Ciprian Florea
7,289 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.
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, ...
1978 Dodge Li'l Red Express Spent 15 Years in a Backyard, It's an Unrestored Survivor
10 Apr 2022, 18:44 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While not as iconic as the Ford F-Series from the era, the third-generation Dodge D Series is famous for quite a few things. For starters, it remained in production for a whopping 22 years (1971-1993). During its only major overhaul for the 1981 mo...
These Are the Rarest and Most Collectible Chevrolet Impalas Ever Made
10 Apr 2022, 15:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1958 as a top-of-the-line version of the Bel Air, the Impala went on to become one of Chevrolet's most iconic nameplates. It was sold for a whopping 52 years and spawned quite a few rare and desirable classics. The Impala was ...
Remembering the 1968 Dodge Hemi Dart LO23, Mopar's Compact Super Stock Monster
9 Apr 2022, 20:25 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to factory-built drag cars, we usually remember the Ford Thunderbolt, Chevrolet Impala Z11, Pontiac Catalina Super Duty, and the Dodge Hemi Coronet A990. Of course, there are many more notable dragsters out there, but we often forget ...
This 1970 Dodge Super Bee Hemi Convertible Is a Unique Beast, but There's a Catch
8 Apr 2022, 19:43 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / A short-lived nameplate, the Dodge Super Bee was sold from 1968 to 1970 as the company's entry-level muscle car. Originally based on the Coronet, it was also sold in 1971 as a low-priced variant of the Charger. Come 2022, and the Super Bee is ...
1964 Plymouth Savoy Parked for 29 Years Is a Rat-Infested Find, Gets First Wash
8 Apr 2022, 15:15 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Plymouth sold quite a few cool nameplates in the 1960s, including the Belvedere, Fury, Baracuda, Road Runner, and the GTX. The Savoy wasn't one of them. Sure, it shared a lot with the Belvedere, but the Savoy just wasn't all that popular....
Five Movie-Inspired Limited-Edition Cars That Failed
8 Apr 2022, 14:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / From James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 to Bullitt's Ford Mustang, movie cars have turned quite a few nameplates into iconic automobiles. Smokey and the Bandit's Trans Am, for instance, made the Pontiac Firebird so popular in the late 197...
Someone's Building the World's Fastest Winnebago Camper, It's a Junkyard-Found Brave
8 Apr 2022, 10:12 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Back in January 2022, we introduced you to a really cool 1972 Winnebago Brave Camper that was saved from the junkyard. It was found with an LS swap between the front seats and while that's a cool upgrade over the standard unit, the owner has b...
1954 Chevrolet Corvette Barn Find Still Runs, Comes With Rare, Removable Hardtop
7 Apr 2022, 18:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The early Chevrolet Corvette C1 might have been disappointingly slow for the 1950s, but it's a desirable and expensive classic in 2022. First-year models are obviously the rarest, with only 300 units built, but the 1955 Corvette is also a hard...
Abandoned 1953 GMC Truck Spent 30 Years on a Mountain, Comes Back to Life
7 Apr 2022, 13:59 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Old cars and trucks are usually dropped off at the junkyard, but some owners opt to just park them in a barn or abandon them in the field behind the house. This 1953 GMC pickup truck is a slightly different story, as it was abandoned by its previou...
Oregon Junkyard Packed With Muscle Cars and Rare Classics Is Mopar Heaven
7 Apr 2022, 12:55 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Junkyards are usually packed with cars from all Detroit automakers, but some owners opt to keep their salvage yards restricted to a certain group of automakers. Wildcat Mopars of Sandy, Oregon, is one of those places. And as you might have already ...
1965 Dodge D300 Caveman Camper Is Ready for the Perfect Summer Vacation
6 Apr 2022, 19:55 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Camper conversions were highly popular in the 1960s, so almost every production pickup truck out there came with such an option. The Dodge D Series was no exception, and this D300 Caveman Camper is one of the finest examples out there. Obviously...
That Time Fender Built a Carbon-Fiber Stratocaster To Celebrate a Sports Car
6 Apr 2022, 14:51 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Invented sometime in the 1930s, the solid-body electric guitar really took off toward the late 1950s. That's when muscle cars were also about to hit the automotive world. But that's not the only thing that guitars and performance vehicles...
1963 Chevrolet Impala Farm Find Looks Hopeless, Gets First Wash in 36 Years
6 Apr 2022, 11:11 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Early 1960s Chevrolet Impalas are as desirable as classic American cars get. However, this usually applies to two-door Sport Coupe models. The four-door versions aren't all that valuable, which is why many of them are rotting away in junkyards...
1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Restomod Is a Supercharged Brick From Hell
6 Apr 2022, 09:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Although it's often overshadowed by the Corvette and Camaro, the Chevrolet Chevelle remains an iconic nameplate of the muscle car era. The second-gen model is by far the most appealing in terms of looks and performance, but I'm a big fan ...
This Gorgeous 1952 Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton Used To Be a Presidential Limo
5 Apr 2022, 19:32 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / U.S. Presidents have been riding in cars since the early days of the automobile. The story goes that William McKinley was the first to do it in 1901 when he briefly rode in a steam car built by the Stanley Motor Carriage Company. Since then, Lincol...
Chevrolet Express Prison Bus Hits the Drag Strip, Runs Painfully Slow
5 Apr 2022, 16:01 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The Hot Rod Drag Week is a cool event to follow for many reasons, one being the impressively quick dragsters that are also (somewhat) road-legal. But the fact that it also draws unlikely vehicles to the drag strip also sets it apart from other even...
1968 Dodge Bengal Charger: The NFL-Inspired Muscle Car You Can't Have
5 Apr 2022, 13:52 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Today's car market is flooded with special-edition models, but that's far from new. Automakers have been doing it for decades, and the muscle car era is proof that drivers have been looking to stand out since the 1960s. But just like i...
1973 Ford F-250 Camper Special Is Not Your Grandpa's Truck, Flaunts Cobra Jet V8
4 Apr 2022, 20:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / As campers became increasingly more popular in the early 1960s, Ford introduced the Camper Special option for the F-Series truck. Featuring heavy-duty cooling, camper pre-wiring, and a larger alternator (among other options), the bundle remained on...
1968 Plymouth Barracuda Found in the Woods Is a Sad Sight, Still Gets Saved
4 Apr 2022, 15:46 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / As a classic car enthusiast, it breaks my heart to see old vehicles rotting away due to exposure to the elements. Especially if they're of the muscle car variety. But even though we have millions of cars going to waste in junkyards and fields,...