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.
1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Is an Unexpected Junkyard Gem With a Rare Feature
24 Jan 2023, 21:47 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1908 by William C. Durant, General Motors needed only a few years to incorporate a long list of carmakers. By 1920, GM had already purchased Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, and Pontiac (among others). In 1931, the company was...
This Unique Collection of AMC Muscle Cars Took 30 Years To Become Complete
24 Jan 2023, 17:44 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about classics from the muscle car era, we usually think about vehicles made by Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler Corporation. And that's not surprising given that these Detroit-based giants built the most iconic mu...
Jay Leno Presents Legendary Trans-Am Race Cars, Drives 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350
24 Jan 2023, 13:07 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Jay Leno's already famous YouTube series is mostly about classic road cars and modern automobiles, including EVs. But once in a while, he welcomes iconic race cars to his garage. Well, the former TV show host just took it up a notch and brough...
This 1966 Ford Fairlane GTA Is a Pontiac GTO Slayer in Emberglow
23 Jan 2023, 20:25 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1955 as a full-size car, the Ford Fairlane was downsized in 1962 when it became one of the first American vehicles to compete in the then-new intermediate (midsize) segment. While the niche was mostly kickstarted by American Motors...
Rarer Than Hen's Teeth, This 1967 Ford GT40 Mk III Is a Street-Legal Monster
23 Jan 2023, 13:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In 1963, Ford was very close to buying Ferrari in what would have been the most spectacular deal in automotive history. But the arrangement fell through after Ferrari refused to hand over the motorsport division. This resulted in a massive feud bet...
Unofficial 2023 Ford E-Series Lightning Is Here to Fake-Replace the E-Transit
23 Jan 2023, 10:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While production electric cars have been a thing for more than two decades now and pickup trucks have been catching up in recent years, the electrified van segment is still in its infancy. In the U.S., for instance, Ford is the only automaker offer...
1967 Pontiac Bonneville Gets First Wash in 40 Years, Goes From Gross to Superb
22 Jan 2023, 15:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The sad thing about classic cars is that many of them were sent to the scrapyard when their owners got newer, more modern automobiles. But some got luckier than the rest and ended up in garages and barns. Sure, these cars also got neglected for ...
Classic Car Prospector Finds Super-Rare 1968 Mercury Cougar With Numbers-Matching V8
21 Jan 2023, 12:14 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Dennis Collins has been hunting rare classic cars for years now. He's usually after low-production first-gen Ford Mustangs and old Jeeps, but from time to time, he spices things up with something different. His latest "Coffee Walk" b...
The 44-Year-Old Aston Martin Bulldog Is Still a Sight To Behold
20 Jan 2023, 16:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the Aston Martin Bulldog. Right, cars don't fly (yet), but it sure looks like this wedge-shaped classic would. Did I say classic? Well, it might still look futuristic today, but the Bulldog is actuall...
Bobby Allison's 1969 Dodge HEMI Daytona NASCAR Is Now a Million-Dollar Classic
20 Jan 2023, 14:11 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Fitted with a nose cone and a massive rear wing for 200+ MPH potential, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona is arguably the coolest muscle car from the golden era. Especially when it packs an iconic 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8 under the hood. But...
1989 Jeep Comanche Is an Unassuming Sleeper With a Turbo Surprise, Runs 11s
20 Jan 2023, 11:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1985, the Comanche was, at the time, Jeep's third pickup truck. However, with the CJ-8 Scrambler's discontinuation in 1986 and with the Gladiator sent into the history books in 1988, the Cherokee-based Comanche remained the ...
Stunning 1975 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna Flexes Aero Features Banned by NASCAR
19 Jan 2023, 16:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1969 and 1970, respectively, the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird are by far the most radical vehicles ever raced in NASCAR. But they aren't the only cars that got banned from the series because they were too fast. Th...
1962 Pontiac Catalina Drag Races Firebird and Fox-Body Mustang, Takes No Prisoners
19 Jan 2023, 13:59 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Drag races are quite spectacular when they involve the latest supercars or absurdly powerful funny cars, but nothing beats a beefed-up classic in my book. Especially if it's a full-size vehicle that you wouldn't normally expect to see at ...
Rat-Infested 1967 Ferrari 330 GT Gets Second Chance After Years in Storage
18 Jan 2023, 16:51 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about barn finds, we usually think about relatively inexpensive American classics. And that's mostly because people rarely stumble across rare and valuable vehicles that spent years or even decades in storage. But it happens. S...
1969 AMC AMX Is a 1-of-52 Super Stock Monster in Pristine Condition, Sounds Vicious
18 Jan 2023, 14:03 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced for the 1968 model year, the AMC AMX was a shorter-wheelbase, two-seat take on the Javelin. This configuration not only made it unique in AMC's lineup but also made it one of only two American two-seaters available at the time. The ...
Take a Closer Look at the World's Only 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Four-Door
18 Jan 2023, 11:01 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Built from 1964 to 1974 over three generations, the Plymouth Barracuda was only offered as a two-door (both coupe and convertible). But that's not to say that Plymouth did not consider a four-door version of the pony car. While not as famou...
Jay Leno Drives the 1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona, Calls It a Dream Come True
17 Jan 2023, 15:13 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In 1965, Lamborghini shocked the sports car market with the mid-engined Miura. While it wasn't the first production car with such a layout (that honor goes to the 1964 Matra Djet), the Miura set the new standard for supercars. Ferrari, on the ...
This 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T Is a Rare HEMI Gem In a Mysterious Color
16 Jan 2023, 21:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / First produced from 1949 to 1959 as a full-size car, the Dodge Coronet returned as a midsize vehicle in 1965. The nameplate proved popular, moving 209,000 units in its first year as a midsize. Needing a competitor against the big-block Pontiac GTO ...
1973 Dodge Challenger "HEMI" Flaunts Hellcat Crate Engine, Faux Carbon-Fiber
16 Jan 2023, 14:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1970, the Dodge Challenger arrived a bit late to the muscle car party. By 1972, Chrysler discontinued both the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) RB and the 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8s, a move that turned the Challenger into a more mu...
World's Largest Collection of Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds Raises $6 Million
15 Jan 2023, 17:10 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Developed for NASCAR racing and made available to the public for homologation purposes, the Dodge Charger Daytona arrived in 1969 with a then-unusual nose cone and a massive wing atop its trunk. It was followed by the almost identical Plymouth Supe...