autoevolution
 

Aurel Niculescu

9,661  ARTICLES

Staff Writer
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Once upon a time there was a little boy that didn't know his age but dreamed of reaching high in the sky alongside the absolute best aviators. He was passionate about reading books (action and Sci-Fi), grew up with many great authors and soon discovered the mirage of cinema.

There he understood anything is possible if you work hard and passionately strive to follow your imagination. This is how at the age of 16 he managed to fulfill the first dream – flying alone in a glider plane. He was no Tom Cruise, of course, so young adulthood brought him back to reality.

With every kick in the familiar *utt comes a chance to step forward, so a seemingly unimportant ad in one of his favorite automotive magazines brought a dilemma - follow through with the current job or dare to achieve greatness by deploying (previously) unknown literary skills.

Since 2006, he’s been perfecting them at Automondial, Supercar, Cox, Autoshow, Autopro, Auto Motor & Sport, and more magazines plus their online versions. After driving some of the best and worst cars in Europe and around the world, he’s part of the autoevolution team, where he aims to develop his best-ever form.
Bentley's Bentayga Is Finally Part of the Mulliner Personal Commissioning Guide
Bentley's Bentayga Is Finally Part of the Mulliner Personal Commissioning Guide

5 Mar 2021, 11:30 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Mulliner’s so-called “Personal Commissioning Guide” has been taking care of the most imaginative or secretive personalization desires for some time for Bentley clients. But, until recently, one popular model was a major absentee f...

 
Tech-Savory 2022 Kia K8 Cabin Easily Puts to Shame the Cadenza's Dated Interior
Tech-Savory 2022 Kia K8 Cabin Easily Puts to Shame the Cadenza's Dated Interior

5 Mar 2021, 10:39 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Massive changes are taking place at the top end of the Kia model range, both literally and figuratively. While the South Korean company's SUV family is taking care of itself (with a little help from updates, of course), Kia continues to show i...

 
1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Has Serious Off-Road Mods and a Surprise Under the Hood
1997 Toyota Land Cruiser Has Serious Off-Road Mods and a Surprise Under the Hood

5 Mar 2021, 10:02 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / With Toyota’s Land Cruiser being the second longest-running SUV in production behind a much less reliable nameplate (hint, it’s the massive Chevy Suburban), one basically can’t go wrong with any of this iconic nameplate’s ge...

 
Low-Mileage 2000 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4x4 Gains Doug DeMuro's Seal of Approval
Low-Mileage 2000 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4x4 Gains Doug DeMuro's Seal of Approval

5 Mar 2021, 09:26 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / There really isn’t a secret that Toyota’s 4Runner is a great SUV. And, according to Doug DeMuro, the Japanese sport-ute is slowly but steadily turning into a popular choice even when it comes to older generations. Actually, he specifica...

 
Dodge Challenger “General Lee” Loses Some Mud Boggers, Tries to Reenact TRX Jump
Dodge Challenger “General Lee” Loses Some Mud Boggers, Tries to Reenact TRX Jump

5 Mar 2021, 08:48 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Because we all know there’s no such thing as bad publicity, YouTube vloggers that get away with destroying vehicles in the name of entertainment are going pretty much viral in this day and age. One perfect example of the breed is Mike Holt, t...

 
Corsa Performance Has an Entirely New Range of Loud C8 Chevy Corvette Exhausts
Corsa Performance Has an Entirely New Range of Loud C8 Chevy Corvette Exhausts

5 Mar 2021, 08:08 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Although it already has decades of experience researching, designing, and engineering the “science of sound,” Corsa Performance is a little late to the aftermarket exhaust party for the C8 generation of “America’s sports car...

 
Family-Owned 1992 Mercedes 190E Is a Snow White Stroll Down Memory Lane
Family-Owned 1992 Mercedes 190E Is a Snow White Stroll Down Memory Lane

4 Mar 2021, 14:29 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Automotive enthusiasts know very well that German premium cars from the 1980s and early 1990s hold a very special place in popular culture thanks to an almost mythical reliability level. But, as always, some will debunk this as just one of those ur...

 
DoorDash Takes a Whole New Meaning After Seeing Delivery Driver's Runaway Lexus
DoorDash Takes a Whole New Meaning After Seeing Delivery Driver's Runaway Lexus

4 Mar 2021, 13:45 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Runaway cars are not to be taken lightly, even when the incidents involving them have little to no consequences. And that’s especially true when the driver is bewildered to the point that he manages to damage the car while trying to extract i...

 
22-Mile 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser HJ45 Hasn't Actually Come Out of a Time Capsule
22-Mile 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser HJ45 Hasn't Actually Come Out of a Time Capsule

4 Mar 2021, 12:56 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / In case anyone hasn’t caught up with Toyota Land Cruiser history, the Japanese company’s longest-running series has been around Planet Earth since 1951 in a variety of configurations. Naturally, the most renowned body style is the SUV d...

