I absolutely HATE the word "clone" not so sure about "recreation" either.
Here's why, In the fall of 1999 I bought a basket case 70 Challenger S/E 383 4v FC7 that was a California car it's whole life till being brought to Pennsylvania in the late 90's. It was a VERY clean rust free car that was completely disassembled down to the nut and bolt. Being an "N" code car I bought the whole works for $4,000 IF this had been a "V" code car the basket case would have cost 3-4 times as much. The car didn't come with a numbers matching driveline so I began looking at my options.
I found a 1970 440 that was newly rebuilt and put a new six pack set up on it. When I built the car I originally went for a "stock" 440 six pack look and I used as many original type parts as I could find during the build. I completed the car myself with help from a friend who handled the paint job. This was a VERY nice car when done and I spent almost 30k restoring it. I drove this car a lot, I drag raced it, took it to car shows and man was it fun. Some people just went crazy when I'd pull in and open the hood, others would walk over look at the vin# and walk away in disgust!!! The car literally stood tall in a field of cars but the 5th letter of the vin wasn't "correct"
If you went for a ride I would GAURANTEE your butt wouldn't be able to tell the difference!!!
I never mis-represented my car as being a "V" code car but as far as being "real" it was in every sense of the word REAL it was a 1970 Challenger with a 440 six pack Dana rear end WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR??? (OK A HEMI)