Mircea Panait
20,321 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.
Rolls-Royce Announces Best Ever Half-Year Sales
8 Jul 2014, 08:19 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / With global sales up by 33 percent and continued strong demand for the Phantom, Ghost and Wraith, British luxury powerhouse Rolls-Royce posts record half-year sales with significant growth across all regions worldwide. It's funny how volume ma...
Lotus Recalling Elise, Exige, Evora S Over Fire Hazard
8 Jul 2014, 07:42 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration informs on its website that 860 Lotus sports cars are being recalled because of a pretty dubious fault. According to the agency, the oil cooler hose may detach from its fitting, spilling oil on the...
Ford China Posts 35 Percent Sales Increase in the First Half of 2014
7 Jul 2014, 18:13 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / This just in from a far place in Eastern Asia – the Blue Oval's Chinese arm moved 549,256 new vehicles these past six months, a 35 percent increase over the same period last year. In June, Ford China sold 87,783 cars, up 17 percent compa...
British Speed Camera Amassed £189,140 in Fines
7 Jul 2014, 17:39 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Data acquired by insurance company LV= Liverpool Victoria shows that a certain fixed camera in the Greater Manchester area of the M60 made a whopping £189,140 last year alone from speeding offences, which translates to $324,076 or €238,1...
Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Shows 49k Original Miles
7 Jul 2014, 15:59 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Remember when Cadillac built proper luxury machines? It's no shame if you don't, but your old man would shiver with emotion if you tell him the following three words: Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. With only 400 cars built in 1957 and some 3...
Infiniti Q50 2L Turbo Starts From £31,755
7 Jul 2014, 15:07 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Replacing the fourth generation of the G37 sedan, the Infiniti Q50 is a compact executive that's marketed in Japan under the iconic Skyline moniker. First revealed in Europe at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show in March, Infiniti's U.K. arm anno...
Ex-Chen Yi Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Up for Auction
7 Jul 2014, 14:15 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / At Bonhams' next event, set to take place at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on July 12th, 2014, no less than three 600 models will come under the hammer. The first is a 1965 600 Pullman previously owned by Chen Yi, the second is a 1973 ...
2015 Renault Master UK Pricing and Specifications
7 Jul 2014, 12:54 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / After it made its world debut at the 2014 Commercial Vehicle Show, the all-new Renault Master takes the spotlight again thanks to the release of official pricing and specifications for the U.K. market. Excluding VAT and OTR chargers, the basic pane...
Chrysler 300F Convertible Combines Luxury and Performance
7 Jul 2014, 11:47 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Picture this: it's 1960, the muscle car as we know it is nowhere in sight and you're in the market for a car that blends big V8 oomph with a tad of comfort and exquisite styling. That recipe sounds a lot like what the Chrysler 300F offere...
All-New Mazda2 Cabin Revealed · Video
7 Jul 2014, 10:07 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / At a recent track day event, motoring journalists were invited to take a short test-drive behind the wheel of the upcoming Mazda2 supermini. Even though cars are camouflaged, what you see are actually near-production prototypes of the 2 small famil...
All-New Ford Mondeo to Share CD4 Platform with Lincoln MKX
7 Jul 2014, 09:19 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / A recent report reveals that the next-generation Ford Mondeo will be underpinned by a reworked version of the CD4 platform, which is 10 percent stronger than the outgoing model's EUCD platform and the Fusion's CD3 platform. But the big ne...
Tesla Will Open New Stores in China
7 Jul 2014, 08:23 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / If you want to buy a Tesla Model S in China, good luck with that. At the present moment, availability is limited to Beijing and Shanghai customers, the waiting list is demotivational and the Chinese pay double the money for the Model S compared to ...
SRT Viper Production Restarts
6 Jul 2014, 16:38 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / A few months ago, Chrysler announced that the SRT Viper will halt production for two months due to very poor demand, having moved only 91 units in the first two months of 2014. However, the manufacturer's Conner Avenue Assembly plant in Detroi...
Police Chase Ends With Tesla Model S Split in Two
6 Jul 2014, 11:38 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / While most of us celebrated the 4th of July by eating barbecue with our family, watching the fireworks show in Washington DC and celebrating everything that's great about the United States of America, one certain individual deemed appropriate ...
UK Road Casualties Decreased to 1,713 Fatally Injured
6 Jul 2014, 10:43 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The U.K.'s Department for Transport revealed that road deaths decreased by 2 percent in 2013 compared to the year before, which is the lowest figure since national records began in 1926. Compared to 2012, people that have been seriously injure...
Skoda Fabia Leads UK Skoda Sales
6 Jul 2014, 10:04 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / In what has been the Czech manufacturer's best ever half-year sales period in the United Kingdom, the Fabia supermini has moved more units than the rest of the Skoda lineup. From January to June, the Volkswagen Group's subsidiary was met ...
Tucker 48 Going Under the Hammer
6 Jul 2014, 09:27 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / If we were to make a top ten list of our favorite post-WWII American luxury cars, the Tucker 48 would definitely be somewhere at the top. It's design and technology were groundbreaking, it was built in only 51 units and Francis Ford Coppola as...
Glickenhaus SCG 003 Carbon Chassis Revealed
4 Jul 2014, 17:51 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / In case you didn't know already, James Glickenhaus is a very lucky petrolhead that owns a pretty awesome collection of both old and new exotica, including an assortment of Ferrari racers. He's also the owner of the one-off Ferrari P4/5 by...
Fiat Punto Facelift Spied Undisguised
4 Jul 2014, 17:11 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / It's been on the market since 2005, it's styled by Giugiaro, it rides on a variation of the General Motors Gamma platform and it was first facelifted in 2009 when the Evo moniker was added to its name. Yes, we're talking about the Fi...
UK New Car Sales Up 10 Percent In the First Half of 2014
4 Jul 2014, 16:31 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Compared to the same period last year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders hints that the United Kingdom's new car market has grown by more than 10 percent. Get this - the biggest gains are coming from plug-in EVs and alternatively ...