
The general
The General of course
The general ,ofc!
General. DoH was arguably my favorite show as a kid when it was on. S&H were a few years before my time.
the General
General Lee!!!!!!!!!!!
General Lee Mopar or no car
The charger of course, the uuuugglly Torino isn’t even in the same class, but if I had a orange general Lee very soon it would be painted, and not a general Lee, I’m strictly mopar, but you see so many general Lee’s they are like a clowns car !
General Lee.
Torino!!! Tired of seeing General Lee’s!!!
I agree
Interesting point. I was going to say Charger but I’m 50/50 now. Thanks a lot!
General
Mopar
The Gran Torino
Red Torino, with a 429 SUPER COBRA Jet.
Oh yes
they did not use 429 engine,they used 351 ,400 or 460 CU.
I should have said put a 429 in the Torino.
To hard so ill take both..
Good Answer!
Torino.
Charger
The general.
General Lee
The General Lee of course because it’s the General Lee and also because I love these old Chargers
They fucked up that charger
The general !!!
Starsky& Hutch! TorinoBaby! Love Chargers Too Though!
Ugliest year Torino ever made.
The General!
Starsky & Hutch. I’m so sick of the General Lee, you see that one all the time
What a dumb Friggen question.
fact: they used 1974-1976 torinos in the show with 351, 360,400,460 cubic inch motors,the 360 motor was beefed up to 435 hp. special rear axel for higher excelleration
360 was a truck engine
You’re partly right. The motion picture cars with Ben Stiller were beefed up. The TV show fords were sheep in wolfs clothing. They dubbed in the sound effects. Most likely stock 351 cars with 2 bbl
The main car had a 428 in it.
I need to drive them both before I can make a fair decision…lol
Torino all day long.
The torino
Of course the General Lee
The General Lee
fact:they did use 1968 chargers doctored up to look like 1969 chargers.
Vanishing point HEMI Challenger
Star sky &Hutch
Both
That’s some serious body role on that Torino, both cars are just to big, I like pony cars!!!!
Lee.
I
Like them both but my first car was a torino. I go with torino
Loved both shows but I loved the 69 Dodge Charger!
was great shows with great cars
Charger hands down. ..incredible style..probably one of the top 5 best designs ever!!
The General Lee of course…..
The General Lee the Charger.
Both were well like car shows okay but I’m a mopar fan okay.
General, but want both icons.
General Lee!!
Both are nice cars but leaning more for the Torino!
General lee…no comparison
Torino would get smoked. End of the story.
The General, of course!
The general……
Mopar……no contest.
Gran Torino
The Gran Torino all the way.
The General Lee all day long
the general lee looks meaner and more cultural
General Lee always.
That was kool
Ford Starsky and hutch
Charger.
General Lee!
One is cool, the other is a Ford. I would take the Dodge.
There is No comparison! The Charger was designed to be a fast car and the Torino was not!
No comparison anyway,
The reason why I would be picking the Ford Grand Torino as well!
The General all day long.
The General. Not even close!
Gen. Lee!
Love them both. Ford guy, but I’d take one of each!!
General Lee, every-time!
General Lee. no contest.
the general
The General
all answers besides the one in front are wrong
YEPPERS DA CHARGER :)
They should have matched the charger with a early model Torino instead of the mid 70s model it’s heavier, less horse power, and not ass streamline, as the 60s model.
Charger, But I like them both!
Charger I owned a 68 383
The charger
Charger!!!!!!
charger !
Missing the Steve McQueen Bullet Mustang. my Fav
all class
The General Lee could leap tall buildings…