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Vlad Mitrache

5,348  ARTICLES

Contributor
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Having the memory of an elephant suffering from amnesia, I'm the exact opposite of an automotive encyclopedia. That's exactly why you can very often find me studying the spec sheets of cars or asking my colleagues who are very much more knowledgeable than me about facts and figures. On the bright side, though, that means I get to learn new things every day.


Contrary to most of the people here, I didn't get my driving license right after my 18th birthday, but it wasn't because I didn't want to. I won't get into details, but three years later I was the proud owner of that piece of plastic and a piece of trash car with which I quickly established a love and hate relationship. Mostly hate.

However, driving I loved, so that's what kept me going until my first decent car. By this time, I started thinking about mixing my degree in Journalism with my passion for driving, and so there I was working as an editor for a car magazine. A few good years later, nothing much has changed. But don't take my word for it, I tend to forget stuff. Now, if I could just remember where I parked my car...
Bronco Vs Defender Mud Showdown - Should We Stop Calling the Brit an "Off-Roader"?
Bronco Vs Defender Mud Showdown - Should We Stop Calling the Brit an "Off-Roader"?

25 Dec 2021, 15:22 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / It's only been a few days since the last off-road-themed encounter between these two vehicles in which the Ford Bronco absolutely demolished the Defender in a tug-of-war competition on grass. After watching the clip, people (some of whom ma...

 
Audi RS 3 Swings for the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S Hot Hatch King, But Does It Hit?
Audi RS 3 Swings for the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S Hot Hatch King, But Does It Hit?

25 Dec 2021, 13:42 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / A simple glaze over the specs of the wonderful Mercedes-AMG A 45 S is enough to award it the title of "best hot hatch on the market" instantly. In fact, nothing comes even close. The Affalterbach brand's two traditional rivals, BM...

 
Lucid GT3 Rendering - If the Tesla Roadster and the Porsche 911 GT3 Had a Baby
Lucid GT3 Rendering - If the Tesla Roadster and the Porsche 911 GT3 Had a Baby

25 Dec 2021, 12:24 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / There has been no shortage of startups looking to emulate Tesla's success over the past decade, but eventually, very few managed to establish a production line and actually deliver a finished product to a customer. At this point at least, L...

 
Decorate Your House for Christmas, But Do Keep an Eye Out for Teslas on FSD
Decorate Your House for Christmas, But Do Keep an Eye Out for Teslas on FSD

20 Dec 2021, 12:17 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Christmas is less than a week away so it feels like the right time to pop some corn, snuggle under a warm blanket, and fire up Netflix as you go to the "Christmas movies" section to watch one of those films you wouldn't even go near ...

 
Ferrari 288 GTO Modern Redesign – Should Some Things Better Be Left Alone?
Ferrari 288 GTO Modern Redesign – Should Some Things Better Be Left Alone?

17 Dec 2021, 12:17 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / The Ferrari 288 GTO is one of those cars that simply define an era. If you think about it, the Maranello-based Italian manufacturer made quite a few of those over its many years of activity, though the closer we get to present times, the less it fe...

 
Aston Martin DBX "Fuerte" Packs an 800 HP-Strong Punch, the Cheekbones to Take One
Aston Martin DBX "Fuerte" Packs an 800 HP-Strong Punch, the Cheekbones to Take One

15 Dec 2021, 14:45 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Some might say the DBX deserves everything bad that happens to it for becoming the model that transformed Aston Martin from a British company that made flawed but ultimately characterful sports cars into yet another builder of SUVs. The truth is...

 
Magna EtelligentReach Hints at EV Revolution, Launches 2022 on Mystery New Model
Magna EtelligentReach Hints at EV Revolution, Launches 2022 on Mystery New Model

15 Dec 2021, 13:13 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / With cars such as the Tesla Model S, the Lucid Air, or even the Mercedes-Benz EQS routinely going the 300 miles mark in terms of their maximum range, the one thing that held a lot of people from going electric in the first place is now in the past....

