No big deal though because they were just plywood and clay design bucks. I think the real reason they were killed (as well as the whole ponycar line) is because nobody wanted ponys anymore.
360 you and I were both right, I finally got a chance to read the whole article. Many were made of clay, those you listed and then there were others that were not. I have included one that was not (found a pic on the net that matched the article).
Cudas, much like road runners and any large V8 car fell under the gun for Ma Mopar because of rising insurance for their performance line up and gas prices. However if you look at production numbers for a model line up like the cuda, they were selling better than earlier 1970s models when the line up was discontinued (just look at the production numbers). You can say they decided to kill their performance line up in its prime. No one will ever know if they had just continued producing cudas, road runners, darts, chargers, etc. that they wouldn't have had such a bad run in the late 70s.