What’s “the most famous television car in the world”? We suppose that depends on who you ask, but to many, nothing but the General Lee could possibly hold the title. Of course, there wasn’t just one General Lee. In fact, scores of orange Dodge Chargers were filmed for “The Dukes of Hazzard,” and most of them never survived their first televised escapade.

Not so Lee 1, so named because it was the car that famously jumped over a Hazzard County police cruiser in the very first episode of the hit series. If you’ve ever seen the opening credits, you know the car we’re talking about… it flew 16 feet in the air over a distance of 82 feet. And, as you may have guessed, it didn’t exactly stick the landing.

No matter. Because of its notoriety, Lee 1 was saved from destruction and restored over a period of 16 months. And, due to that same famous history, we thought it might draw plenty of attention from the crowds at the 2012 Barrett-Jackson auction. In reality, bidding ended at just 0,000. That makes the final sale price a seemingly paltry 1,000.

Read more about Lee 1 and watch a video of it’s auction after the break, and check out our live image gallery above.

Continue reading Barrett-Jackson 2012: Dukes of Hazzard 1969 Dodge Charger General Lee falls flat [UPDATE: w/video]

Barrett-Jackson 2012: Dukes of Hazzard 1969 Dodge Charger General Lee falls flat [UPDATE: w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’ve been consumed with the ramp-up to next week’s Detroit Auto Show, there’s a more pressing matter on the international car events calendar – this week’s New Delhi Auto Expo. Ford Motor Company isn’t overlooking the burgeoning biennial show, and it’s taking the opportunity to reveal its first-ever world debut at the show, the next Ford EcoSport.

Debuting with a sliver of show-only frosting (check out those glitzy headlamps), the tiny crossover is about the same size as the Fiesta five-door, and it’s built on the Blue Oval’s new global B-Car architecture. Ford isn’t revealing much in the way of powertrain specifics for this thinly disguised model, but our sources tell us the EcoSport will see the first application of the company’s new 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine in India (yes, that means there will be an EcoSport EcoBoost), and presumably there will be an ethanol variant as well.

The upright CUV has been designed with emerging markets in mind, namely portions of Asia and South America, so we’re unlikely to see it in North America (we’d be more likely to receive the B-Max MPV), though our sources tell us that an eventual European market appearance is not out of the question. Roughly 90 percent of cars in those markets are B-Segment or smaller, and the previous generation of the Brazilian-built EcoSport has sold some 750,000 units since hitting the market nine years ago.

While the original EcoSport sold almost exclusively in Brazil, the new model will spread its wings to take on a more global role as part of the company’s One Ford agenda. To be assembled in both India and Brazil, the EcoSport represents the first time that Ford’s team in Camacari, Brazil has taken the lead in conceiving a global product, another indication of the market’s growing importance. The new EcoSport will be a lynchpin for the Blue Oval, who expect the Asia Pacific region to swallow up to one out of every three Ford vehicles sold by 2020 (it’s just one in six today).

Want more proof of India’s rise in importance? Officials tell us that Ford plans to treat the Delhi show as a first-tier show going forward, on par with Detroit, the Frankfurt Motor Show, and so on. Ostensibly, the show will replace a Tokyo Motor Show presence for the Dearborn automaker, as Ford was absent from last month’s show in Japan.

UPDATE: Additional photos and sketches have been added to the gallery, along with two official videos and a press release after the jump.

Continue reading Next Ford EcoSport now playing at New Delhi Auto Expo [UPDATE]

Next Ford EcoSport now playing at New Delhi Auto Expo [UPDATE] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thanks to our friends over at Road & Track jumping the embargo gun, we received our first sneak peak of the Lexus LF-LC Concept. Now the rest of the story has been published, with R&T taking a thorough look at how Toyota’s California-based Calty Design Research facility came up with the look of the racy hybrid 2+2 coupe.

“Only a few written attributes were given as criteria: avant-garde beauty, originality, driving joy and unequaled technology,” according to the story, which says Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda himself weighed in with a mandate that the car “have the ‘wow’ factor.”

Lexus has been working on the LF-LC Concept for a year and a half, so the concept is no mere auto show roller. That kind of attention-to-detail shows in the new photos, especially inside the car. A finely detailed interior with wave designs stitched into the leather door panels is a nice touch that reinforces the car’s exterior design language, which R&T says Lexus is calling “tumbling ribbon.” The car also has a multi-layered instrument panel that looks like it could have been inspired by any number of sci-fi video games.

One thing missing from the article is any further information about the hybrid drivetrain system in the car. Curiously, while the press release on Toyota’s Japanese website announcing that it would be unveiling the car mentions “Advanced Lexus Hybrid Drive,” that line was omitted from the release on the American site. Apparently we’ll have to wait until the car’s official reveal at the Detroit Auto Show on January 9 to find out what (if anything) is under the hood of the LF-LC.

There’s plenty more to take in, including two new beauty shots from Autocar, so be sure to check out all the photos in the gallery.

UPDATE: Lexus has released two high-res images and we’ve added them to the gallery above.

More photos of hybrid Lexus LF-LC Concept hit the web [UPDATE] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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