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.
Massive Barn Rescue in Scotland Uncovers Rare Jaguars and Chevrolet Corvette C1
30 Oct 2023, 14:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about American barn finds, we usually think about old cars discovered in the United States. However, North America isn't the only place to discover US-made automobiles abandoned in derelict barns or garages. Some of them made it a...
1969 Plymouth GTX in Sunfire Yellow Is No Lemon
29 Oct 2023, 21:08 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In 1966, Dodge took the midsize market by storm with the Charger, a fancied-up fastback available with Chrysler's most powerful engines, including the 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI. Plymouth responded a few months later with the GTX. Whil...
1959 Chevrolet Bel Air Neglected for 45 Years Is a Sad Sight, Still Gets Rescued
29 Oct 2023, 12:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The Bel Air name is most commonly linked to the Chevrolet Tri-Five series produced from 1955 to 1957, but the badge was offered for much longer than that. The Bel Air can be traced back to 1949 when Chevrolet introduced it on two-door hardtop ...
Abandoned 1982 Ford Crown Victoria Springs Back to Life After First Wash in 30 Years
28 Oct 2023, 22:31 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The Crown Victoria is one of Ford's most iconic nameplates. Introduced in 1991, it soldiered on through 2012 as one of America's most popular full-size cars. It was also the vehicle of choice for most police departments from 1998 to 2011 ...
1969 Dodge Dart Swinger Has It All: Unmolested, Original Paint, Numbers-Matching V8
28 Oct 2023, 19:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Initially introduced as a full-size car in 1960, the Dodge Dart got smaller and smaller until it became a compact in 1963. The shrinking happened so that Dodge would have a competitor for the Ford Falcon and Chevrolet Nova. The Dart shared underpin...
This 1970 Chevrolet Nova Hides a Rare Surprise Under the Hood
27 Oct 2023, 22:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1961 as a competitor for the Ford Falcon, the Chevrolet Nova (Chevy II) soldiered on until 1979, becoming one of the company's best-selling nameplates. Come 2023, the Nova isn't as desirable as other Chevrolets from the era,...
Unrestored 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS Emerges With Rare Color Combo and Original V8
27 Oct 2023, 15:44 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1963, the Chevelle was Chevrolet's first venture in the then-emerging midsize car market. It remained the company's bread-and-butter intermediate until it was phased out in 1977. But the Chevelle was more than just a high...
Bill Goldberg Shows Off His Rare and All-Original 1969 Dodge HEMI Charger R/T
27 Oct 2023, 11:55 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Famous for his wrestling career, Bill Goldberg is also a car nut. He's been collecting classic and modern automobiles since the late 1990s, and his garage is packed with rare gems. The 1969 Dodge HEMI Charger R/T you see here is one of his mos...
Triple-Black 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Is a Mean Mopar With a Rare Engine Setup
26 Oct 2023, 12:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Originally introduced as a full-size car, the Plymouth Belvedere was redesigned into an intermediate in 1962. And like most midsize vehicles launched in the early 1960s, it became part of the muscle car market. The nameplate joined the high-perf...
Sublime Green 1970 Dodge Super Bee Doesn't Need a HEMI to Sound Mean
25 Oct 2023, 10:50 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / What's the greatest muscle car of the golden era? Now, there's a question that's impossible to answer. Simply because the late 1960s and early 1970s spawned so many high-performance vehicles in the good ol' USA. Sure, many of...
Rare 1978 Lincoln Mark V Pucci Edition Parking Lot Find Looks Absolutely Stunning
24 Oct 2023, 10:34 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / It was 1977, and the Malaise Era had already settled in. Muscle cars were a thing of the past, and many golden-era nameplates had been discontinued. But while high-performance cars were no longer sought-after, the luxury automobile market was doing...
Massive Mopar Junkyard Is Loaded With Rare Dodge Chargers and Plymouth 'Cudas
23 Oct 2023, 14:21 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Looking at the many auction events and thousands of local cars and coffee meetings in the US each year, you'd be tempted to believe that most classics have soldiered on in one piece to this day. But the truth is most of them are still rotting ...
Hamilton and Leclerc Disqualified From US Grand Prix After Failed Post-Race Inspection
23 Oct 2023, 10:02 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have both been disqualified from the United States Grand Prix due to irregularities discovered during the post-race inspection. The Mercedes and Ferrari drivers lost their respective race classifications. This ...
This Burgundy 1964 Ford Thunderbolt Factory Dragster Is Rarer Than Hen's Teeth
22 Oct 2023, 17:23 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The golden muscle car era officially began in the mid-1960s when the Big Three started dropping big-block engines in intermediate vehicles. However, Ford, GM, and Chrysler rolled out some fantastic rigs earlier in the decade due to their heavy invo...
One-of-None 1978 Chevrolet Corvette Returns to Public Roads After 20 Years
21 Oct 2023, 15:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1968, the third-generation Chevrolet Corvette is the longest-running iteration of the iconic sports car. It remained in production through 1982 and soldiered on long enough to be part of the golden muscle car era and the dreadful mala...
Volkswagen Type 2 Bus Locked in a Barn for 25 Years Is Surprisingly Solid
20 Oct 2023, 14:26 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Some say the golden era of barn finds is behind us. That may be true when it comes to million-dollar gems, but thousands of vehicles are still waiting to be discovered across the US. Sure, this Volkswagen Type 2 is no Bugatti Atlantic or Ferrari 25...
1965 Pontiac GTO Hiding Under a Tarp for 15 Years Is Loaded With Racing Goodies
20 Oct 2023, 11:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as the vehicle that kickstarted the muscle car craze. Some say that's not entirely true. While I agree that Pontiac wasn't the first muscle car, I also think that it doesn't really matter. The GTO i...
All-Original and Unrestored 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 Proudly Displays Battle Scars
19 Oct 2023, 20:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in April 1964 as a pony car, the Ford Mustang developed into a full-blown muscle car by the end of the decade. In 1969, Ford already had no fewer than six high-performance Mustangs in showrooms. A carryover from the previous year, the...
Once Abandoned in a Field, This 1939 Plymouth Pickup Truck Is Now a Gorgeous Classic
19 Oct 2023, 14:15 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1928 and shut down in 2001, Plymouth is one of America's most iconic automakers. The brand is also responsible for a series of famous nameplates, including the Belvedere, Road Runner, and Barracuda. But did you know that Plymout...
1969 Plymouth HEMI Road Runner Spent Years in a Barn, Bad News Under the Hood
19 Oct 2023, 12:32 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / It's been 50 years since the dawn of the golden muscle car era, and iconic cars from the period still pop up in barns and backyards. Most are mundane, but rare gems are still being discovered and rescued. This 1969 Plymouth HEMI Road Runner is...