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.
Triple-Black 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Is Dressed To Impress, Packs Rare HEMI Setup
8 Sep 2023, 20:15 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Mopars from the golden muscle car era have quite a few things to brag about. They were sold with impressively potent big-block V8 engines, looked mean, and were available in several flashy High-Impact colors. Who doesn't love a Dodge in Plum C...
Ice Blue 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Gran Coupe Doesn't Need a HEMI To Stand Out
8 Sep 2023, 13:17 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With only 666 examples built for the 1970 model year, the Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda is the ultimate Barracuda when it comes to performance and scarcity. Enthusiasts can take it up a notch with the Convertible version, which is a million-dollar colle...
Perfectly Restored 1966 Dodge HEMI Coronet Convertible Is Rarer Than Hen's Teeth
8 Sep 2023, 10:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced on production cars in 1966, the street-spec version of the iconic 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8 remained on the options list through 1971. But despite its six-year run, the high-performance mill barely hit a five-digit production ou...
1970 Ford Torino Cobra Parked for 32 Years Is a Rare Cobra Jet in Terrible Condition
7 Sep 2023, 18:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to classic muscle cars, nothing compares to unrestored and unmolested survivors that still run and drive. Restored examples are nice, too. Unfortunately, most of these once glorious vehicles are now rotting away in junkyards and barns...
Mundane-Looking 1965 Dodge Coronet Is Actually a Rare A990 Sleeper
7 Sep 2023, 14:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1949 as the company's range-topping full-size car, the Dodge Coronet soldiered until 1959. Chrysler revived the nameplate in 1965 as a midsize vehicle to compete in the newly established intermediate segment. The fifth-generation...
Abandoned Mansion Hides a Rare, Pristine-Condition Sports Car in the Garage
7 Sep 2023, 11:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Most old cars end up in junkyards when their owners are done with them. And they're either dismantled for parts or sent to the crusher. Many classics are still spending their retirement years abandoned in barns or backyards. But not all of the...
1968 Plymouth Road Runner Is the Perfect Sleeper, Hides Rare V8 Under the Hood
6 Sep 2023, 12:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced for the 1968 model year as a more affordable alternative to the GTX, the Plymouth Road Runner was the company's cheapest entry into muscle car ownership. And while it was stripped off the fancy interior trim of the GTX, the Road Run...
Check Out the 1966 Dodge Charger "Lawman," One of the First 426 HEMI Mopars Ever Built
5 Sep 2023, 19:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Chrysler first introduced the HEMI engine in 1951 and has since developed three generations of the iconic mill. The second-gen unit is by far the most legendary. The 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI was born as a NASCAR engine in 1964 and found its ...
Rare 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda Convertible Hides a Nasty Surprise Under the Hood
5 Sep 2023, 12:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1964, two weeks before the Ford Mustang, the Plymouth Barracuda remained in showrooms for about ten years. Initially a pony car, the Barracuda morphed into a fully-fledged muscle car in 1969, when Plymouth launched the third-generatio...
1970 Plymouth Superbird Pampered for 53 Years Is All Original and Unrestored
4 Sep 2023, 15:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced for the 1970 model year, the Plymouth Superbird is one of two NASCAR homologation "wing warriors" built by the Chrysler Corporation. The Superbird followed the Dodge Charger Daytona, launched in 1969, and won 18 races on NASCAR...
World's First Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda Is a Unique Million-Dollar Gem Resting in a Museum
4 Sep 2023, 14:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1964 as a pony car aimed at the Ford Mustang, the Plymouth Barracuda morphed into a fully-fledged muscle car by the end of the decade. But it didn't get the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8 until the 1970 model year. ...
Rare 1970 Dodge Super Bee Sitting in a Farm Field Flexes Unusual Feature
4 Sep 2023, 11:49 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Junkyards can be depressing if you love classic cars. Some of them don't deserve to spend their retirement years rotting away. However, exploring scrapyards can be fun, too, because it often leads to finding rare gems or unusual project cars. ...
Pink 1970 Plymouth Superbird Wasn't Born This Way, but It Looks Fabulous
3 Sep 2023, 16:27 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1970, the Superbird was Plymouth's take on the Dodge Charger Daytona, a homologation muscle car developed with NASCAR racing in mind. The Superbird looked almost identical to the Daytona and arrived in showrooms with a selection ...
Rare 1959 Aston Martin DB4 Hidden for 40 Years Flaunts an Unexpected Feature
1 Sep 2023, 19:43 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Some say the golden age of barn finds is behind us. That may be true when discussing super-rare Ferraris and Bugattis, but scarce and desirable classics are still being discovered. The million-dollar 1931 Duesenberg Model J that emerged in 2023 aft...
1970 Dodge Challenger Has the Full Package: Rare, High Impact Color, Matching Numbers
1 Sep 2023, 13:11 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to first-year Dodge Challengers, all the hype is usually around the R/T SE and the HEMI cars. And that's not surprising. Even though Dodge sold almost 77,000 units in 1970, only 356 cars left the factory with the 426-cubic-inch (...
World's Only Ferrari F40 in Azzurro Hyperion Spotted in London, It's Drop-Dead Gorgeous
30 Aug 2023, 08:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1987 as a successor to the 288 GTO, the Ferrari F40 was surprisingly successful, moving 1,311 units despite costing five times more than its predecessor. It was Ferrari's fastest and most powerful road-legal creation, and it quic...
1969 Dodge Super Bee Parked for 44 Years Shows Rust and Rare Color Combo
29 Aug 2023, 17:15 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Back in 1967, both Dodge and Plymouth had the idea to introduce affordable versions of the Charger and GTX. Dodge created the Super Bee, while Plymouth developed the Road Runner. And both ended up being super popular for a few years. Following a...
Beautifully Restored 1971 Plymouth Road Runner Flexes Rare Color and Options Combo
29 Aug 2023, 15:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1968 as a more affordable alternative to the GTX, the Plymouth Road Runner was very successful in its first years on the market. The nameplate moved more than 44,000 units in 1968 and a whopping 81,105 examples in 1969. Sales remained...
1970 Dodge Challenger R/T SE Hidden for 30 Years Is a Rare Time Capsule
29 Aug 2023, 12:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched for the 1970 model year, the first-generation Dodge Challenger arrived a bit late to the muscle car party. But the E-body Mopar was a big hit in its first year in showrooms, moving almost 77,000 units, about 12,000 more than its Plymouth t...
Numbers-Matching 1970 Chevrolet El Camino Hides an Iconic Engine Under the Hood
28 Aug 2023, 17:36 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / High-performance pickup trucks are pretty common today. Ram makes the 1500 TRX, Ford has the Raptor series, while Chevrolet offers the Silverado ZR2. But things were quite different back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While the Big Three were s...