autoevolution
 

Vlad Radu

1,179  ARTICLES

Personal motto:

“From success, you learn absolutely nothing. From failure and setbacks conclusions can be drawn. That goes for your private life as well as your career.” - Nikki Lauda

Contributor
editor photo
At age five Vlad built a car cockpit out of wood, carboard and an old Trabant steering wheel under his desk and dreamed about driving the world’s most exotic cars. He grew up watching Michael Schumacher become a legendary driver, falling in love with speed and all things Ferrari in the process.

In high school, he crashed a communist-era Dacia 1310 with no brakes into a military base’s fence and almost got arrested on terrorism charges but bribed the base’s sentinel with three packs of cigarettes and only got in trouble for ruining the car.

He then decided to put his passion for cars on hold and concentrate on playing professional basketball. Due to a lack of talent, size, and a serious injury, he was forced to abandon professional sports and take a job as a video game tester. It was during this period that he discovered a passion for reading and writing after finding Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels on a park bench.

The author’s writing style was fascinating to young Vlad and he continued to read all his books while creating a blog where he wrote about controversial social issues, inspired by his favorite author.

Years later, he got back to his first passion, taking a job at a local car parts dealership. He worked his way up from the sales department to a successful regional manager position, but something was still missing.

His biggest dream was to write so, when Autoevolution approached him to become a member of the team, he quit his old job instantly, and has been passionately writing ever since.

When he’s not busy creating articles or playing with his two-year-old son, he can be found working on his old BMW 3 Series Wagon or shredding trails on a mountain bike he assembled himself.
1969 Buick GS 400 Stage 1: The Street Slayer That Packed Far More Muscle Than Advertised
1969 Buick GS 400 Stage 1: The Street Slayer That Packed Far More Muscle Than Advertised

18 Apr 2024, 14:18 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / With rather subdued looks and a purposefully underrated output rating, the GS 400 Stage 1 was a brute in a suit that many enthusiasts slept on in 1969. In 1936, Buick's long-time upscale division infused some excitement into its lineup by s...

 
Panther Solo 2: The Pioneering 4WD Mid-Engine Sports Car That Time Forgot
Panther Solo 2: The Pioneering 4WD Mid-Engine Sports Car That Time Forgot

16 Apr 2024, 13:15 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / About five years before the legendary McLaren F1, another intriguing mid-engine machine was born in England with the promise of kickstarting a revolution in the sports car market. When discussing England's most prestigious sports car manuf...

 
5 Classic Muscle Car V8s With Different Displacements Than Advertised
5 Classic Muscle Car V8s With Different Displacements Than Advertised

31 Mar 2024, 09:27 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / During the 1960s and 1970s, American manufacturers were engaged in a fierce horsepower war that yielded some impressive V8s. However, some of those engines were advertised with more or less cubic inches than what they actually displaced. While t...

 
5 Oldest Carmakers That Are Still Around Today
5 Oldest Carmakers That Are Still Around Today

31 Mar 2024, 09:10 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Since the first automobile was conceived, existing or new manufacturing companies took on the task of building cars. Some of those early companies disappeared, while these five have managed to remain successful and are still around today. People...

 
1949 Oldsmobile 88: A Muscle Car and NASCAR Legend That's Surprisingly Cheap Today
1949 Oldsmobile 88: A Muscle Car and NASCAR Legend That's Surprisingly Cheap Today

30 Mar 2024, 21:03 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / One of the most influential American vehicles of the 20th Century, the 1949 Olds 88 has the pedigree to be one of the most desirable US-built classics, but instead, it's sometimes cheaper than a ten-year-old Toyota Camry. For many gearheads...

 
5 Most Underrated Muscle Cars From the 1960s and 1970s
5 Most Underrated Muscle Cars From the 1960s and 1970s

30 Mar 2024, 20:06 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / During those exciting decades, the American automotive industry released some of the most iconic vehicles of all time. But while some muscle cars still enjoy a superstar status, others have faded away from the collective minds of enthusiasts, and t...

 
5 Most Unusual Engines Ever Fitted Into Production Cars
5 Most Unusual Engines Ever Fitted Into Production Cars

30 Mar 2024, 18:12 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Though ICEs have evolved tremendously during the last century, most of the units that powered production cars share many similarities. However, a few companies decided to step well outside the box by creating profoundly unconventional engines. E...

 
5 Most Iconic NASCAR Race Cars From the Golden Age of Muscle
5 Most Iconic NASCAR Race Cars From the Golden Age of Muscle

30 Mar 2024, 09:46 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For most of its history, NASCAR's top racing series featured race cars that were heavily based on factory models, and for around a decade, those cars were none other than muscle cars. Though several so-called proto-muscle cars were introduc...

