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 54-Year-Old McLaren Is Quicker Than a Modern Supercar, It Can Be Yours
20 Jun 2022, 19:13 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1985, McLaren Automotive introduced its first road-legal car in 1992. Yup, I'm talking about the iconic F1. However, McLaren actually built its first road cars in the 1960s, when a few M6GT prototypes initially developed for the...
1969 Dodge Charger R/T Spent 56 Years in a Barn, It's a Rare Survivor
20 Jun 2022, 15:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Classic cars coming out of barns after sitting for decades are nothing new. We see them emerge into the light every week. But 1960s cars parked since the 1970s are not that common. This 1969 Dodge Charger is one of those classics that spent only a ...
Rare Lancia Fulvia Discovered in Wisconsin Junkyard, Needs a New Home
20 Jun 2022, 11:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Usually packed with common cars and rust buckets, junkyards rarely include hard-to-find, highly-desirable classics. And when they do, they're often ruined beyond restoration. But it can definitely happen. Sometimes it's a 1961 Chevrole...
2023 GMC Syclone Rendering Looks So Cool You'd Want To Buy One
19 Jun 2022, 18:50 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / GMC is primarily known for its premium-oriented SUVs and trucks based on Chevrolet products. But at some point, the company rolled out a pair of really cool performance vehicles. I'm talking about the Syclone and the Typhoon. Both went into...
I Bet You Didn't Know Dodge Built a Challenger Long Before the Muscle Car Era
19 Jun 2022, 12:27 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / For most enthusiasts, the Dodge Challenger story begins in the fall of 1969, when Chrysler introduced the first-generation muscle car for the 1970 model year. But Dodge actually used the nameplate a decade earlier for a limited-edition Coronet. ...
1967 Chevrolet Camaro Dragster Spent Decades in Storage, Gets First Wash in 40 Years
18 Jun 2022, 17:40 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Discovering classic cars that spent decades in storage is a wonderful thing, but it all becomes even better when they're still in good shape. Because it means there's a good chance it will hit the road again. This 1967 Chevrolet Camaro is...
1958 Chevrolet Corvette in Panama Yellow Is a One-Year Wonder, Hardtop Included
17 Jun 2022, 19:32 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette got its first major facelift in 1956. But Chevy rolled out even more important changes in 1958. That's when the Corvette gained quad headlamps and more chrome, two features that were already popular o...
Abandoned Property Hidden From Civilization Is Loaded With Derelict Cars
17 Jun 2022, 16:59 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While some people hoard old, derelict cars in their backyards, others store them on fields and operate junkyards. And we've seen plenty of them around. Well, here's a hoard of junked automobiles that's a bit unusual. Simply because t...
1969 Plymouth Barracuda Is a 1-of-56 Gem, Engine Choice Fails to Impress
17 Jun 2022, 14:31 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced on April 1, 1964, more than two weeks before the Ford Mustang, the Plymouth Barracuda was America's first pony car. But much like the Mustang, it evolved into a full-fledged muscle car toward the early 1970s, as Plymouth began offer...
1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Hides Supercharged Surprise Under the Hood, Sounds Mean
17 Jun 2022, 11:53 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The Chevrolet Bel Air is one of the most desirable classics out there, but with millions of cars built from 1955 to 1957, it's not exactly rare. The Sport Coupe versions are arguably the most sought-after and you'll find them in just a...
Abandoned 1962 Chevrolet C60 Camper Conversion Hides a Rare Surprise Under the Hood
16 Jun 2022, 21:31 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Discovering a derelict classic that still has a numbers-matching V8 under the hood has to be one of the best things about barn-find hunting. It doesn't happen very often, though, because junked vehicles usually get sourced for parts. So the...
1957 Chrysler 300C Spent 50 Years in Storage, It's a Numbers-Matching Survivor
16 Jun 2022, 14:48 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Some say that the muscle car era began when the Pontiac GTO arrived in 1963. Others claim it started a bit earlier than that with Impala SS and the Max Wedge-powered Mopars. Well, the concept actually originated in the 1950s when some Detroit autom...
1968 Chevrolet Camaro Wagon Is the Muscle Car-Era Nomad We Never Had
16 Jun 2022, 10:15 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1955, the Chevrolet Nomad spent its first seven years on the market as the company's range-topping station wagon. Originally based on the Tri-Five, it became part of the Impala lineup from 1958 to 1961. Chevrolet revived the n...
1958 Buick Roadmaster Looks Stunning in Laurel Mist, It's Ready for the Summer
15 Jun 2022, 15:37 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Buick's most iconic nameplate, the Roadmaster dates back to 1931, when it was introduced as a replacement for the Master Six. Discontinued in 1942, it returned in 1946 and remained in showrooms until 1958. Buick brought it back for a third sti...
1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Spent 30 Years in a Yard, 351 V8 Comes Back to Life
15 Jun 2022, 13:04 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / 1973 was the final year for the first-generation Ford Mustang. And boy, was it ugly. But this doesn't mean that 1973 Mustang barn finds aren't worth saving. They're still prettier than the second-gen Mustangs that followed and some e...
Abandoned Railroad Depot Is a Dusty Time Capsule Loaded With Classic Cars
14 Jun 2022, 20:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The junkyard is the number one place to go to if you're looking for derelict classics, but it seems you can find old cars just about anywhere nowadays. Barns and backyards? Sure! Abandoned mansions and creepy forest? We've seen a few. But...
Pair of Ex-Military Jeep Gladiators Found in the Woods, One's a Monster Truck
14 Jun 2022, 14:28 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1962, the Jeep Gladiator soldiered on for a whopping 26 years with minor upgrades, all while spawning a long list of cool iterations. But did you know that the first-gen Gladiator also existed in military form? It happened in the l...
Hoard of Abandoned Classic Cars Was Completely Reclaimed by Nature
14 Jun 2022, 12:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With millions of old cars that haven't been scrapped yet, the world is full of junkyards. But while most of them are usually still in business selling cars and parts, some are kept hidden from the public eye. Others have been abandoned long ag...
This 1968 Dodge Super Bee HEMI Is a One-of-One Gem, but There's a Catch
13 Jun 2022, 19:32 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Dodge's take on the Plymouth Road Runner, the Super Bee, debuted in 1968 as the company's low-priced muscle car. But even though it was the most affordable way into HEMI ownership, muscle car enthusiasts weren't very eager to pay the...
World's Rarest 1967 AMC Rambler Rebel Is a 10-Second Quarter-Mile Beast
13 Jun 2022, 15:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Produced from 1967 to 1970, the AMC Rebel was a rather short-lived nameplate. But it spawned a few cool muscle cars, the most famous of which is the Rebel Machine, AMC's halo performance car for 1970. However, the company built a faster and mu...