Ciprian Florea
7,287 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.
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Flexes a Rare Performance Option We All Love
5 May 2023, 12:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Which model year is the best first-generation Ford Mustang? That's a tricky question because all of them had something special. The earlier versions were lighter, and the 1965 model year saw the Shelby GT350 hit the scene, while the early 1970...
This Super Rare, Junkyard-Found 1941 Diamond T Was Once the Cadillac of Pickup Trucks
4 May 2023, 15:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / If you're in the market for an American pickup truck today, you have three Detroit-based manufacturers to choose from: Ford, Ram, and Chevrolet/GMC. But it wasn't always like that. Back in the first half of the 20th century, the pickup ma...
1972 Plymouth Road Runner Drag Races Modern Chevy Camaro SS, Someone Gets Walked
4 May 2023, 10:41 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched for the 1968 model year as an entry-level muscle car, the Plymouth Road Runner got an extensive redesign in 1971. The more rounded fuselage-style appearance proved somewhat controversial, but it wasn't the only massive change that cam...
Tawny Gold 1971 Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda Has the Full Package: Rare, Unrestored, Low Mileage
3 May 2023, 07:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced two weeks before the Ford Mustang on April 1, 1964, the Plymouth Barracuda remained in showrooms for ten years and over three generations. Initially a pony car with slant-six and small-block V8 engines, the Barracuda became a fully-fledg...
1970 Plymouth Superbird Pays Tribute to Richard Petty With Burnouts and 9-Second Runs
2 May 2023, 12:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched in 1970, about a year after its Dodge Charger Daytona counterpart, the Plymouth Superbird was created for two purposes. First, Plymouth also wanted a piece of the "winged warrior" action in NASCAR. Second, the company wanted to l...
The 1960 Chevrolet Corvette Camoradi Is a Historic Racer Worth Millions of Dollars
1 May 2023, 19:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In production since 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette is not only one of America's longest-running nameplates, but it's also the country's most iconic sports car. And a quick look at its racing history also reveals it has quite a few nota...
Raven Black 1968 Shelby Mustang GT350 Is a Genuine 1-of-1 Gem With Playboy Legacy
1 May 2023, 13:55 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Classic cars become rare due to low production numbers for the most part, but some reach collectible status through other features. Specific engines, for instance, are pretty desirable. Or, in the case of the 1971 Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda Convertib...
The 50 Best Dodge Models of All Time (No. 40 – 31)
30 Apr 2023, 18:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Founded in 1900 as the Dodge Brothers Company, Dodge became a Chrysler division in 1928. Initially designated as a mid-priced brand above Plymouth, Dodge became a big player in the muscle car market in the 1960s. The company is also famous for i...
This 1964 Shasta Astroflyte Camper Is a Stylish Tiny Home on Wheels
30 Apr 2023, 17:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about vintage camper trailers and motorhomes, we usually think about products from Airstream and Winnebago. But the early years of the RV era gave birth to a very long list of manufacturers that offered stylish homes on wheels. Shasta ...
1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Drag Car Parked for Decades Hides a HEMI Under the Hood
30 Apr 2023, 16:06 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched in 1969, the Dodge Challenger arrived a bit late to the muscle car party at a time when insurance rates were going through the roof and the Government was preparing strict emission and fuel economy regulations. But even so, it had just eno...
The BRM Hepworth GB1 Is a V8 Can-Am Monster You Never Knew Existed
29 Apr 2023, 18:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1966 as a racing series for Group 7 cars, the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) quickly evolved into a wild display of extremely powerful and aerodynamic machines. With unrestricted engine sizes and aerodynamics, the series...
Disgusting, Ant-Infested TVR 280i Gets First Wash in 10 Years
29 Apr 2023, 16:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Keeping a classic car in long-term storage is not bad if done correctly. However, park it outside or in a derelict barn, and it will end up with many issues. And it's not just rust I'm talking about here. Chances are you also have to remo...
This Ford Escort MK1 Camper Van Found Hiding in a Junkyard Is a Rare Pop-Top Gem
29 Apr 2023, 13:47 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Many rare classic cars may be resting in private collections and museums nowadays, but some of them have yet to come out of long-term storage. And unfortunately enough, others are still rotting away in junkyards or derelict barns. The Ford Escort y...
1952 Willys Jeep Wagon With 10K Miles Is a Stunning Time Capsule
28 Apr 2023, 16:25 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a time capsule is "a container holding historical records or objects that is deposited for preservation until discovery by some future age." To car enthusiasts, however, it's also a low-mi...
Perfectly Restored 1970 AMC Javelin SST Mark Donohue Edition Is Pure Eye Candy
28 Apr 2023, 13:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While not as prominent as Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler on the muscle car market, AMC was no stranger to performance-oriented cars in the mid-1960s. By 1967, both the Rambler American and Marlin were available with the company's then-new 343-c...
1974 Plymouth Road Runner GTX Is an Unexpected Junkyard Gem With a Rare Feature
27 Apr 2023, 18:36 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1966 as an upscale, high-performance variant of the Belvedere, the Plymouth GTX remained in production as a stand-alone nameplate for only five years. But even though Plymouth axed "the gentleman's muscle car" at the en...
Abandoned Property Is Packed With Classic Cars Stuck Under Collapsed Barns
27 Apr 2023, 14:53 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Seeing a classic car emerge out of long-term storage is one of the greatest automotive-related things out there. But sadly enough, not all barn finds get to see daylight in one piece. Some are too rusty to be saved, while others have been left behi...
Hellcat-Swapped 1969 Plymouth Road Runner Is the Perfect Sleeper
27 Apr 2023, 12:20 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1968 as a lower-priced alternative to the GTX, the Plymouth Road Runner was the perfect enthusiast car. Not only affordable and light, but it also came with a selection of powerful V8 engines. While the regular Belvedere came with ...
Custom 1933 Buick Delivery Van Is a Unique LS-Powered Tribute to Marshall Field's
26 Apr 2023, 08:31 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to restomods based on 1930s cars, we usually think about two-door Fords and Chevrolets. And that's mainly because they've been immensely popular with the hot rod crowd since the 1950s. Well, if you're tired of beefed-up...
The Ford Zakspeed Capri Turbo Looks Like a Flying Brick But It's Amazingly Agile
25 Apr 2023, 09:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Arguably one of the hottest coupes ever built on European soil, the Ford Capri was introduced in 1968 as an Old-Continent equivalent of the Mustang. It became an instant success, moving 400,000 units in its first two years on the market and almost ...