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.
World's Finest 1970 Plymouth Superbird Survivor Is a One-of-50 Petty Blue Gem
4 Apr 2022, 14:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1970, the Superbird was Plymouth's take on the Charger Daytona that Dodge offered the year before. Like its almost identical sibling, the Superbird was developed specifically for NASCAR, so the company had to offer a road-legal v...
1966 Chevrolet Corvette Sees Daylight After 35 Years, Is Off to a Better Life
4 Apr 2022, 11:01 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / The second-generation Chevrolet Corvette is often regarded as the most beautiful iteration of America's iconic sports car. And it's a valuable collectible too. However, many of these vehicles got locked up in storage decades ago and spent...
1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda Drag Races 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, Instantly Regrets It
3 Apr 2022, 18:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / 1970 was a great year for muscle cars, with every Detroit automaker offering a wide variety of beefed-up vehicles. The Plymouth Barracuda was one of the greatest when equipped with the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) Hemi V8. Rated at 425 hors...
1959 Willys Jeep CJ-3B Comes Back From the Dead After 20 Years, Takes First Drive
3 Apr 2022, 17:14 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Jeep's most iconic nameplate, the Wrangler, debuted back in 1986. But its roots can be traced back to the military-spec Willys MB. The latter went into production in 1941 and spawned the civilian Jeep CJ in 1944. Willys, Kaiser-Jeep, and AMC r...
Chris Mills' 1959 Chevrolet Impala Is a Badass Lowrider, Snoop Dogg-Approved
2 Apr 2022, 19:05 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Remember the awesomely cool 1959 Chevrolet Impala lowrider that Snoop Dogg drove in that commercial for Super Bowl LVI? Well, it turns out it belongs to former NBA player Chris Mills. And it's one badass ride. Featured by YouTube's &qu...
Rare 1969 Dodge Charger 500 Looks Like a Barn Find, It's an Unrestored Gem
1 Apr 2022, 13:23 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to late 1960s Dodge Chargers, it's the Daytona that takes all the glory as the rarest and fastest iteration ever built. But the Charger 500 is just as cool. And based on production numbers alone, it's an even rarer muscle ca...
1935 Studebaker Dictator Needs Help To Rule Again
31 Mar 2022, 20:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1927, the Studebaker Dictator arrived at a time when the company's production and sales were booming. And even though the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and a few poor decisions sent Studebaker into receivership by early 1933, the Dic...
Bizarre 1953 Chevrolet Pontiac With Two Front Ends Will Leave You Confused
31 Mar 2022, 16:01 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / While not as iconic as the Tri-Five, the first-generation Chevy Bel Air was just as pretty. And so was the Pontiac Chieftain from the era. Can't decide which one you like the most? Well, this strange-looking vehicle solves that problem with tw...
Rare 1962 Jaguar E-Type Barn Find Spent 46 Years in Storage, Will Get Restored
31 Mar 2022, 13:39 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1961 as a replacement for the XK150, the Jaguar E-Type is now regarded as one of the most beautiful automobiles ever built. But like most classics out there, the E-Types have often been neglected by owners, especially in the early day...
1928 Ford Roadster Abandoned for 60 Years Gets Second Chance, Engine Agrees to Run
30 Mar 2022, 15:58 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced as a replacement for the Ford Model T, the Model A was rather short-lived compared to the world's first affordable automobile. While the Model T remained in production for a whopping 29 years, the Model A was launched in 1927 and di...
Abandoned Property Packed With Rusty Classic Cars Has a Sad Story to Tell
30 Mar 2022, 12:26 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Millions of classic cars are currently rotting away in junkyards around the world, but some are still hidden out of sight. They can usually be found resting on abandoned properties like this one, which also has a really sad story to tell. The st...
Denzel Washington's Porsche 911 Turbo Fetches Big Bucks at Auction
29 Mar 2022, 20:17 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Denzel Washington's 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo has just become one of the most expensive non-GT, 993-generation cars ever sold at auction. The German sports car went under the hammer for a whopping $405,993. One of many luxury and sports cars o...
1983 Mazda RX-7 Spent 30 Years in Storage, Rotary Engine Still Runs
29 Mar 2022, 15:45 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Almost as celebrated as the Toyota Supra, the Mazda RX-7 is one of Japan's most iconic sports cars. And perhaps the most legendary production car with a rotary engine. The RX-7 debuted in 1978 and remained in production until 2002. Mazda bu...
1926 Ford Model T Is Almost 100 Years Old, Still Runs Like a Champ
29 Mar 2022, 13:43 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Built from 1908 o 1927, the Ford Model T is generally regarded as the world's first affordable automobile. And with 15 million units sold in almost 20 years, it's still among the world's best-selling automobiles. In short, "Tin ...
Rare, Pristine 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt Oddly Fails to Sell
29 Mar 2022, 10:11 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Built for the 1964 model year in just 100 units, the Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt is arguably one of the rarest and most desirable muscle cars from the era. These cars are known to fetch well beyond $200,000 at public auctions, but strangely enough, t...
1958 Chevrolet Impala Stored for 44 Years Raises More Questions Than It Answers
28 Mar 2022, 20:12 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1958 as a top-of-the-line version of the Bel Air, the Chevrolet Impala soldiered on for a whopping 27 years. First discontinued in 1985, it returned briefly from 1994 to 1996 and then again from 2000 to 2020. Come 2022, and the Impala...
Possibly the World's Only Lotus Cortina Mk1 Convertible Has Been Hiding for 40 Years
28 Mar 2022, 15:42 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched in 1962, the Cortina went on to become one of Ford's most iconic European nameplates. But more importantly, it spawned the Lotus Cortina, a race-prepped version engineered by Colin Chapman, the brilliant man behind Lotus Cars. The ...
Rare 1970 Dodge Charger R/T Pops Up in a Field, Rocks Numbers-Matching 440 Six Pack
28 Mar 2022, 11:07 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With 9,509 units built, the 1970 Dodge Charger R/T is not an extremely rare classic. But break it down to engines, and gearbox and you get a few hard-to-find combinations. For instance, of the 9,509 R/Ts delivered in 1970, only 112 had the 426-c...
1955 Chevrolet Handyman Looks Like a Mini School Bus, Hides Nasty Surprise Under the Hood
27 Mar 2022, 17:00 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1955, the Chevrolet Tri-Five lineup spawned an impressive number of iterations. No fewer than 17 different models were offered that year, including 150, 210, and Bel Air trims. The Nomad wagon is arguably the rarest, but Chevrolet als...
Oldsmobile 442 Truck Is a Cool Hurst Hauler That Will Never Happen
27 Mar 2022, 14:30 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about Oldsmobile, we usually think about cars like the 442, Cutlass, and the 88. Because, unlike Chevrolet and GMC, this GM division isn't known for pickup trucks. But just like any historic automaker out there, Oldsmobile did off...