When it comes to iconic American automobiles, there are few that immediately come to mind.

There's Richard Petty's blue No. 43 NASCAR racer, and the late Dale Earnhardt's black No. 3 Chevrolet.

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John Reynolds of Douglasville bought his 1969 Dodge Charger three years ago and says he's put over $35,000 in the General Lee replica. Click on the image to see more photos of the local "General Lee."

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There's even Herbie the Love Bug.

But few have attracted as loyal a following as the General Lee from the old "Dukes of Hazzard" TV show that ran from 1979 to 1985.

The General was a 1969 Dodge Charger painted orange with a Confederate battle flag on the roof and the number "01" on each door.

Built to look like a race car, the General had a rollbar, and the doors were welded shut, which meant the actors John Schneider, who played Bo, and Tom Wopat (Luke) had to climb in and out of the window opening.

Even though the Dukes of Hazzard show ended its original run more than 20 years ago, the show's following continues to grow.

On June 28-29 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a "Dukesfest" will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show.

AMS President Ed Clark said the early response to the festival has been eye-opening for him.

"We've had calls from Australia and Europe," he said. "That show has an unbelievable following, and it's not just from the southeastern United States.

"The show is a little on the corny side, but it takes people back to some pretty neat times when they were growing up."

Clark said the General Lee is a big part of the attraction of both the show and the Dukesfest.

He said organizers are hoping to attract 250 to 300 General Lee replicas, enough to create a bumper-to-bumper line all the way around the 1.54-mile track.

One of those cars belongs to John Reynolds of Douglasville, who is as loyal a Dukes fan as they come.

Reynolds, a sheetmetal worker by trade, hits the road most weekends in his General Lee.

It's equipped with a powerful 440-cubic-inch V-8 engine, just like the General Lees on the show that were used in jumps.

Reynolds has gone to great lengths to ensure that his car is correct in every way, from the push bar to the trim pieces down the sides. Not surprisingly, it's quite popular wherever he goes.

"You're literally a celebrity when you drive that car," Reynolds said. "I've had people follow me until I finally stopped so they could look at the car."

He said he's had some anxious moments when motorists pull up beside him on the interstate and try to take photos while driving at speed.

"I try to get them to hurry up," he said.

And there was the ex-girlfriend who moved on after she couldn't compete with the General.

"She broke up with me because she didn't like all the attention the car was getting," Reynolds said.

In many ways, the General Lee has deep roots in metro Atlanta.

The story began with the filming of the 1975 movie "Moonrunners," which was the forerunner to the Dukes show. Both the movie and the show were products of writer-director Gy Waldron.

In Moonrunners, the star car was a red and blue 1955 Chevrolet dirt-track car named Traveler, the name of the real General Robert E. Lee's horse and the name of the moonshine hauling car owned by the famous moonshine runner, Jerry Rushing of Monroe, N.C.

The Traveler in "Moonrunners" was built and driven by Ellenwood's Mike Head, who still races on dirt tracks around the Southeast.

He and fellow driver Charlie Mincey of Acworth worked as stunt drivers in Moonrunners, but their cars weren't as flashy as the General.

They were plain old Plymouth Furies, which Head and Mincey drove on rural roads near Haralson, Ga., doing jumps and stunts just like in the Dukes show.

"They paid us $100 a day, plus all we could eat," Head recalled. "But we had so much fun it didn't make any difference how much they paid us."

In the Dukes show, the fictional Hazzard County was supposed to be in north Georgia, and the early episodes were filmed around Covington and Conyers. Published reports indicate that more than 300 orange Chargers, some of which actually were '68 models, were used in filming the show.

Many wound up behind Cliff Shaw's shop in Dawsonville.

Usually after one stunt, the car was junked. Shaw, who beefed up the transmissions used in the Dukes stunts, eventually sent most of the General Lees to the crusher.

But he saved a few, including the very first General Lee, which sat rotting away until a few years back when some Dukes fans tracked it down, bought it and restored it.

"I sold that car for $500," Shaw said, adding that at the time, he underestimated the enduring appeal of the show. "Knowing what I know now, I'd have asked more for it."