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.
1984 Dodge Ram Junkyard Find Is a Rare Marksman Truck, Winchester Rifle Not Included
17 Nov 2022, 17:41 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Ram Trucks is now a stand-alone brand that competes against Ford and Chevrolet in the pickup truck market. But it wasn't always like that. Before the division was established in 2010, Ram trucks were built and sold by Dodge. The hauler you see...
1958 Chevrolet Impala Sees Daylight After Decades in Storage, Bad News Under the Hood
17 Nov 2022, 15:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Chevrolet's popular flagship for many decades, the Impala debuted in 1958 as a top-of-the-line tri version of the Bel Air two-door hardtops and convertibles. The company produced no fewer than 10 generations until the nameplate was discontinue...
Snoop Dogg's 1958 Lincoln Continental Flaunts Bentley Interior and LS3 V8 Power
16 Nov 2022, 15:06 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Unlike most celebrities that hit the streets in modern million-dollar supercars, Snoop Dogg is more into old-school American rigs. He owns an impressive collection of Cadillacs and Pontiacs, most of the restomod variety, but he also commissioned a ...
Rare 1967 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 Will Make You Green With Envy
16 Nov 2022, 12:43 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The first-generation Ford Mustang spawned quite a few high-performance models. The Boss 429 and the California Special are my favorites, thanks for asking. But it's the GT350 that has a special place in the Mustang hall of fame. It wasn...
Barn-Found 1957 Buick Roadmaster Camper Is a Home-Built Mystery
15 Nov 2022, 21:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Remember the 1966 Dodge Charger Great Dale House camper I showed you back in October 2022? Yup, the one that Dale Wasinger built in his own shop because no company would make him a muscle car-based RV. Well, this 1957 Buick camper proves that Dale ...
1971 Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda Is a Sassy Grass Trickster, Still Looks the Part
15 Nov 2022, 15:27 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When Plymouth redesigned the Barracuda for the 1970 model year, the pony morphed into a fully-blown muscle car with a sporty appearance and big-block V8 engines on the options list. The latter also included the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEM...
1-of-25 Chevy Monte Carlo 'Dale Earnhardt Edition' Is Unbelievably Clean and All-Original
15 Nov 2022, 12:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1969, the Monte Carlo was the first Chevrolet advertised as a personal luxury car. Originally born as the company's take on the third-generation Pontiac Grand Prix, it soldiered on until 1988 when GM discontinued the G-body platf...
1966 Chevrolet Suburban Armbruster Stageway Is a Six-Door, 25-Foot-Long Behemoth
14 Nov 2022, 20:34 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1934 and built over 12 generations as of 2022, the Chevrolet Suburban is the longest-continuously used vehicle nameplate in production. It's also one of the largest SUVs you can buy today. But the Suburban wasn't always a...
This Mysterious Stash of 1950s Classics Includes Rare Hudson Hornets and Wasps
14 Nov 2022, 16:29 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Derelict 1950s classic cars are far from unusual because you can find millions of them in junkyards across the U.S. But while there's plenty to choose from when it comes to Fords, GMs, and Mopars, you won't find that many Hudsons out ther...
1959 Edsel Ranger Left To Rot on a Field Comes Back to Life After 50 Years
14 Nov 2022, 14:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1956 to expand the Lincoln-Mercury Division to three brands, Edsel was discontinued after only three years on the market. Come 2022 and the company is most notorious for being a marketing disaster that cost Ford a whopping $250 millio...
1970 Plymouth 'Cuda Sitting in a Yard for Decades Is a True HEMI With a Racing Past
14 Nov 2022, 12:13 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1964 and revised in 1967, the Plymouth Barracuda got its final refresh for the 1970 model year. And that's when the pony designed to go against the Ford Mustang morphed into a fully-blown muscle car. Not only redesigned into a...
1969 Dodge Charger Daytona With Very Rare Color Combo Sells for $418,000
13 Nov 2022, 19:42 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1969 as a homologation special for NASCAR, the Dodge Charger Daytona is a sought-after classic for many reasons. For starters, it's the most radical-looking production car of its era. Second, it was the first NASCAR vehicle to br...
AMC Gremlin Makes Unofficial Comeback With Quirky Looks and Ford Bronco Headlamps
13 Nov 2022, 18:36 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1970 as a competitor in the still-new subcompact market, the AMC Gremlin became one of America's weirdest-looking cars. That's because AMC didn't want to spend a lot of money on the project, so it basically chopped the ...
Abandoned, Rat-Infested 1968 Buick Skylark Gets First Wash in 30 Years
13 Nov 2022, 12:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / A classic car in barn-found condition isn't necessarily a bad thing because many of them are actually in good shape underneath a thick layer of dust. But some come out of storage as rusty and rat-infested vehicles that aren't worth saving...
1972 Airstream Ambassador Trailer Is a Vintage Home on Wheels Looking for New Adventures
12 Nov 2022, 14:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in the late 1920s when Wally Byam began building trailers in his backyard, Airstream is almost 100 years old as of 2022. Now an American icon, the company is doing better than ever and offers a long list of travel trailers and touring c...
1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Parked 43 Years Ago Is a One-Owner Barn Find With a Camaro Secret
11 Nov 2022, 20:44 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to buying classic cars, nothing beats a one-owner, all-original rig with solid documentation. This 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS isn't one of those cars, but it comes very close. Stored in a barn for about 43 years, this hot-look...
1975 Chevrolet Vega Junkyard Find Hides a Cool and Rare Surprise Under the Hood
11 Nov 2022, 17:20 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1970 as a replacement for the Corvair, the Vega was Chevrolet's subcompact competitor for the Ford Pinto and AMC Gremlin until 1977. It was GM's first vehicle on the H platform, which also underpinned the Chevy Monza, as wel...
Here's Not One, Not Two, but Four 1964 Plymouths Getting Their First Wash in Decades
11 Nov 2022, 15:37 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Leaving a classic car fully exposed to the elements for years will usually result in severe rust issues. But the said vehicle will also gather a lot of dust and grime. Naturally, the first step when saving an abandoned car is to get it cleaned up, ...
One-Owner 1970 Plymouth Superbird Comes Out of the Barn Following 30-Year Nap
11 Nov 2022, 12:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Plymouth's take on the Dodge Charger Daytona, the Superbird arrived for the 1970 model year as a radical, race-spec version of the Road Runner. Come 2022 and it's one of the most sought-after classics from the golden muscle car era. Bu...
Dodge Charger Pursuit Pickup Is a Modern Rampage in Need of Attention
10 Nov 2022, 16:27 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Car-based pickups go back to the early days of the automobile, but they didn't catch on until the late 1950s. That's when Ford launched the Ranchero and Chevrolet joined it with the El Camino. Chrysler, on the other hand, didn't jump...