Ciprian Florea
7,284 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.
One-of-7 VW Transporter B32 Packs Porsche Goodies, Eye-Watering Price
18 Jun 2024, 15:14 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in late 1949 as the Type 2, the Volkswagen Transporter quickly became the hauler of choice for many people in Europe and the United States. Also known as the Bus or Kombo, the light commercial vehicle is still around, now in its seventh-...
Abandoned 1963 Chrysler New Yorker Is a Six-Door Yard Find You Don't See Every Day
18 Jun 2024, 12:40 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1940, the Chrysler New Yorker remained in almost continuous production through 1996. The vehicle served as the company's flagship model but was also slotted under the Imperial when the name was used within the Chrysler lineup rat...
1951 Willy Jeep Truck Gets Second Chance After 43 Years, Engine Refuses To Die
18 Jun 2024, 11:17 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / As soon as World War 2 ended in 1945, Willys turned its military-spec Jeep MB into a civilian rig. In fact, the company began producing the CJ-2 in 1944, but the 40 units built weren't sold to the public. One year later, the CJ-2A hit showroom...
1970 Dodge Challenger Flexes One-of-None Color Scheme, Aftermarket Goodies
17 Jun 2024, 14:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The 1970 Dodge Challenger is a decidedly cool muscle car. It sports an aggressive design, it's plenty powerful in most drivetrain configurations, and it was sold in eye-catching colors. However, some enthusiasts needed a bit more and went on t...
Up Close and Personal With the 1956 Chrysler 300B Boano, a One-Off Gem Designed in Italy
17 Jun 2024, 13:29 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The 1950s was a fabulous era for the automotive industry. America built massive and luxurious automobiles with big V8 power, while Europe designed some of the most beautiful sports cars. The same decade also spawned many hybrids, among them the 195...
Stunning Holy Grail: This 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Is a Low-Mileage Survivor
17 Jun 2024, 11:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in September 1966, the Chevrolet Camaro arrived more than two years after the Ford Mustang. And needless to say, it wasn't as popular as Ford's pony car. However, the first-gen Camaro spawned a few iconic rigs, all topped by th...
One-Owner Survivor? 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Emerges After 37 Years in Storage
16 Jun 2024, 10:53 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Ford had three performance-oriented versions of the Mustang in showrooms in 1968. The list included the GT, the Shelby GT350, and the GT500. But that didn't stop the company from unleashing three more for the following model year. 1969 saw ...
Bill Goldberg Showcases Perfectly Restored and Rare 1968 Plymouth GTX
15 Jun 2024, 13:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Bill Goldberg is mostly known for his wrestling and acting careers, but he's also a big car guy. He owns both modern and classic automobiles but has a thing for old-school Mopars. His collection includes several Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars ...
Light Blue 1958 Chevrolet Impala Is Pure Eye Candy, Packs Tri-Power Muscle
14 Jun 2024, 20:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to classic Chevrolet Impalas, there's no denying that the second and third-generation models (1959-1964) are the most desirable iterations of the nameplate. I'm also a sucker for the horizontally tail-finned 1959 version and...
1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Looks Like an Unrestored Survivor, Packs Revamped 351 V8
13 Jun 2024, 08:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in April 1964, the first-generation Ford Mustang soldiered on for almost ten years. However, notable updates introduced in 1967, 1969, and 1971 made the pony car look dramatically different at the end of its life cycle. The latter was a ...
Abandoned 1978 Porsche 911 Targa Goes From Gross to Gorgeous After First Wash in 20 Years
12 Jun 2024, 11:44 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / An iconic and expensive classic, the first-generation Porsche 911 isn't the type of vehicle you'd expect to find in derelict condition in someone's backyard. Yet many of these German sports cars are still waiting to be rescued after ...
This 1960 Scarab Was America's First Formula One Car, and You Can Buy It
11 Jun 2024, 17:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1950, Formula One began awarding a Constructors' Championship trophy in 1958. Did you know that none of the 66 trophies awarded as of 2024 went to an American manufacturer? No fewer than 15 constructors have won at least one ...
World's Last Surviving Ramchargers 1970 Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda Is Up for Sale
10 Jun 2024, 16:40 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / All-new for the 1970 model year, the third-generation Plymouth Barracuda moved nearly 49,000 units in its first year in showrooms. And that was an impressive figure compared to the previous years. However, only a few thousand units were ordered wit...
Stunning 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Doesn't Need a HEMI To Be Rare
9 Jun 2024, 16:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1970, the first-generation Dodge Challenger spent only a couple of years on the muscle car market. Sure, the nameplate remained in showrooms through 1974 but lost the high-compression V8 engines in 1971. Despite its short stint in the...
1968 Plymouth Road Runner Packs Rare HEMI Setup Under Sunfire Yellow Hood
8 Jun 2024, 15:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Having introduced the fancied-up GTX for the 1967 model year, Plymouth decided it also needed a more affordable, no-frills muscle car. It was born in 1968 with the Road Runner badge. Plymouth paid $50,000 (about $477,000 in 2024 dollars) to Warn...
This 1956 Nash Ambassador Is the Quirkiest Car You'll See Today
7 Jun 2024, 20:44 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about orphan car brands, we usually think about Plymouth, Oldsmobile, and Mercury. Packard also gets some attention, as do Studebaker and American Motors (AMC). But not many people seem to remember Nash, the company that merged with Hu...
1968 Shelby GT500 Has It All: Stunning Paint, Rare KR Setup, One-Year Gem
7 Jun 2024, 14:09 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Carroll Shelby and Ford teamed up to create high-performance Mustangs a few months after the pony made its debut in 1964. The collaboration lasted through 1969 and spawned two main nameplates: the GT350 and GT500. The GT350 arrived in 1965 as a ...
Mysterious 1965 Pontiac GTO Gets Rescued After Years in Yard
7 Jun 2024, 11:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Credited with popularizing the muscle car market, the Pontiac GTO is one of the most iconic automobiles of the 1960s. But like most muscle cars of the era, the GTO is a popular sight in junkyards and barns. And sadly enough, most of the rigs are in...
1969 Chevrolet COPO Camaro 427 Sells for $200,000, Some Say It's a Bargain
6 Jun 2024, 13:54 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In late May, I reported about a 1969 Chevrolet COPO Camaro going under the hammer. It's an L72 version, it looked stunning, and everyone expected it to blow past the $200,000. The auction is now over, and the COPO broke the $200K mark, but not...
Top Banana 1970 Dodge Challenger Is a T/A Survivor With One Little Secret
5 Jun 2024, 21:06 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When Chrysler developed the E-body platform for the 1970 model year, Plymouth chose to use it for the third-generation Barracuda. The nameplate had previously employed the A-body underpinning. Dodge, however, opted to keep the Dart on the compact p...