Dukes (car)

"Rock 60s style in this retro rear-wheel drive coupe."

- Southernsanandreassuperautos.com description.

The Imponte Dukes is a two-door muscle car featured in Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. In Grand Theft Auto V, the Dukes reappears, along with an armored variant, in the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions of the game.

GTA IV and GTA: CW
The Dukes is the quintessential American muscle car: aggressive 1970s styling, a large engine, and a low, roaring exhaust note. It appears to be chiefly modeled after the 1968-1970 Dodge Charger, while the front bumper appears based on the 1968 or 1969 Pontiac LeMans, GTO or the 1968-1969 Firebird. The Imponte name can also be found on the right grille of the front bumper, similar to the Pontiac name found on 1968-1969 Firebirds. The taillights resemble those of the 1970 Dodge Challenger and 1967 Chevrolet Impala with hints from the Charger. The body styling takes cues from many Dodge and Pontiac cars of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Dukes may be found with any combination of accessories, such as a small hood scoop, a pentagonal shaped hood bulge with the words "supercharged" written on it, rear window louvers, and a small rear spoiler. However, no Dukes will spawn with all options. As a possible parody of Dodge's Super Bee, a "Highway Reaper" version can also be found, featuring a large supercharger with a bug catcher, "Highway Reaper" decals on the rear quarter panels, a chin spoiler mounted under the front bumper, (nonfunctional) hood pins, and wire mesh covers over the grille and headlights, all with "750BHP" written on each side - referring to the Dukes' powerful 7.4 L, 750 horsepower V8 engine.

The GTA Chinatown Wars rendition is very similar to that of GTA IV, but varies in the manner in which they appear. Like in GTA IV, the game features two variants; they consist of a regular Dukes, which commonly appears all over the city, and a Spanish Lords Dukes, which is most distinguishable by its hood blower and neon underglow.

GTA V
The Dukes reappears in the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, retaining the same design as the GTA IV Dukes, as seen in a screenshot. When the headlights are turned off they're now covered by a retractable grill plate like the Dodge Charger's headlights, but instead of the plate descending from the top, it rises from below.

Performance
The Dukes is powered by a supercharged 7.4 L V8 coupled to a four-speed gearbox in a FR layout, pumping out a whopping 750 horsepower. Unfortunately, most of the power cannot be transferred to the road due to the heavy steel body, small number of available gears, and relatively small, undersized tires that result in wheel slip under full throttle in low gear. Acceleration is thus lacking, but the Dukes has a decent top speed of 156 mph (252 km/h). Lending to its design generation (mid 1960s to early 1970s), the Dukes has one of the softest suspensions on any vehicle, generating massive body roll in turns and resulting in unimpressive, sluggish handling, but the incredible amount of power delivered to the rear wheels causes massive oversteer, though, with practice, the player can powerslide with great ease, making the Dukes one of the most impressive powersliding vehicles in-game. The Dukes' handling characteristics and poor suspension requires cautious use of the gas and steering, as the car can easily spin out and fishtail. Braking on the Dukes is, as expected, poor. The large rear drum brakes, coupled with the large steel body and weak and undersized front discs make for extended stopping distances and front wheel lockup. Considering its age, ABS is unsurprisingly not available on the Dukes.

Crash deformation is acceptable, and thanks to its very heavy chassis, the Dukes can take many direct hits before failing/catching fire, making this vehicle good for long-distance travel or dangerous driving. However, using the Dukes as a getaway vehicle is not recommended due to its heavy, cumbersome handling, which opens an opportunity for higher level law enforcement to push the vehicle off the road and quickly disable it.

Off-roading in the Dukes is surprisingly not as bad as its design would suggest. While a lack of ABS and sub-par handling make sliding extremely common on surfaces such as grass and sand, an experienced player can use this to their advantage by using long powerslides around corners and giving any pursuers the slip. Steep hills should be avoided, as with all vehicles while off-road, however, if this proves impossible, the Dukes tends to be able to literally muscle its way over many obstacles players wouldn't expect, such as medium sized rocks and steep inclines. This can cause damage to your vehicle however, caution is advised.

The regular Dukes in GTA Chinatown Wars is generally somewhat above average in speed, handling and braking. Grip is quite poor, and the car often drifts out of control at high speeds, but not as bad as the Stallion.

Variants
In GTA IV and its Episodes, several variants appear, one stock, one with an added spoiler, one with a triple intake bug-catcher, light grille and front chin bumper and another with these modifications and a trunk spoiler, both of which are titled "Highway Reaper." The Highway Reaper can be obtained in GTA V through certain customisation options, even the Highway Reaper logo.

In GTA IV, a Dukes is requested as part of Stevie's Car Thefts, appearing across the intersection from Modo in East Holland, Algonquin with unique cherry red paint and dark metallic red trim. It will spawn in any variant. As a new Dukes will respawn at the same spot until the player delivers one to S&M Auto Sales, the player can save one at their safehouse before delivering another to Stevie.

