Autoevolution Editorial Team

Alex Oagana

Growing up in typical Suburbia, Alex's chances of one day becoming a Formula 1 driver were pretty much toast since, well... forever. He handled his first actual car steering wheel on his father's lap when he was five (on a field) and started practicing “Scandinavian Flicks” when he was 14 (on non-public gravel roads, elementary). The first day after he received his driving license his parents almost called the police suspecting their car had been stolen. Little did they know that Alex had went for a 24 hour joy ride with his friends and had forgotten to announce his parents that he was going to “borrow” the family car for the trip.

In case it's not obvious enough by now, he lives and breathes cars. He considers himself an oldschool petrolhead who is well aware that the automotive industry is a polluting business but he's also sick at heart knowing that someday we're all going to drive kitchen appliances with digitalized V8 sounds. After landing his first real job at a local franchise of an international automotive magazine he entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project, which he hopes is going to change the face of online automotive coverage.

Personal motto: Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. (no pun intended)

Alina Dumitrache

There is only one word that can describe the newest addition to our editorial team, and no, it is not "true", but motorcycle freak. Ok, that's two words. We haven't figured out Alina yet, but we do know a few things about her. She sees cars as just some overgrown, hideous extensions of the good old motorcycle, whose only purpose is to stand between the two wheel ride and 250 km/hour of pure pleasure. After careful consideration, we came up with the conclusion that her passion for the Asian Honda bikes or the more European Ducati is based on the ancestral bond between man (in our case woman) and horse. And what is a motorcycle if not an entire troop of horses?

Favorite quote: "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." (Hedy Lamarr)

Bogdan Popa

Bogdan believes the automotive industry is one of the most interesting things nowadays, so working as an autoevolution editor is like a dream come true. Although he obtained a driving license when he was 19, he had a particular interest in cars ever since he was a child. His other hobbies include driving (as expected), computers and operating systems, gadgets, sports and music.

Favorite quote: "Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow" - Jeff Valdez, Stand-up Comedian.

Daniel Patrascu

Daniel is the one in our team who loves to push buttons. Not the ones you have in your home, or car, or wherever, but the ones who make us huff and puff. He loves writing, or so he claims, but he prefers to use his 10 words per minute typing skills to bring you a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry, rather than keeping you up to speed with new vehicles and their performances.

He hates all electric vehicles and is a sucker for American muscle cars. So much that at one point he had a crush on Eleanor, even if it took her only sixty seconds to see him and be gone. Feeling abandoned, he turned to autoevolution for shelter, so we took him in.

Favorite quote: "I truly believe men and fish can coexist peacefully" – George W. Bush

Ovidiu Panzariu

Ovidiu has been watching Formula 1 since as long as he can remember. In time, he has learnt that every racing series has a little secret of its own so he took it upon himself to create one of the most complex motorsport databases available on line. If Kimi falls from the yacht after completing the first few rounds of the World Drinking Championship or some Nascar driver hits his crew chief for messing up his race, this motorsport addict will give you extensive coverage and keep you up to date the very next minute.

Favorite quote: “Winning is everything. The only ones who remember you when you come second are your wife and your dog”, Damon Hill, 1996 F1 champion

Alexandru Radu Chis

Alex loved fast and agile machines since he first saw and learned of them. He dreamt of being a Formula One driver when he was a kid and still dreams of some day racing in a FIA road circuit competition... but upon understanding the ways of the world he became more detached. He despises auto makers who sell the same essence under different names or bonnets and thinks this trend must be abolished. Likes heavy metal, anime and PC games. Also a big Fallout fan like Tudor.

Favorite quote: "It's not what your country can do for you, but what your country can steal from other countries" - someone smarter than me.

Tudor Raiciu

The passion for photography pushed Tudor into the welcoming hands of the Autoevolution team. When he's not in the field with the test drivers or Photoshopping images (and that's not very often), Tudor also writes automotive articles. He admits that he is not a car connoisseur like some of his colleagues, albeit he does know a thing or two, but is willing to compensate for this by offering you exquisite images of the motorized contraptions.

Favorite “game” quote: “War... war never changes” (He's also an avid Fallout fan, as you might have guessed)

Lou Cheeka

Lou is a rather simple individual who emigrated from some obscure little country in Eastern Europe in the land of opportunity, the United States. He considers himself a real connoisseur of automobiles, since he can tell you almost everything about a car after he gives it a just few knocks on the hood.

The most important features on a car for him are the fuel consumption, interior and cargo space and last but not least, a German badge on the hood.

His favorite quote consists of the first line in any “knock-knock” joke. Ever.

Mary

Born with a peculiar-for-some but very feminine sense of attention to every detail, Mary is our resident female test driver. She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to stuff like horsepower per liter or power to weight ratios, but she can literary destroy a car depending on the amount of time it takes her to put on make-up using the vanity mirror.

Her favorite color is fuchsia (don't ask, really) and she's a sucker for cars that complement her hairdo (which she changes on a daily basis).

Her favorite quote: “I always thought I should be treated like a star.” - Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie

Sir May B. Bach

Sir Bach is the richest member of our team. Maybe even the richest man in the Northern hemisphere. Fact is, we don't even know how does he get the time to participate on our test drives, considering he's usually busy taking his two homosexual Great Danes to the stylist, filling up his personal squadron of gold-plated Gulfstreams or petting his own pack of albino chinchillas.

Apparently, he was knighted after he made a very generous contribution to the Queen's treasury. The exact amount of money is unknown, but immediately after this, the British GDP miraculously rose with almost 5%. He really enjoys luxury and the finer things in life.

Favourite quote: “Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.” - Charles De Montesquieu

Charles Darveight

Our newest member of the team is as mysterious as Sir May B. Bach, Lou Ceeka and Mary put together. He comes from an old “sangre azul” family that is somehow connected to Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler AND Henry Ford. His online nickname is DarV8, which by coincidence (or not) is spelled exactly like his family name and includes his favorite type of engine, the “Vee 8”. He will take charge of the editorials section whenever he feels he has something bitter to say about the car industry.

Personal motto: Pedal to the metal.

Emanuelle Vandelay

Emanuelle has a history of working for an undisclosed number of glossy women magazines, until she realized that she can do the same thing, only better and for a much broader audience, in the online environment. Considering her "area of expertise" mainly consists of advice bits for the ladies, she will mostly help our feminine readers in the Girls Only section. See? Estrogen and cars sometimes do mix! Her hobbies include shopping, Pilates and meddling with some men's minds. In other words, she'll get along with our female users just fine.


Personal motto: Behind every great man there's a great woman