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.
1960 International Prototype Truck Found in a Backyard May Be the Last of Its Kind
10 Oct 2023, 10:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about vintage pickup trucks, we usually think about Fords and Chevrolets. Because let's face it, the Ford F-Series and the Chevy Task Force / C/K Series are indeed America's most famous haulers. However, the pickup truck mark...
DeLorean DMC-12 Barn Find Emerges With Only 977 Miles and Rat-Infested Interior
9 Oct 2023, 15:20 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Created by John DeLorean, the father of the Pontiac GTO, the DMC-12 broke cover in 1981. Built in Northern Ireland, it was supposed to hit showrooms as an innovative sports car. Instead, the DeLorean proved to be a flop with poor performance and bu...
1973 Plymouth Road Runner GTX Is a Rare Museum-Grade Mopar Loaded With Options
9 Oct 2023, 12:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to the Road Runner and the GTX, two of Plymouth's most iconic nameplates, we usually think about examples from the golden muscle car era. And that's mainly because Chrysler dropped the 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI and the...
Barn-Found 1969 Aston Martin DB6 Needs a Nose Job, It's the Cheapest You Can Buy
8 Oct 2023, 13:25 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched in 1965, the Aston Martin DB6 wasn't a brand-new car as much as it was an updated version of its predecessor, the DB5. Sure, the DB6 had a longer wheelbase and a more streamlined rear end, but most of the styling cues and underpinning...
Rare, Low-Mileage 1971 Dodge Challenger Gets First Wash After 40 Years in a Barn
7 Oct 2023, 16:09 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Most barn-kept classics discovered nowadays are mundane vehicles built in the 1950s through the 1970s. But sometimes owners or barn find hunters unearth genuinely rare cars. This 1971 Dodge Challenger is one of them. 1971 was the second model ye...
Stunning 1971 Dodge Charger R/T Hides Original HEMI V8 Under Ramcharger Hood
6 Oct 2023, 10:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1965, the Dodge Charger was initially a departure from the company's mainstream cars. Developed in response to the Rambler Marlin and aimed at the premium market, the Charger was a fancier take on the muscle car segment. But e...
1955 Chrysler Imperial Gets Rescued After Decades in Storage, HEMI V8 Agrees to Run
5 Oct 2023, 20:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to 1950s Mopars, the Chrysler 300 "letter series" is arguably the coolest rig from the era. Sporting Virgil Exner's incredibly sexy design language and combining luxury features with 300+ horsepower engines, the 300 &qu...
1968 Dodge Dart Has It All: Rare GTS Package, Big-Block Power, 4-Speed
5 Oct 2023, 12:29 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Initially introduced as a full-size vehicle in 1960, the Dodge Dart became an intermediate in 1962 and was downsized once again to compact car duty in 1963. Dodge eventually pushed the nameplate into the muscle car market by the end of the decade. ...
Meet Centipede, the Six-Wheeled Eight-Door 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado
4 Oct 2023, 15:08 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced for the 1966 model year, the Oldsmobile Toronado was a game-changer for the US automobile industry due to its front-wheel-drive architecture. While FWD cars were already a thing in Europe at the time, rear-wheel-drive was still the pr...
1967 Plymouth Satellite Is a True Survivor in Incredible Condition
4 Oct 2023, 11:54 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1951 as a two-door hardtop version of the Cranbrook, the Plymouth Belvedere became a stand-alone nameplate in 1954. It was the company's bread-and-butter full-size automobile until 1962 when Plymouth moved the nameplate on the mi...
This 1962 Willys Interlagos Is a Rare, Brazilian-Made Sports Car With Alpine Roots
3 Oct 2023, 15:01 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1908 after John Willys bought the Overland Automobile Company, Willys-Overland Motors is mainly remembered for its military jeeps. The MB is arguably the most iconic, as it inspired the civilian CJ series and led to the creation of t...
Richard Petty's 1974 Dodge Charger Comes out of Hiding, Roars Like Thunder
3 Oct 2023, 12:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With seven championships and 200 wins to his name, Richard Petty is arguably the most successful NASCAR driver of all time. His impressive achievements list also includes seven Daytona 500 wins, most wins in one season (27 and 1967), and most conse...
Jay Leno Drives the Tesla Semi While Hauling a Second Truck, Calls It Amazing
3 Oct 2023, 08:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / First unveiled in 2017 as a concept, the Tesla Semi is still undergoing testing as of 2023. Sure, some trucks were delivered to PepsiCo Inc. in late 2022, but volume production won't start until 2024. Having tested the hauler in hot conditions...
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Saved From a Barn After 40 Years Flaunts Rare Color
2 Oct 2023, 16:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in April 1964, the first-generation Ford Mustang got its first update in 1967. The pony car got a sportier appearance, and the engine lineup expanded beyond the 289-cubic-inch (4.7-liter) small-block V8. An even more aggressive facelift ...
Abandoned 1955 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Gets First Wash in 60 Years
2 Oct 2023, 12:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / After World War 2, Mercedes-Benz returned to the passenger car market with the 170V, which it had introduced in 1935. In 1951, the Germans launched the 300 full-size luxury car, followed by the midsize "Ponton" series in 1953. One year la...
1967 Ford Mustang Parked for 40 Years Emerges in Surprisingly Good Condition
30 Sep 2023, 16:34 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / It's not unusual for classic cars to spend decades in storage. Many owners stopped using them and locked them up in barns or garages. Likewise, it's not uncommon for these vehicles to emerge back into the light with severe rust issues. Bu...
Foreign Carmakers in NASCAR: Failed European Attempts and Japanese Successes
30 Sep 2023, 12:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Founded in 1948 by Bill France Sr., NASCAR has been an all-American affair until Toyota got involved in the 2000s. But many people don't know that some European cars found their way on Cup Series tracks throughout the years. It started in t...
Sublime Green 1973 Plymouth Road Runner Is No Lemon Thanks to Supercharged HEMI V8
29 Sep 2023, 14:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The Pontiac GTO is often regarded as the vehicle that kickstarted the muscle car era in 1963. However, the "big engine in the smaller car" concept can be traced back to the early 1950s. On the flip side, we know for a fact that the golden...
The 1970 Plymouth Superbird Wrecked by Hurricane Ian Is Slowly Coming Back to Life
28 Sep 2023, 22:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Exactly one year ago, Hurricane Ian ravaged Florida, the Carolinas, and parts of the Caribbean. The deadliest hurricane to strike Florida since 1935, Ian caused more than 161 fatalities and catastrophic damage estimated at around $113 billion. T...
Unrestored 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Is an All-Original Z11 Gem in Fabulous Condition
28 Sep 2023, 17:25 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Did you know that General Motors provided pace cars for no fewer than 52 runnings of the Indianapolis 500? And that 34 of them have Chevrolet badges? Granted, that's not very surprising given that pace car duties have been handled exclusively ...