 
Ant Anstead’s Tipo184 Will Make You Feel a Bit Like Fangio in the U.S. Too
Ant Anstead’s Tipo184 Will Make You Feel a Bit Like Fangio in the U.S. Too

4 Mar 2021, 12:09 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Not long ago, we discussed Ant Anstead (the Wheeler Dealers host, among other ventures) and his latest project that seeks to recapture the classic thrills experiences by legends such as Nino Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio. It’s called the Tipo...

 
Audi RS6 and Dodge Magnum Line up Their Large Tailgates With Camaro and Mustang
Audi RS6 and Dodge Magnum Line up Their Large Tailgates With Camaro and Mustang

4 Mar 2021, 10:40 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / We’re already well into 2021, and the traditional drag racing scene is still very much enamored with all things C8 Corvette, Mustang GT500, and truck-based contraptions. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something fresh, there’s th...

 
2021 Kia Niro Hybrid and PHEV Arrive With Tech Upgrades and Comparable Prices
2021 Kia Niro Hybrid and PHEV Arrive With Tech Upgrades and Comparable Prices

4 Mar 2021, 09:38 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Kia recently announced its year-to-date global sales, which so far have gone up 4.5% to 435,910 units. A big part of the momentum has been determined by the impressive performance from its SUVs, which are leading deliveries on a global level. Now t...

 
2008 BMW 335i Uses Single Turbo and Stock Motor to Give Domestics a Hard Time
2008 BMW 335i Uses Single Turbo and Stock Motor to Give Domestics a Hard Time

4 Mar 2021, 08:59 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / With a reputation for sporty elegance, BMW models equipped with the N54 engine aren’t exactly known for delivering “raw and untamed” performance from the twin-turbocharged straight-six setup. But a little love and knowledge will g...

 
Ford Posts Record Electrified Sales in February, but It's Not All Roses
Ford Posts Record Electrified Sales in February, but It's Not All Roses

4 Mar 2021, 08:08 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / With some of its most popular new models already plagued by issues, Ford needs a breath of fresh air. It’s a glass-half-full situation, though. For example, the company has reached record deliveries of electrified vehicles in February. In ret...

 
Restored 1983 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 Brings an Off-Roading Dream of Spring
Restored 1983 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 Brings an Off-Roading Dream of Spring

3 Mar 2021, 15:37 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / With the Toyota Land Cruiser being the Japanese company's longest-running series and the second-longest-running SUV in production behind the Chevy Suburban, one can never go wrong with this living classic. Of course, one has to decide whether ...

 
Virtual 2021 GMC Yukon Two-Door Looks Even Better Than Chevy Tahoe Counterpart
Virtual 2021 GMC Yukon Two-Door Looks Even Better Than Chevy Tahoe Counterpart

3 Mar 2021, 14:58 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / The Jeep Wrangler's incredible popularity and the reinvented Ford Bronco's rising stardom show how much people still love fairly compact two-door SUVs that double both as fastidious rock crawlers and open-top leisure vehicles. ...

 
Rumored 2023 C8 Chevy Corvette Interior Redesign Shown Without Its “Great Wall”
Rumored 2023 C8 Chevy Corvette Interior Redesign Shown Without Its “Great Wall”

3 Mar 2021, 14:03 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Although still flawed by many accounts, the mid-engined C8 Chevrolet Corvette has already proven the popularity of “America’s sports car” isn’t going to dwindle any time soon. Now it’s up to General Motors to balance t...

 
TFL's 2002 Toyota Tacoma Shows You Don't Really Need a Gladiator to Enjoy Moab
TFL's 2002 Toyota Tacoma Shows You Don't Really Need a Gladiator to Enjoy Moab

3 Mar 2021, 13:08 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / While some might get lost in translation when trying to figure out exactly how many social media channels The Fast Lane brand has created so far, we do appreciate their work because they tend to mix it up with lots of automobile fun. Case in point,...

 
2022 Audi RS e-tron GT Lets Us Sample the Silent Future of Autobahn Performance
2022 Audi RS e-tron GT Lets Us Sample the Silent Future of Autobahn Performance

3 Mar 2021, 12:05 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Audi’s e-tron GT and the high-performance RS e-tron GT were released only recently, but Ingolstadt is already letting some lucky folks experience their tremendous all-electric capabilities. Case in point, the Automann-TV channel on YouTube, w...

 
1971 Plymouth Barracuda Jumps Across Time to Live a Stick Shift Hellcat Life
1971 Plymouth Barracuda Jumps Across Time to Live a Stick Shift Hellcat Life

3 Mar 2021, 11:07 UTC · By: Aurel Niculescu / Back in the early 1970s, the famous Plymouth Barracuda was switching to its third (and final) generation. The Plymouth Valiant connection was finally severed, and the Chrysler E-body fittingly shared with the larger Dodge Challenger. Now, this tast...

 

Stories by Aurel Niculescu