Ciprian Florea
7,289 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.
Ford Racing 5.0-liter 4V Ti-VCT Engine Block Now Available
16 Jul 2013, 09:54 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Ford Racing Parts has announced that the 2011+ Ford Mustang GT 5.0-liter 4V VCT production aluminum engine block without piston squirters is now available for order. Made from low pressure cast 319 aluminum, the engine block features pressed-in ...
Oil Prices to Fall by Half Before 2014, Says Gulf Oil CEO
16 Jul 2013, 09:37 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Oil prices should drop to $50 a barrel, about half of today’s $105 a barrel, by the end of the year, Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski said earlier this week. Petrowski’s prediction comes just as gasoline prices in the United States went up...
Mercedes C-Class Under NHTSA Investigation Over Taillight Issues
16 Jul 2013, 09:05 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a preliminary investigation into 2008 and 2009 model year Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedans after receiving several complaints regarding the vehicle’s taillights and turn signal...
Nissan CEO Talks Datsun Brand Revival
16 Jul 2013, 08:34 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The new affordable Datsun GO 5-door hatchback, the brand’s first vehicle since 1986, was unveiled yesterday in India. Scheduled to go on sale next year with pricing below the $6,700 mark, the Datsun GO pledges to become a vehicle of “gr...
GMC Becomes a Man’s Truck in a Man’s Videogame
16 Jul 2013, 07:58 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / General Motors announced today that GMC will become the official vehicle of EA Sports Madden NFL 25 on August 27, when the 25th anniversary edition of the Madden NFL franchise will be launched. Already the official vehicle of NFL (National Footb...
Mercedes CLA Production Moving to Mexico?
16 Jul 2013, 07:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Even though the all-new Mercedes-Benz CLA has just been introduced onto the market, the German automaker is already pondering on moving the compact’s production from Hungary all the way to Mexico. Mercedes-Benz won’t be crossing the ...
2015 Ford F-150 Will Have Aluminum Body, Report Says
16 Jul 2013, 07:17 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Word has it the next-generation Ford F-150 pickup truck will go into production with an aluminum body, a decision that will help the half-ton truck undergo a severe but successful diet. According to The Truth About Cars, quoting “a supplie...
2014 Hennessey Corvette Stingray First Details Announced
16 Jul 2013, 06:51 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to high-performance US-built cars, Hennessey Performance takes things very seriously. So it’s no surprise that once the 2014 Corvette Stingray was unveiled in Detroit, the Texas-based specialist announced plans to develop severa...
Mercedes Teases 2014 S63 AMG
16 Jul 2013, 06:27 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Following the 2014 S63 AMG’s sneaky debut back in June, during a presentation film which announced the start of production for the all-new W222 S-Class, German automaker Mercedes-Benz has released the first official teaser with the high-perfo...
Ford Transit Supervan 3 Roars Up Goodwood Hill
15 Jul 2013, 15:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed gathered a great number of iconic vehicles in England, ranging from classic racers to the latest concept cars. No surprised there. But there's at least one contraption that probably attracted a lot more atte...
Audi Preparing A3-based Crossover
15 Jul 2013, 15:29 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / German automaker Audi planning to expand its A3 range with a compact crossover that could be launched in 2016 or 2017. Internally known as the "elevated space vehicle", the future A3 Allroad will be developed on the Volkswagen's MQB ...
Nissan Needs More Leafs in the US
15 Jul 2013, 14:54 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The days when the Nissan Leaf used to struggle on low sales seem to be a thing of the past, with the Japanese automaker now selling more than 2,000 units a month, four time more when compared to last year's volume. In fact, recent sales are...
Citroen Planning Limited Production DS3 Cabrio Racing Concept
15 Jul 2013, 14:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the spectacular Citroen Cabrio Racing Concept will reportedly be offered as a limited production model in early 2014. According to Autocar, fewer than 200 units of the Citroen DS3 Cabrio Racing ...
Supercharged V6 Mustang Raced at Road America
15 Jul 2013, 13:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Who says you have to own a V8-powered Ford Mustang to have some track fun? You can do that as well while in a supercharged V6 pony... and we have proof. The guys over at V6 Mustang Performance took their latest project car at the Road America in...
1966 Ford Mustang Stretched Into... Limousine
15 Jul 2013, 13:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Although we're great fans of the good ol' first-generation Mustang, this recent eBay find made us think, yet again, that the tuning industry has gone a bit too far regarding classic cars. We have nothing against restomod or drag racing...
Classic Lotus 98T F1 Racer Crashed at Goodwood
15 Jul 2013, 12:58 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Besides putting on a great show each year, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is also the scene of some unfortunate accidents. Most of the time no victims are reported, but a lot of the cars that get wrecked are very rare and expensive. Rather unfortun...
Goodwood 2013: NASCAR Toyota Puts On a Tire-Shredding Show
15 Jul 2013, 12:29 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Since its debut in 1993, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has become the main meeting place for all types of race cars, ranging from F1 single-seaters to the most powerful dragsters. This year's edition made no exception to the rule, and the ...
Mitsubishi i-MiEV Is the 100,000th EV Sold in the US
15 Jul 2013, 11:52 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Electric car sales in the United States reached an important milestone recently, with the number of EVs being delivered to customers surpassing the 100,000th mark. While some may find the number rather unimpressive, we think it's an importa...
HSV Explains Torque Vectoring Technology
15 Jul 2013, 09:58 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Dubbed Australia's greatest performance car, the brand-new Holden Commodore-based HSV Gen-F GTS is scheduled to hit dealerships in September with a great amount of power and a wide range of high-performance features. Among them, Australia&#...
Watch the 1954 Mercedes W196 Being Auctioned for Record Price
15 Jul 2013, 09:34 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed just gave the world’d most expensive car ever auctioned last week, with a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 being hammered at $29.6 million (£17,5 million). Auctioned off at a Bonhams sale on Friday, the Ger...