 
1970 4-4-2 W-30: The Underrated Gentleman's Muscle Car and the Ultimate Olds
1970 4-4-2 W-30: The Underrated Gentleman's Muscle Car and the Ultimate Olds

29 Mar 2024, 12:08 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Though never as popular as its high-powered Chevelle SS and GTO siblings, the 4-4-2 W-30 combined tire-shredding performance and luxury better than any other muscle car available during the epic 1970 model year. High-performance, factory-built i...

 
The Forgotten Corvette ZR-12: Chevy's Experimental Antidote to the Viper's Lethal Bite
The Forgotten Corvette ZR-12: Chevy's Experimental Antidote to the Viper's Lethal Bite

28 Mar 2024, 15:11 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / After getting wind that crosstown rival Chrysler was developing a V10-powered sports car, Chevy responded with an experimental Corvette that could've made the Viper look like a threadsnake. After the exciting era of muscle car madness was c...

 
General Lee Charger: Remembering the Most Famous Muscle Car to Ever Star in a TV Show
General Lee Charger: Remembering the Most Famous Muscle Car to Ever Star in a TV Show

27 Mar 2024, 11:58 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Dubbed General Lee, the four-wheel star of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show and subsequent feature film transformed the second-generation Dodge Charger into one of the most famous muscle cars ever built. A "role" in a successful TV show an...

 
5 of the Most Influential Turbocharged Production Cars
5 of the Most Influential Turbocharged Production Cars

26 Mar 2024, 23:05 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / These days, most ICE-powered cars on the road are equipped with at least one turbocharger, so let's boost our gearhead knowledge by remembering five of the most influential production cars that use this game-changing device. Powered by the ...

 
1936 Buick Century: The American Muscle Car's Long-Forgotten Grandfather
1936 Buick Century: The American Muscle Car's Long-Forgotten Grandfather

25 Mar 2024, 12:26 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Nearly three decades before Pontiac introduced the GTO, Buick launched a mid-size model powered by a potent engine borrowed from its larger passenger cars. During the first half of the 1960s, multiple US carmakers began unleashing high-powered, ...

 
5 of the Quirkiest AMG Cars Ever Produced
5 of the Quirkiest AMG Cars Ever Produced

24 Mar 2024, 09:53 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For nearly six decades, the current high-performance division of Mercedes-Benz has built many iconic cars. However, it also developed a handful of quirky vehicles. Today, AMG is responsible for building high-powered, road-legal Mercedes-Benz car...

 
5 Most Dominant Race Cars of All Time
5 Most Dominant Race Cars of All Time

24 Mar 2024, 09:39 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For more than a century, motorsport has given us a long list of legendary race cars, of which some managed to dominate the competition in record-breaking fashion. Shortly after building the first self-powered carriages, people started racing an...

 
5 Greatest Muscle Cars Ever Produced by Buick
5 Greatest Muscle Cars Ever Produced by Buick

24 Mar 2024, 09:11 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For the most part of its history, Buick has focused on building upscale vehicles. Nevertheless, during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the GM division developed some exquisite performance-focused rides that became muscle car icons. Founded in 1899 ...

 
Spectre R42: The Forgotten GT40-Inspired, Cobra V8-Powered British Supercar
Spectre R42: The Forgotten GT40-Inspired, Cobra V8-Powered British Supercar

23 Mar 2024, 19:35 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Over a decade before Ford launched the production version of the GT, a small British company developed a modern supercar inspired by the legendary GT40. Though it was developed in the 1960s, the GT40 remains the most famous American-built race c...

 
5 Greatest Renault Sport Road Cars of All Time
5 Greatest Renault Sport Road Cars of All Time

23 Mar 2024, 18:28 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Though never as famous as BMW's M division or Mercedes-Benz's AMG, Renault's motorsport, performance, and special vehicles department has produced some legendary street-legal machies throughout its history. Founded in 1976 as Rena...

 
5 Rarest, Most Intriguing First-Generation Mustangs
5 Rarest, Most Intriguing First-Generation Mustangs

23 Mar 2024, 18:02 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Built for nearly a decade, the continually improved first generation of the legendary pony car gave us some memorable Mustangs, and in this article, we're going to remember the five rarest, most intriguing of them all. Based on Ford's ...

 
Monteverdi High Speed: The American V8-Powered GT Created To Spite Enzo Ferrari
Monteverdi High Speed: The American V8-Powered GT Created To Spite Enzo Ferrari

22 Mar 2024, 14:53 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / One of the most underrated grand tourers of the 1970s, the Swiss-made, Italian-Bodied Monteverdi High Speed used a series of American V8s to persuade wealthy enthusiasts to choose it over a Ferrari. A little over a decade after it developed its ...

 

Stories by Vlad Radu