Razvan Calin
578 ARTICLES
Personal motto:
Don’t try. Be. Do. Live.
He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer. Now he writes, finding this to be the closest to keeping wisely quiet.
Getting a degree in PR convinced him that trade job skills are more fun, but if all the schools Răzvan has been through taught him anything, it’s that he’ll never cease learning.
Slant-Six '72 Duster 225 Is the Best Mopar, Says an Owner Who Waited 21 Years To Buy One
28 Sep 2023, 13:41 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Arriving in September 1969 as the A-body replacement for the up-shifted Barracuda (which moved to the E-Body Platform from 1970 onward), the Plymouth Duster was a magnificent display of scarcely funded ingenuity that worked wonders in the sales cha...
775-HP F-150 Super Snake Drags Pro-Lite Truck; Winner Runs Smoking Circles Around Loser
27 Sep 2023, 14:04 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / The most American drag race (of the day) comes from the left-hand-side-driving shore of the pond – England. An F-150 truck takes on a Pro Lite off-road race truck nearly half down on power but with a curb weight that would make a C8 Corvette ...
1954 Packard Convertible Coupe Is a Relic of Great America, Hides Treasure Under Its Hood
26 Sep 2023, 15:04 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / World War II was – and still is – the single most devastating man-made event in the existence of humanity. But out of the ashes of atrocities and endless suffering rose some of the most outstanding achievements of Man. Space exploration...
This Challenger T/A Spent Two Decades in Packard's Grave and Came Back To Tell the Story
25 Sep 2023, 19:59 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / From 1903 to 1956, Detroit was the high-revving piston of America’s growth as the greatest economy in the world, and one of the hearts of that incessant push forward was the Packard Plant. The first car manufacturing facility in the world to ...
Casual Mopar Man: Five Charger R/Ts, an R. Petty-Signed Superbird, and a New '97 Viper GTS
24 Sep 2023, 21:37 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Being a gearhead is not easy – ask any woman married to one. But owning a car that is more than a means of personal transportation and taking said car indoors to keep it nice and cozy are about as far apart as EVs are from the muscle car club...
Restored Body, Replaced 440–6: Is a 1970 Challenger R/T 'Vert Worth a Quarter-Million?
24 Sep 2023, 15:07 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / It will forever remain a mystery of motoring why Chrysler waited for six years to make a move in the pony car game from the sixties. Ironically, it was Mopar who started the trend with the Barracuda on April Fools’ Day in 1964, two weeks befo...
14-YO Kid Paid $450 for First Car, a '68 Charger R/T 440; 45 Years Later, He Still Has It
24 Sep 2023, 01:16 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / There’s absolutely, positively no way that we can find a car with a cooler story than this 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 anywhere on Mopar’s good Planet Combustion! I’ve come across some fascinating stories about magnificent vehicles...
Are F1 Pilots Any Good as Micro-Truck Drivers? No, but It's Hysterical To Watch Them Try
23 Sep 2023, 21:13 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Red Bull’s podium-less finish in Singapore was probably the best to happen to the current first-place racing team this season. Otherwise, had their winning streak continued without this prancing horse interruption, we could have seen Max Vers...
The Greatest "Steal": Man Bids Once, Buys '69 Shelby GT 500 Survivor for Under $90K
22 Sep 2023, 12:29 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / What’s the best way to get one’s hands on a piece of Detroit’s muscle car history’ most prodigious names? Go to an online auction site, place one bid – a single, winning bid – and take home a last-year Shelby Mus...
'Junkyard Dog' Survivor '69 Mustang Boss 429 Is a Two-Owner S-Code Gem, Price Unknown
21 Sep 2023, 21:00 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Here’s an unpopular opinion that might get me digitally-lapidated faster than the most notorious Ford Mustang of them all could stick its speedo needle between the 6 and 0 on the go-fast dial: the 1969 Boss 426 was – and still is &ndash...
1970 Mopar Muscle: All-Original Plymouth GTX Is Clean as a Whistle, Costs a Pretty Penny
21 Sep 2023, 12:37 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Not all the Golden Era muscle cars were born equal – some fell under a lucky (Penta)star, while others fell from the crib. Some were purposefully built in small numbers to smear an aura of prestige and exclusivity on the brand and the cars&rs...
Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo Charges for 3.5 Days During 3,200-Mile Drive Down Under
20 Sep 2023, 15:37 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Among the many worldwide best-known German brand names originating in neighboring Austria, Porsche probably ranks a distant second. Although I am willing to bet that the undisputed occupant of the top step of this podium isn’t famed for his V...
Munro Mk_1 4x4 EV Truck 'Mountain Rescue' Edition: Blue Lights and a Stretcher
19 Sep 2023, 19:19 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / ‘Electric cars’ - what’s the first image that pops into one’s mind when hearing the two words? Hyper-quick sedans, or perhaps two-seat outrageously expensive bullet-fast Croatian gems on wheels? Or maybe limited range anxiet...
3,000-HP Drag Race: F1 'Roadster' v Ferrari SF90, 1,000-HP Audi RS 6, and a Stunt Plane
18 Sep 2023, 21:40 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / You surely noticed that cars have begun to prowl at the borderlands of terrestrial and aeronautical if we look at the matter from a strictly speed-and-power-driven prejudice. With piston engines pushing 1,000 hp on a lousy day, land vehicles are va...
Is It a Car? Is It a Bird? It's Both! Survivor '83 AMC Eagle 4WD 4-Door Sedan Shows Off
17 Sep 2023, 21:55 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / In the early 70s, one AMC engineer had a wild idea: what if a passenger car could also be driven freely over light off-road terrains? Energized by his concept, he quickly put together an AMC Hornet with Jeep’s four-wheel-drive system. The res...
Fast and Furious – But Who's Who in This Audi RS 6 v BMW M3 ¼-Mile Shootout?
17 Sep 2023, 17:16 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Germans are notorious for their love for all things mechanical, but there’s a critical difference between this European nation and other carmaking peoples around our oblate ellipsoid (the official shape of Planet Piston). Germans also know ho...
1951 Cadillac With Le Mans Legacy Has a Royal Story To Tell, Goes to Car Spa for Treatment
17 Sep 2023, 12:45 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / After the Second World War ended, the automotive world got back to business as usual – although it took a few years for carmakers to roll out new cars. Not newly-built automobiles but fresh-out-of-the-oven designs and engineering. For America...
1966 Plymouth Satellite Is a Real HEMI With Good Looks and a Bad Four-Speed Attitude
15 Sep 2023, 22:14 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / “You get lucky once in a while, not very often.” This dictum is debatable, depending on one’s perspective and understanding of luck. But when the context involves owning an early 426 HEMI Mopar – the original, of course &nda...
0–60 in 2.6s: ABT's Audi RS 7 Makes 1,000 Ethanol-Cooled HP, Tuning Package Alone Is $218K
15 Sep 2023, 12:09 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / How do you make a ridiculously great car from the stables of the Volkswagen Group even better? Hand it over to the wrench wizards from ABT Sportsline. Their latest and greatest creation is the 1,000-hp Lord of the Rings Audi RS 7 Legacy Edition IWI...
Watching These 1970s LEGO Sports Cars Crash in Slow Motion Is Weirdly Satisfying
14 Sep 2023, 18:49 UTC · By: Razvan Calin / Gearheads are a lovely bunch – give them a set of wheels (typically four, but that can vary), and they’ll keep themselves busy for at least an eternity. After all, the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. No offen...