Mircea Panait
20,328 ARTICLES
Personal motto:
"If in doubt, flat out." - Colin McRae
Interning for Top Gear was his first foray in automotive journalism, and not long after that, a full-time position was opened for Mircea to seal the deal. Just about three years later, autoevolution became his new home.
Especially interested in American ponies and muscle cars, Mircea also finds the Japanese domestic market appealing thanks to the quirkiness of kei cars. Full-size pickups like the Ram 1500 and off-roaders such as the Ford Ranger Raptor and Jeep Gladiator Rubicon are much to his liking as well.
A self-described master of pasta and an avid CCG player, Mircea’s past-time activities include playing his Epiphone Les Paul Special Vintage Edition electric guitar, discovering the wonders of the Carpathian mountains by foot, and driving to the Black Sea to get a well-deserved tan.
Range Rover Chassis #001 Heading to Auction
11 Aug 2014, 13:50 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Now this is an opportunity few off-road enthusiasts could refuse - the first ever Range Rover built will be going under the hammer in London on September 4th. Silverstone Auctions estimates that the genesis of the luxury four-wheel drive sport util...
New Book Tells the Story of Tesla Motors and How Elon Musk Made Electric Cars Cool
11 Aug 2014, 12:45 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / When it comes to Tesla Motors, most fans of the company know how it all started and how the electric vehicle manufacturer is doing these days. The unrivaled Model S, the upcoming Model X crossover and the gargantuan Gigafactory battery plant are on...
Citroen C3-XR to Debut at Guangzhou Auto Show
11 Aug 2014, 11:46 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / After the French manufacturer revealed the DS 5LS and DS 6WR, the offensive in China continues with the C3-XR, a model that follows the same boot tree as the Peugeot 2008 and other subcompact crossover vehicles like the Nissan Juke and Renault Capt...
Tesla Model X Praised by Morgan Stanley
11 Aug 2014, 10:07 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / When one of the biggest investment banks around claims that the upcoming Model X will outsell the Model S luxury sedan and take the biggest pie of the premium SUV market, you know that something big is gonna happen when it will hit U.S. showrooms. ...
2015 Hyundai i20 Unveiled Ahead of Paris Motor Show · Video
11 Aug 2014, 08:59 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Although the 2014 Paris Motor Show will open its doors almost two months from now on (October 2nd), the South Korean manufactured couldn't wait that long to officially reveal the second-generation i20 supermini. So what kind of goodies does it...
2015 Chrysler 200 Called In Over Faulty Wiring Harnesses
11 Aug 2014, 08:04 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The all-new Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan might go through 3,500 quality controls at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, but some of the vehicles produced up to this moment aren't without manufacturing faults. A recent official statement tells ...
Tesla Model S Updated for Summer 2014
10 Aug 2014, 18:25 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Ever since the Tesla Model S started production in 2012, the pure electric drive luxury liftback sedan has grown to be a favorite among eco-friendly drivers. Although the options list is already pretty impressive, the Palo Alto-based carmaker has u...
8L90 Eight-Speed Auto Shifts Quicker Than Porsche's PDK Gearbox
10 Aug 2014, 16:40 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / When General Motors introduced the seven-speed manual on the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, we had a hunch that engineers paid attention to what Porsche has fitted to the 991-generation 911 sports car. However, the German company's super f...
Ferrari FXX Evoluzione Can Be Yours for a Whopping $2.19 Million
10 Aug 2014, 15:36 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The LaFerrari may be the best model manufactured by the Prancing Horse nowadays, but its predecessor was also a pretty wild machine. But those special kind of customers that were not impressed by the Enzo (F60) had an option to quench their go-fast...
GM Announces 5 Recalls Covering 269,000 Vehicles
10 Aug 2014, 14:56 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / It's been awhile since General Motors has called in some cars, ain't it? Well not anymore. The carmaker informed recently that 269,000 older and newer nameplates are involved in separate campaigns. Starting with the biggest of the bunc...
Surfers from Oh Dawn Remind Us Why Quitting is Not An Option
10 Aug 2014, 14:23 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / First an announcement: this is not a video about cars. The only vehicles you get to see are a couple of Ford vans and a message toward the end of the clip, reading "Ford, supporting success against the odds." The story of the guys star...
Car Battery Maintenance Tips
8 Aug 2014, 18:20 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / It's common sense that no car is able to operate without the electric zap provided by a battery. While most units should work just fine about four years depending on the climate and way you use your car, many batteries draw their last breath w...
BBR Super 200 Mazda MX-5 Tuning Package Detailed, Priced at £2,195
8 Aug 2014, 16:45 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / MX-5, Miata, Eunos Roadster, whatever you want to call it, the lightweight roadster from Mazda is a spirited driver's delight. Its mechanical simplicity and enjoyable front-engined rear-wheel drive layout hits any driver's sweet spot, so ...
HSV GTS Maloo Confirmed, Expected to Be the Fastest Production Ute Ever
8 Aug 2014, 15:58 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Although Ford Performance Vehicles and Holden will close shop in the Land Down Under in the following years, here's a little bit of good news for Australian gearheads. A recent report hints that Holden Special Vehicles is working its magic on ...
Hyundai to Pay $17.35 Million Over Delayed Reporting of Hyundai Genesis Brake Fault
8 Aug 2014, 15:02 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / After a rigorous investigation conduced by the NHTSA, Hyundai has been fined $17.35 million, the maximum penalty for a related series of violations until October 1st, 2013, when the fine was increased to $35 million. The South Korean manufacturer f...
Tesla Model R and Model C In the Pipeline According to Insider Information
8 Aug 2014, 14:05 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / In recent months, the electric vehicle world's sweetheart brand has been hard on the offensive with supplementing the Supercharger network, partnering up with Panasonic for making the Gigafactory project happen, developing the soon to be launc...
140k Owners of Recalled GM Vehicles Can't Be Contacted by the Automaker
8 Aug 2014, 12:32 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / As if the 30 million sub-standard vehicles weren't enough of a handful for General Motors, the company has recently told the NHTSA a very worrying thing: close to 140,000 owners of cars called in by GM over faulty ignition switches cannot...
Western Europe Car Sales Up 5 Percent This July
8 Aug 2014, 11:28 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / LMC Automotive, a company specialized in providing auto industry intelligence, has released a report according to which sales in Western Europe hiked in July to a little over 1 million vehicles. Year-on-year, that accounts to a 5 percent sales incr...
Aston Martin DB9 Replacement: Design Chief Discloses It Will Drop the DB9 Moniker
8 Aug 2014, 09:59 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / After the AM DB7 draw its last breath, its next in line should've adopted the DB8 moniker, but we all know that Aston Martin skipped that in favor of the DB9 nameplate. With us for 10 years now, the British GT is slated to receive a replacemen...
Taking a Selfie While Driving: One in Four Young Drivers Did It, Study Shows
8 Aug 2014, 09:12 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Back in 1839, Robert Cornelius took the world's first selfie. Fast-forward 165 years or so and #selfie first appears on Flickr in the year 2004. The stupidness has gotten way out of hand in 2013, when the Oxford Dictionary added the word selfi...