By 1972, most American automobile manufacturers had seriously cut back on their Muscle Car offerings. Gone were the high compression big blocks and incredible quarter mile times. Things were changing, and the cars would have to change as well. Mopar was not immune to these changes, by 1972 the 426 Hemi, King Kong, was dead in a production vehicle. But there was the smallest glimmer of life, and that was the 1972 440 Six-Pack/Barrel option.

Most Mopar fanatics know nothing of this option, because it was only available for an extremely small time frame in the dawn of the 1972 model year. And was quickly killed because it could not make emission standards for the year. But the option did appear in much of the factory literature for the 1972 model year, as well as magazine articles.

I was fortunate enough a few years ago to document the only known, documented 1972 V-Code 440-6 Barrel Road Runner. This car will be debuted, fully restored at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals 2015 (www.mcacn.com). There is no actual documentation that any other Road Runners existed. A magazine had a review of a “72” 440-6 Road Runner with a 4-speed. But further digging revealed it to a ’71 car done up like a ’72 for promotional work.

The only other two known and documented V-Code cars was two ’72 Chargers. One red, it was owned by Ron Slobe of R&R Salvage until his passing, then disappeared I heard onto the east coast. The other never went far from home, and always stayed around Detroit. A yellow ’72 Charger Rallye. That’s this exact car.

I started talking to the owner of the car, after he read my article on the ’72 V-Code Road Runner. And we were finally able arrange a meetup so I could get a look at his dad’s Charger. Unfortunately that is all I could get was a look. The son was soon moving, so was using the garage for storage of boxes for the move, so the Charger was fully buried. But it is well known enough that I knew that this was legit. A real ’72 Charger Rallye 440-6.

Insane what is still out there, somewhere is the red ’72. Here’s hoping I get a chance to document that one as well! If anyone has documentation on this car, or any other ’72 V-Code cars, please let me know.