Ciprian Florea
7,286 ARTICLES
Personal motto:
"If you can make black marks on a straight from the time you turn out of a corner until the braking point of the next turn, then you have enough horsepower." - Mark Donohue
You'll never catch him drooling over the latest supercar but he could spend hours talking about why he loves 1940s windshield visors, Mopars, and Studebakers. Naturally, most of his stories are about barn finds and rare classics.
He can give you several reasons why speed and power are more about motorsport than silly street wandering, and Can-Am machinery tops his ridiculously fast all-time favorite car list. He claims he could die happy after a Rattlesnake Raceway ride in a Chaparral and a cup of coffee with Jim Hall on the other side of the table.
Before landing on these pages, Ciprian's work has been published on outlets like TopSpeed, AmericanMuscle, and ThisWeekInMotors.
1971 Dodge Charger R/T in Rare High-Impact Color Hides 440 Six-Pack Under the Hood
18 Nov 2023, 23:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1966 as a fancied-up fastback, the Dodge Charger wasn't particularly popular at first. Sure, the company delivered 37,344 units that year, but it was a low number compared to other performance vehicles available at the time. Howe...
Rare 1961 AMC Metropolitan Parked for 50 Years Is Not Your Average Barn Find
18 Nov 2023, 14:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The 1950s are widely regarded as one of the golden decades of the US automotive market. The cars became bigger and more luxurious, while V8 engines grew larger and more potent. Both the carmakers and the buyers were following the "bigger is be...
1960 Chevrolet Biscayne Wagon Barn Find Is an Ex-Government Unicorn
17 Nov 2023, 15:31 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Full-size cars will probably be replaced entirely by SUVs by the end of the decades, but these rigs were quite popular back in the day. Specifically, Chevrolet sold more than a million full-size automobiles annually from 1955 through 1965. That...
1939 Ford Truck Abandoned for 65 Years Gets Rescued, Flathead V8 Agrees To Run
17 Nov 2023, 11:51 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In continuous production since 1948, the Ford F-Series is arguably America's most successful pickup truck. The new haulers are selling like hotcakes, while the early generations are now desirable classics. However, the company began making pic...
This 1957 Ford F-100 Panel Van Is a Tiny Retro Camper With a Westfalia Pop-Top
16 Nov 2023, 21:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / During the motorhome and camper craze of the 1960s, US automakers began offering conversion solutions for pickups trucks and vans. But if you're into 1950s utility vehicles, you'd be hard-pressed to find a camper unless you stumble onto a...
One-Owner 1977 AMC Hornet AMX Has a Rare Option You Probably Never Knew Existed
16 Nov 2023, 16:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The history of mobile homes can be traced back to the 1920s, but it was in the 1960s that motorhomes and campers gained mainstream popularity. Life on the road became so huge that automakers jumped on the bandwagon with accessories that turned cars...
B5 Blue 1970 Plymouth Superbird Doesn't Need a 426 HEMI To Shine
15 Nov 2023, 22:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The late 1960s and early 1970s gave us some of the most amazing American rigs. The horsepower wars were in full swing, and the Big Three were rolling out 400+ horsepower muscle cars like it was nobody's business. Ford had beefed-up Mustangs...
1971 Plymouth Scamp in Rare and Controversial High-Impact Color Needs a Second Chance
15 Nov 2023, 14:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In 1959, Plymouth joined the emerging compact car market with the Valiant. It was built on the then-new Chrysler A platform, which became highly popular and soldiered on through 1978. Marketed initially as a stand-alone model, the Valiant became...
1967 Shelby GT500 in Need of TLC Hides an Unexpected Surprise Under the Hood
15 Nov 2023, 10:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched as a mild pony car in April 1964, the Ford Mustang needed only a year to become a fully-fledged muscle car. 1965 saw the arrival of the Shelby GT350, a lightened, track-focused version. In 1967, Carroll Shelby unleashed the GT500. The l...
1950 Cadillac "Le Monstre" Comes out of Long-Term Storage To Showcase Wing-Like Body
14 Nov 2023, 15:20 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In 2023, Cadillac returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans after a 21-year hiatus. The venture saw the American company score its first podium in the iconic event, with a V-Series R finishing third behind a Ferrari 499P and a Toyota GR010 Hybrid. It ...
One-of-One 1970 Oldsmobile 442 W30 Looks Fabulous in Plum Crazy Purple
14 Nov 2023, 13:33 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced for the 1964 model year, the Pontiac GTO became an unexpected success and kickstarted the muscle car wars. Over the next few months, other GM brands jumped on the high-performance midsize bandwagon. Chevrolet created the Chevelle SS, ...
1960 Pontiac Parisienne Hidden for 50 Years Is a Stunning Canadian Survivor
13 Nov 2023, 21:02 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Produced from 1958 to 1987, the Parisienne is one of Pontiac's longest-running nameplates. Yet it's anonymous compared to the GTO, Catalina, and Bonneville. And that's mainly because it wasn't sold in the United States until 198...
This 1970 Plymouth Duster Is an Unexpected Junkyard Gem With a Rare Feature
13 Nov 2023, 16:07 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to Plymouths from the golden muscle car era, it's the Road Runner, GTX, and Barracuda that get all the attention. They're among the most iconic Mopars ever made, and some of them fetch big bucks on the classic car market now...
1970 Plymouth Superbird Hidden for Decades Is an Incredible Barn Find
13 Nov 2023, 13:29 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Built in 1970 in around 2,000 units, the Plymouth Superbird is a relatively rare classic. It's not quite as scarce as the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, but a few hundred examples are still missing in action. While some Superbirds have been de...
Spotless 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T Flexes Super Rare Engine and Color Combo
12 Nov 2023, 20:33 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced for the 1970 model year, the original Dodge Challenger was a bit late to the muscle car party. And while Chrysler kept the first-generation model in production until 1974, the Challenger lost its golden-era muscle car privileges at the e...
1958 Mercury M-100 Pickup Truck Hidden in a Warehouse Is Rarer Than Hen's Teeth
12 Nov 2023, 14:23 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1938, Mercury served as Ford's medium-price brand and slotted below Lincoln. It was phased out in 2011 due to poor sales, leaving a few iconic nameplates behind. I'm talking about the Cougar, Marauder, Montclair, and Grand ...
1965 Jeep M679 Abandoned for 30 Years Is a Rare Forward Control Military Relic
11 Nov 2023, 14:55 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1908, Willys-Overland focused on passenger cars until the late 1930s. That changed after WWII when the company chose to concentrate on utility vehicles based on the highly popular, military-spec Jeep. Launched in 1944, the civilia...
Petty Blue 1973 Dodge Dart 340 Is No Superbird, But It's Just as Spectacular
10 Nov 2023, 14:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Dodge introduced the Dart in 1959 as a slightly downsized large car for the low-priced segment. Only two years later, the company decided the Dart was better off in the midsize class. But that didn't last long either. The following year, the D...
Moulin Rouge 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda Is a Pink Sleeper With a Nasty Surprise Under the Hood
9 Nov 2023, 16:13 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about the third-generation Plymouth Barracuda, people usually go nuts over the 1970-1971 HEMI 'Cuda. And I get that. With only 780 units sold over two model years, the HEMI 'Cuda is one rare Mopar. Moreover, the super-rare co...
1958 Chevrolet Biscayne Pampered for 65 Years Is All Original and Unrestored
9 Nov 2023, 15:06 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / 1958 was a big year for Chevrolet. GM celebrated 50 years of automobile production that year and commissioned new range-topping models with a similar design for each brand. Chevrolet introduced the Impala as a top-of-the-line full-size car. Slot...