Ciprian Florea
7,288 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.
World's Rarest 1970 Plymouth Superbird Comes Out of Storage, Flaunts Psychedelic Livery
18 Apr 2022, 14:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Plymouth's take on the Dodge Charger Daytona, the Superbird was developed with NASCAR racing in mind. And thanks to the series' regulations at the time, it also spawned a road-legal version. A wild yet streetable Road Runner with a nose c...
1954 Chrysler New Yorker Was Left to Rot for 40 Years, Hemi V8 Agrees to Run
18 Apr 2022, 13:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about Hemi engines, we usually think about the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) V8 that Chrysler produced from 1964 to 1970 in race- and road-spec forms. But Mopar's history with hemispherical combustion chambers goes beyond &quo...
Rare 1963 Studebaker Avanti Spent Decades in Storage, Flexes Supercharged V8
18 Apr 2022, 09:59 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1962 as Studebaker's halo car, the Avanti was supposed to save the company from going under. Unfortunately, it failed to succeed, but it's now a unique and hard-to-find collectible, especially in supercharged form. With t...
1969 Dodge Travco Is a Streamlined Motorhome With V8 Power, Needs TLC
17 Apr 2022, 18:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1964 and offered well into the 1980s, the Travco motorhome is now one of the most iconic recreational vehicles of the old-school variety. But like most RVs out there, the Travco is not an easy find if you're looking for a restore...
The Story of the Mercury D-528, the Innovative Concept Car You've Never Heard Of
16 Apr 2022, 15:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While most concept cars hit the auto show circuit in search of glory, some are never shown to the public and remain with the carmaker as experimental vehicles or rolling laboratories. The 1955 Mercury D-528 is one of those cars. It's also one ...
1966 Ford Mustang in "Playmate Pink" Parked 35 Years Ago Is an Extremely Rare Barn Find
15 Apr 2022, 19:38 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Pink was never popular with muscle car enthusiasts, but Detroit automakers offered this color often associated with femininity and romance for quite a few model years in the past. Ford introduced it for the Mustang as early as 1965, and it remained...
Hemi-Powered 1976 Plymouth Duster Drag Races 1965 Buick Skylark, Is In for a Surprise
15 Apr 2022, 09:14 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Like most of you out there, I like drag racing because it's usually about powerful cars going fast in a straight line. But I also love this type of racing because quarter-mile races often bring surprising results. This Buick Skylark vs Plymout...
Abandoned Warehouse Hides Big Stash of Classic Cars, Including Mercs and BMWs
14 Apr 2022, 18:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Abandoned cars are usually associated with junkyards, but it's not the only place where classic vehicles are left to rust away. Sometimes cars are also left behind when properties are decommissioned. And this warehouse is proof that abandoned ...
Massive Kansas Junkyard Hides Muscle Cars and Rare Classics
14 Apr 2022, 14:26 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Junkyards look rather sad if you're a fan of classic cars. Because they illustrate how most drivers are quick to neglect or abandon their old cars once they buy new ones. On the other hand, junkyards are also cool places to explore, mostly bec...
Infamous 1957 Chevrolet Black Widow Shows Up at Local Cars & Coffee, Steals the Show
13 Apr 2022, 15:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about high-performance Chevrolets, we usually think about the Camaro ZL1, Corvette ZR1, and various cars wearing "SS" badges. And the numerous drag-ready factory vehicles that it built in the 1960s. But Chevrolet actually rol...
1953 Pontiac Chieftain Was Left to Rot for 51 Years, Straight-8 Still Lives
13 Apr 2022, 13:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to 1950s American classics, everyone seems to lose their minds over the Chevrolet Bel Air. I agree it's a beautiful car and I'm also a big fan of the Nomad wagon, but I think the Pontiac Chieftain is a nicer proposition desi...
Cummins-Powered, 1970s Chevrolet C10 Doesn't Care About the World, Runs 9s
13 Apr 2022, 09:42 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Unlike muscle cars, pickup trucks did not spawn limited-edition models developed with drag racing in mind. But that didn't stop racers from making their own. And this third-generation Chevrolet C/K is proof that you can turn a rather mundane w...
Barn-Found 1968 Ford Mustang California Special Looks Stunning in Lime Gold
12 Apr 2022, 19:31 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Like most pony cars from the golden era, the Ford Mustang spawned a long list of high-performance and limited-edition models. The California Special is one of them, and this two-owner example might just be the finest survivor of its kind. Also k...
Dodge Challenger Demon Drag Races Tesla Model S Plaid, Gasoline Power Wins
12 Apr 2022, 17:21 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With a quarter-mile time of 9.23 seconds, the Tesla Model S Plaid has been the king of quarter-mile since it debuted in 2021. As far as production cars go, that is. And, likely, this record will never be broken by a gasoline-powered vehicle. But...
One-Owner 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Has 610K Miles, Still Going Strong
12 Apr 2022, 15:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Low-mileage classic cars are highly sought-after nowadays, mostly because it means they're still in solid condition. High-mileage examples, on the other hand, are usually in need of restoration. Well, here's a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette that...
Mysterious, Ferrari-Badged Race Car Surfaces in California, Internet Detectives Needed
12 Apr 2022, 12:36 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With thousands of classic cars coming out of storage each year, the term "barn find" has been diluted dramatically in the 21st century. But we still witness rare and interesting vehicles being dragged out of their barns or garages. This m...
1974 Chevrolet Corvette Drag Races 1976 Pontiac Firebird, Instantly Regrets It
11 Apr 2022, 19:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The 1973 Oil Crisis and the new emissions regulations that came with it quickly turned muscle cars into mundane vehicles that barely delivered 200 horsepower by the late 1970s. That's why drag races involving Malaise-Era cars aren't exact...
Mysterious 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Comes Out of the Barn, Turns Out It's a Rare LS6
11 Apr 2022, 16:21 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / As of 2022, tens of thousands of classics cars are likely wasting away in barns across the U.S. Most of them are mundane vehicles that wouldn't make a big splash if they'd come out, but a few of them are rare gems. Like this 1970 Chevrole...
1971 Dodge Demon, Plymouth Duster Plum Crazy Twins See Daylight After 30+ Years
11 Apr 2022, 13:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While most Mopar enthusiasts have a thing for midsize muscle cars from the golden era, some are more into the company's less-adored compact vehicles. This guy was so in love with his purple 1971 Dodge Demon that he built an identical Plymouth ...
1941 Willys Americar Hides Nasty Big-Block Surprise Under the Hood, Runs 10s
11 Apr 2022, 11:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Willys is mostly known for the military Jeep MB and the civilian CJ versions that followed, but the Toledo-based company also built a few notable vehicles before WWII. The Americar is one of them. A modern-looking vehicle upon its introduction, ...