Buried Treasure: One of Only Two Surviving 1972 Dodge Charger 440 Six Pack CarsLooks can deceive. This weathered, junk-covered 1972 Dodge Charger spent decades hidden away in a garage, and from the outside you'd never guess what makes it special. It is one of just two 1972 Chargers known to survive today that left the factory with the legendary 440 Six Pack V8. Now it's finally headed for the full restoration a car this scarce has always deserved, with the Auto Archeology YouTube channel documenting the journey.Related articles:Build It or Preserve It: The $200K Muscle CarThe Truth About Numbers-Matching Muscle CarsWhy More Collectors Are Actually DrivingAdvertisementAdvertisementIf you know your Mopars, you might be protesting right now — the 440 Six Pack was supposed to be gone after 1971. And you'd be mostly right. Chrysler had indeed planned to keep offering its 440-cubic-inch V8 topped with three two-barrel Holley carburetors in the 1972 Charger Rallye and the Plymouth Road Runner GTX. The company even printed dealer spec sheets advertising it. Then, in late October 1971, Chrysler reversed course and pulled the Six Pack option, reportedly because of emissions-related problems, according to a dealer letter shown in the video. The standard 440 and 440 Magnum stuck around.The catch is that there was a roughly one-week window after 1972 ordering opened but before that reversal was announced. In that brief sliver of time, no more than seven buyers managed to check the 440 Six Pack box. This Charger is one of only two of those cars confirmed to still exist.Far From Factory FreshInterestingly, the car was first owned by a Chrysler executive — which raises the question of whether that insider knew the Six Pack was about to be axed and grabbed one while he still could. From there it passed through the Chrysler Lease Lot and was quickly converted into a race car, with little regard for, or perhaps awareness of, how rare it really was. The numbers-matching engine that defined the car disappeared long ago, and the Charger was thrashed on drag strips through the 1970s and into the early 1980s before its owner parked it in a garage, where it sat untouched for years.AdvertisementAdvertisementThis car was never truly a mystery. It appeared in the May 2009 issue of Mopar Collector's Guide, and Ryan Brutt of Auto Archeology featured the very same car for Mopar Connection back in November 2015. It simply stayed buried under boxes the entire time. The family eventually decided to part with it, and the new owner sent it straight off for a complete, ground-up restoration. The plan is to return it to its original specification, the way it was before being cut up for racing — which means a 440 Six Pack will sit under the hood for the first time in more than four decades, since the car went into storage with no engine at all.
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