- You may be looking for Dukes, a borough in Liberty City.
Template:Infobox vehicles
The Imponte Dukes is a two-door muscle car featured in Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and possibly Grand Theft Auto V.
Description
Design
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 the1968-1969 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, with hints from the Charger. The body styling takes cues from many Dodge and Pontiac cars of the '60s and '70s.
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 7.4L, 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.
The Dukes returns in GTA V, appearing very similar to the way it did in GTA IV. Not much else is known about this rendition.
Performance
The Dukes has a supercharged 7.4L V8 coupled to a four-speed gearbox in a FR configuration, pumping out a ridiculous 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 (251 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 sluggish and heavy 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 surprisimgly not as horrendous as it's 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 it's 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, 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. 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.
Notable owners
- Wade Heston owns a matte-black Dukes in GTA: Chinatown Wars.
Trivia
- In Grand Theft Auto IV, the Dukes' default radio station is Liberty Rock Radio 97.8.
- 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.
- 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
- The name most likely refers to the TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard, which stars a 1969 Dodge Charger.
- 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.
Locations
GTA IV + Episodes from Liberty City
- Parked in the small parking area next to the abandoned Sprunk Factory, 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.