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.
This 1977 Ford B-250 Is an F-Series SUV With an Unexpected Surprise Under the Hood
23 Feb 2023, 13:23 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With no fewer than eight SUVs and crossovers in its lineup as of 2023, Ford is arguably one of the most important players in this segment in the U.S. Chevrolet is just as big on the hauler market, selling nine different vehicles if we also include ...
This Unassuming 1964 Studebaker Daytona Is a Rare Sleeper With Supercharged Power
22 Feb 2023, 17:33 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Discontinued in 1967 following an unsuccessful merger with Packard, Studebaker left a few iconic classics behind. The Avanti is perhaps the most iconic thanks to its record-setting performance, but the Champion and the Golden Hawk are also popular ...
1971 Dodge Demon 340 Comes Out of Storage, Shows Off Tiny Surprise Under the Hood
22 Feb 2023, 15:41 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to the Dodge Demon, most enthusiasts think about the drag-spec Challenger SRT that the company launched in 2017. Powered by a supercharged V8 good for 840 horsepower on 100-octane fuel, it needs less than 10 seconds to cover the quart...
Eerie House Abandoned for Decades Has Classic Cars Rotting Away in the Yard
22 Feb 2023, 11:52 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / American junkyards are packed with millions of classic cars nowadays. How did they get there? Well, while some owners got tired of driving old cars, others scrapped them simply because they were no longer reliable. But not all classics got dumped a...
Barn Find Gold: Million-Dollar 1931 Duesenberg Model J Spent 55 Years in Hiding
21 Feb 2023, 21:11 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to barn finds, many enthusiasts claim that the golden days are long gone because we rarely see hard-to-find and extremely valuable classic cars come out of storage these days. While that may be true to some extent, the automobile you ...
This 1925 White 15–45 Used To Be a Yellowstone Tour Bus, Still Runs Like a Champ
21 Feb 2023, 17:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Much like the car industry, the bus and truck market used to be contested by a very long list of brands back in the day. While some iconic companies have survived to see the 21st century, many of them went bankrupt or disappeared following mergers....
Abandoned Property Packed With Classic Cars Hides Rare Pre-WW2 Gems
21 Feb 2023, 14:09 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about barn finds, we usually think about classic cars that emerge into the light after long-term storage. But the truth is many vehicles have been abandoned for good and are currently rotting away on properties that have been neglected...
1956 Chrysler 300B Kept in a Storage Unit for 40 Years Is Still All-Original and Gorgeous
20 Feb 2023, 16:40 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / It's probably been a while since you last checked Chrysler's website, but don't worry, it's still a sad sight. Come 2023 and the company has only two vehicles on offer, the awfully dated 300 sedan and the Pacifica minivan. But i...
1974 Datsun 260Z Gets First Wash in 22 Years, Goes From Barn Find to One-Year Wonder
20 Feb 2023, 14:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to iconic Japanese sports cars from the 1960s, two names usually stand out: the Datsun/Nissan Z car and the Toyota 2000GT. I'd also include the early Mazda Cosmo on this list, but I know it's not quite as iconic as its Datsu...
1975 AMC Hornet Saved From the Crusher Is a Mysterious Wannabe Muscle Car
20 Feb 2023, 13:02 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / American Motors (AMC) classics don't get a lot of love nowadays. Sure, enthusiasts know about the 1970 Rebel Machine, the 1969 SC/Rambler, and the AMX, but almost every other AMC from the 1960s and 1970s gets (largely) ignored. And that's...
Unofficial 2023 Buick Roadmaster Wagon Looks So Cool You'd Want To Buy One
19 Feb 2023, 16:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / One of Buick's most iconic nameplates, the Roadmaster was first introduced in 1935 and had three different stints in showrooms. The latest occurred from 1990 to 1996, when the Roadmaster lineup included a full-size station wagon that gained a ...
Once a Rust Bucket, This 1947 Hudson Super Six Is Now a HEMI-Powered Beauty
18 Feb 2023, 13:52 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1909, Hudson Motor Car Company went into the history books in 1954 when it merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation (AMC). But despite its somewhat short life in the automobile industry, Hudson left a few notab...
1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 Is a Restored Gem With a Very Rare Feature
17 Feb 2023, 20:13 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to high-performance Mustangs from the 1960s, we usually think about ponies like the Shelby GT350 and the Cobra Jet. But Ford also built a couple of cool homologation specials wearing "Boss" badges. I'm talking, of cours...
1963 Studebaker Avanti Spent Decades off the Road, Supercharged V8 Roars Back to Life
17 Feb 2023, 16:49 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1962 as a significant departure from Studebaker's existing lineup, the Avanti was supposed to save the company from going under. And it had all the feats needed to achieve this goal. It was aimed at the personal luxury car mar...
Watch the 2023 Ferrari SF-23 Put On a Noisy Turbo V6 Show at Fiorano
16 Feb 2023, 16:58 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Ferrari recently unveiled its contender for the 2023 Formula 1 championship. It's called the SF-23, it sports a brighter red livery, and it delivers more vertical downforce. And unlike other outfits that have already showcased their new F1 car...
$2-Million Tucker 48 "Torpedo" Shows Up at Car Show, Flexes Helicopter Engine
16 Feb 2023, 15:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Built by the Tucker Corporation in 1947 and 1948, the Tucker 48 was one of the most innovative vehicles of its time. However, negative publicity from early production issues and a government investigation pushed the company out of business. As a re...
Abandoned Home Supposedly Owned by a CIA Agent Hides Pristine Mercedes W123
16 Feb 2023, 12:33 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Exploring abandoned places has become a big thing in recent years. To the point where YouTube is littered with videos documenting anything from old houses and mansions to factories and even bunkers. They're quite entertaining if you're in...
10 Barely-Legal Sleepers That Shook the Muscle Car World
15 Feb 2023, 21:32 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / It's 2023 and we're still debating whether the muscle car era began with the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 in 1949 or the Pontiac GTO in 1964. But what I do know for a fact is that the popularity and performance of muscle cars exploded in the earl...
1964 Rambler American Is a Nasty Wagon With Drag-Racing Skills
15 Feb 2023, 17:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about classic drag-racing machines, we usually think about quarter-mile rigs based on iconic muscle cars. And that's because all famous nameplates spawned at least one factory drag racer at some point. But the drag racing scene al...
Back in Black: Mercedes-AMG Unveils All-New W14 Formula 1 Car With Updated Zero Pod Design
15 Feb 2023, 14:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When Chevrolet unveiled the 1995 Impala SS, it also released a printed ad with the slogan "Lord Vader, your car is ready." Some of you may also remember it from the 1980s when the media used it to describe the Buick GNX. Well, it's t...