TOM,well it must be and age thing. I remember the talk in the old days about this 1972 Hemi Cuda when cars were just something to drive and race the crap out of. Many people from the Two Hemi Owner Clubs had heard about this car,me included. Most did not even care if it was real,it was a 1972 and most people thought that Performance died with Chrysler at the end of 1971.I can see if this car came from the factory with a Hemi in 1972 that it likely would have its motor pulled and put in an older car or the motor was blown up and the body pushed in the woods you talk about. You have to remember only about 1 out of 10k new anything about H,J,R, on a serial numbers back in the 70s.No one looked at a 1972 Cuda back then there were all kinds of 66-71 HiPo Mopars to choose from.

I had heard that Ron Addair had tried to purchase this 1972 Hemi Cuda back in mid 80s, but we will never know what Ron new about this car since he is now not with us.

There were V code cars built in 1972,why not and R code.Were there Pre Year builds at Hamtramck for the 1972 Build in June or July of 1971. We would need someone that was involved in the Pilot Build for the 1972 Hamtramck build to tell us what really went down the line.