Ciprian Florea
7,137 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.
True One-of-One: A Closer Look at the Only 1971 Dodge Charger in FM3 Panther Pink
4 Mar 2024, 16:42 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Mopars from the golden muscle car era are primarily famous for their high-compression V8 engines. Most of them also stand out thanks to their aggressive styling cues. Then there's the High-Impact color palette, which dressed these high-perform...
Rare 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 Hidden for Decades Displays Patina at Amelia 2024
4 Mar 2024, 11:36 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / With nearly three million units built, the first-generation Ford Mustang is the most common iteration of the iconic nameplate. But because Ford built so many of them, the first-gen Mustang is also a common barn and junkyard find. Of course, most...
Gorgeous Yet Mysterious 1967 Dodge D-100 Pickup Claims White Hat Special Heritage
3 Mar 2024, 20:56 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When talking about 1960s pickup trucks, we usually think about the Ford F-Series and the Chevrolet C/K. These were the most popular haulers at the time, but they weren't the only trucks emerging out of Detroit. Dodge offered an equally solid a...
Top 10 Most Powerful Classic American Pickup Trucks
3 Mar 2024, 12:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Pickup trucks have been around since the early days of the automobile. Specifically, Rapid Motor Vehicle Company built one-ton pickups as early as 1902, some 15 years before Ford introduced the Model TT. Initially conceived as no-frills, rugge...
1947 Hudson Big Boy Is a Rare Pickup Truck in Need of TLC
1 Mar 2024, 15:02 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / What is the most beautiful classic pickup truck ever built? Is it the Chevrolet Task Force or the second-generation Ford F-Series? Or are you a fan of the mid-1950s Dodge C-Series? Well, I don't know about you, but my personal top three includ...
1969 Plymouth Road Runner Ditches Factory 383 V8 for Six-Barrel / Air Grabber Combo
29 Feb 2024, 19:53 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / When it comes to classic muscle cars, the all-original and numbers-matching rigs are the most desirable and valuable out there. And things obviously become pretty much perfect if the said vehicle is restored and packs a high-compression big-block V...
1959 Cadillac DeVille Wagon Is a One-of-None Weirdo Needing Restoration
29 Feb 2024, 15:42 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Cadillac may be struggling to compete with Europe's premier automakers nowadays, but things used to be different back in the day. The company established itself as the "Standard of the World" before WWII and led the American luxury c...
1957 Chrysler 300C Has the Full Package: Rare, Restored, Big Muscle
29 Feb 2024, 12:43 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Most enthusiasts agree that the muscle car era began in the 1960s. However, the concept can be traced back to the 1950s and cars like the Oldsmobile 88, Studebaker Golden Hawk, and the Rambler Rebel. Chrysler was also among the segment's pione...
1970 Dodge Challenger Has Been Sitting for Too Long, Blends Plum Crazy Paint and Rust
28 Feb 2024, 21:12 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched for the 1970 model year, the Dodge Challenger was a bit late to the muscle car party. New fuel emission and consumption restrictions forced Chrysler to discontinue its high-performance engines in 1971, so the Challenger had only two good y...
1971 Pontiac Firebird Formula Is What All Barn-Found Muscle Cars Hope To Become
28 Feb 2024, 18:09 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / By launching the GTO for the 1964 model year, Pontiac is said to have popularized the then-emerging muscle car segment. On the other hand, the company was a bit late to the pony car market. The first pony cars were released in April 1964. The Fo...
Unrestored and All-Original 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Is a Million-Dollar Garage Find
27 Feb 2024, 16:18 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Ferrari isn't among the first brands we think of when discussing barn-found classics. We usually see them as pristine-condition vehicles paraded at car shows or displayed in museums. But the truth is some Ferraris have been neglected for decad...
1966 Pontiac GTO Stashed Away for Decades Emerges With Bad News Under the Hood
27 Feb 2024, 13:59 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Widely credited with popularizing the muscle car segment, the Pontiac GTO is one of the most iconic vehicles of the golden era. But that didn't prevent it from having a similar fate to most 1960s classics. Some 60 years later, many first-gener...
Jay Leno Drives the 1964 McLaren M1A, the Company's First-Ever Sports Prototype
27 Feb 2024, 11:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / McLaren didn't release its first production road car until 1992 (the F1), but its legacy goes back to 1963. That's when Bruce McLaren founded his racing outfit. The New Zealander started building his own race cars the following year. M...
Stunning 1955 Chevrolet Nomad Hides a Nice Surprise Under the Hood
26 Feb 2024, 21:19 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Launched for the 1955 model year, the Chevrolet Tri-Five was an instant hit. The company sold a whopping 1.77 million units, a 54% increase over the 1954 full-size and a US sales record. About 45% of these units were top-tier Bel Air models. The...
Forgotten 1973 Dodge Charger Comes out of Storage, It's a Rare Mr. Norm's Car
26 Feb 2024, 14:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1966, the Charger quickly became Dodge's bread-and-butter muscle car. Redesigned for the second time in 1971, the Charger carried over into 1972 without its high-compression big-block V8 engines. Chrysler discontinued the 440 Six...
1969 Dodge Charger R/T Garage Find Gets Satisfying First Wash in 18 Years
26 Feb 2024, 11:35 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Remember the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T I showed you about a week ago? It had emerged from a garage after nearly two decades. Well, the Mopar just got a much-deserved cleaning, the first since it was parked. Documented by YouTube's "Auto A...
First-Year 1964 Pontiac GTO Packs Rare Tri-Power Setup Under Marimba Red Hood
25 Feb 2024, 21:24 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / In October 1960, Pontiac joined the emerging compact car market with the Tempest. In 1963, however, the company had a change of heart and re-assigned the nameplate to midsize duty. The shift also included the Le Mans trim package, which spawned the...
Fully Restored 1970 Dodge Coronet Has Two Features That Make It Super Rare
25 Feb 2024, 13:16 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Introduced in 1949 as a top-of-the-line full-size model, the Dodge Coronet was among the company's first post-WWII designs. The nameplate was relegated to entry-level duty in 1955 and remained in production through 1959. Dodge revived the badg...
1968 Ford Mustang Gets First Wash in 18 Years, Becomes Surprise Graduation Gift
24 Feb 2024, 20:57 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Seeing classic cars coming out of storage after many years is a great thing to witness. But it gets even better when the said vehicles are in great shape. And seeing them getting cleaned up and running again makes it all perfect. Yup, it's tim...
This 1966 AMC Rambler Marlin Is a Fabulous Survivor With Original Paint
24 Feb 2024, 19:20 UTC · By: Ciprian Florea / Established in 1954 by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson, American Motors Corporation (AMC) became America's fourth largest automaker. The company survived for only 34 years until it was purchased by Chrysler in 1988. But even though it...