In GTA Chinatown Wars, a Spanish Lords "gang" variant of the car exists as a derivative of GTA Chinatown Wars' Dukes, featuring a yellow body with red undersides, an engine blower, and red neon underglow that lights up at night. The gang variant also sports slightly improved speed, and superior handling and braking.

Main Article: Duke O'Death

A modified armored variant of the Dukes, named the Duke O'Death, exclusively appears in the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC version of GTA V for players who have previously played the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. It has the same chassis and body style as the GTA IV model, but features various aesthetic and performance enhancements, such as frontal bullbars, external rollbar-mounted lights, armor plates over its windows, and a unique supercharger intake on its hood.

Notable owners

 * Wade Heston owns a matte-black Dukes in GTA: Chinatown Wars.
 * Dan

GTA IV

 * Parked in the small parking area next to the abandoned Sprunk Factory on Argus Street, Tudor, Alderney
 * In the mission Lure for Francis McReary, an iridescently colored Dukes can be found across the street from the target's apartment on Denver Avenue, East Holland, Algonquin.
 * Commonly spawn in Acter, Tudor (Alderney), East Holland, Northwood, Purgatory, Star Junction (Algonquin), South Bohan, Boulevard, Fortside (Bohan), Cerveza Heights, Steinway, Willis (Dukes), and Schottler (Broker)
 * Sometimes spawn in Firefly Island, Firefly Projects, Beechwood City (Broker), and East Island City (Dukes).
 * Spawn in traffic during Multiplayer.

GTA Chinatown Wars

 * Regular Dukes are commonly available throughout the city.
 * Spanish Lords Dukes only spawn within Spanish Lords turf in southwestern Bohan and northeastern Algonquin.

GTA V

 * Spawns commonly in Rockford Hills, Davis and Del Perro.
 * Sometimes spawns outside Los Santos Customs in Burton and La Mesa, usually heavily modified.
 * Can be bought at www.southernsanandreassuperautos.com for $279,000.

GTA Online

 * Sometimes found around Rancho, Davis, La Puerta and Cypress Flats.
 * Rarely spawns on the Great Ocean Highway, just outside Los Santos.
 * Can be bought at www.southernsanandreassuperautos.com for $62,000.

General

 * The Dukes' default radio station is:
 * GTA IV: Liberty Rock Radio 97.8
 * GTA V: Channel X or Los Santos Rock Radio
 * The name most likely refers to the TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard, which stars a 1969 Dodge Charger. Also the option to add flags on the roof of the Dukes in the enhanced version of the game is also a reference to the iconic vehicle.
 * The vehicle's name may also be a reference to the Iron Duke engine, an inline 4-cylinder engine fitted into Pontiac and Chevrolet automobiles starting in the mid-1970s.
 * Since Imponte is based on Pontiac and the Bravado Buffalo is already based on a Dodge Charger (albeit later generations) it is likely that the Dukes design cues taken from the Pontiac GTO (mostly The Judge edition) influenced the manufacturer name choice over the more obvious Dodge Charger.

Grand Theft Auto IV

 * If the player takes a Dukes to a Pay 'n' Spray too many times it will turn a unique, dark (almost black) green color. This color will then be permanent, and no amount of subsequent resprays will change it. This is most likely a glitch, as almost every other car in the game will continually cycle through its available colours each time you visit a Pay N' Spray. The exceptions are the Buffalo from The Ballad of Gay Tony, the Infernus, the Banshee, and the PMP 600, which all suffer from the glitch.
 * A Dukes can be seen in the Pißwasser advertisement, being driven to the water in a pier.
 * The Dukes is one of the few cars that does not have a license plate, the others being the Slamvan, Contender, the beater variant of the Vigero, and most notably on most supercars such as the Comet, Super GT, Turismo, and the Infernus.
 * Some Dukes may spawn with black chrome (similar to the red chrome variant requested by Stevie), usually the rest of the car is either black or yellow.
 * In the game files, its name is "duke." This may have been the Dukes' beta name.
 * If the car is painted black, the car will appear to be a reference to the Fast and Furious series, being a classic Dodge Charger with a triple-slot "bug catcher" blower connected to the supercharger, nearly identical to that driven by Dominic Toretto.

Grand Theft Auto V

 * While the Dukes doesn't appear in the original version of GTA V, the player can modify their vehicle's wheels by selecting the Dukes wheels in Los Santos Customs. The car is also mentioned in the police scanner files under the filename "0x09223C6C," meaning it was possibly considered to appear in the original game.
 * The Dukes makes a brief cameo in GTA V. While watching TV, an advertisement may appear advertising the Cunning Stunt Academy in which two Dukes are featured in the logo.
 * Unlike the Hakumai in GTA IV, the Dukes' hidden headlamps function correctly
 * The Dukes can be modified to resemble the "Highway Reaper" from GTA IV in Los Santos Customs.
 * For an unknown reason, the Dukes found in traffic always spawn with a license plate reading "SA Exempt" instead of "San Andreas", as it were an emergency vehicle. This is also the case with other exclusive muscle cars, such as the Stallion and Blade.

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