 
"FSD Beta Attempts to Kill Me," and That's Not Even the Worst Part
"FSD Beta Attempts to Kill Me," and That's Not Even the Worst Part

11 Dec 2021, 10:46 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Over-generalization is never a good thing and can easily lead to (and actually has on numerous occasions) a certain group of people indiscriminately hating other people simply for being part of a certain group. It's a very delicate subject...

 
Stock RAM TRX Drag Races Standard-Cab Supercharged F-150, Not So Much a Gap as a Void
Stock RAM TRX Drag Races Standard-Cab Supercharged F-150, Not So Much a Gap as a Void

11 Dec 2021, 08:52 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Everybody knows what the TRX is all about - until the Tesla Cybertruck comes along (and that might be a while), the Hellcat-powered truck from Stellantis is the quickest one you can buy. It is the truck of choice for anyone who prioritizes performa...

 
Tesla Model S Plaid Brakes Catch Fire After Seven Consecutive Emergency Deployments
Tesla Model S Plaid Brakes Catch Fire After Seven Consecutive Emergency Deployments

7 Dec 2021, 13:57 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Let's put it this way: if Tesla vehicles were gym-going people, they'd be the kind that only works certain parts of their bodies while more or less ignoring other ones giving off a very non-even result. Skipping leg day is the most com...

 
Model S Plaid Vs Chiron Vs Senna Vs 911 Turbo S Drag Race Receives Visit From a Plane
Model S Plaid Vs Chiron Vs Senna Vs 911 Turbo S Drag Race Receives Visit From a Plane

7 Dec 2021, 11:08 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Wake any car enthusiast up in the middle of the night and ask them which is currently the quickest production car, and they will definitely point toward the Tesla Model S Plaid. So much has been made of the EV's unearthly ability to launch off...

 
Porsche 911 Turbo S With Hyundai Tucson (Santa Cruz) Face Shouldn't Look This Good
Porsche 911 Turbo S With Hyundai Tucson (Santa Cruz) Face Shouldn't Look This Good

7 Dec 2021, 09:52 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / No matter how hard manufacturers are trying (and we all know they are), SUVs don't really go hand in hand with sportiness. You can make big cars go fast and, with a little bit of magic, you can even get decent times on a race track, but people...

 
Next-Gen Nissan GT-R Rendered by Accident Looks Meaner Than Ever
Next-Gen Nissan GT-R Rendered by Accident Looks Meaner Than Ever

1 Dec 2021, 20:27 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / There's a lot of talk around the next generation of Nissan's iconic GT-R sports model. To be fair, that's partly because it's such an important nameplate of the automotive industry, but also because the Japanese carmaker is givi...

 
Watch the 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor Make a Picnic Out of Off-Road Course
Watch the 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor Make a Picnic Out of Off-Road Course

1 Dec 2021, 07:42 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache /  The Ford Bronco has been one of this year's major debuts - if not the most important - but if there was one thing still missing to make this reboot all the more successful, it's the SUV's Raptor version. We all knew it was c...

 
Still Shocked by BMW's XM Concept? Here Are Two Sketches to Help You Get Over It
Still Shocked by BMW's XM Concept? Here Are Two Sketches to Help You Get Over It

30 Nov 2021, 14:40 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Earlier today, the Bavarian manufacturer introduced the Concept XM. As the name suggests, the prototype is a performance-oriented (that would be the "M" part) SUV (and that the "X" one) that instantly slots itself right at the t...

 
I Merge, You Merge, He/She Merges, But Are All Merges Created Equal?
I Merge, You Merge, He/She Merges, But Are All Merges Created Equal?

30 Nov 2021, 13:44 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / We learn how to tie our shoes from an early age and, once we master this life-long-useful skill, we tend not to look back on it or think there are ways to improve our execution. It's mostly the same with merging on a highway. We're def...

 
Iconic BMW Model From the '60s Gets the Modern CGI Resurrection It Deserves
Iconic BMW Model From the '60s Gets the Modern CGI Resurrection It Deserves

29 Nov 2021, 16:40 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / BMW's incursion into the world of electric cars has been pretty weird so far. After jumping on the wagon relatively early on with the controversial i3 model, the Bavarians followed that with a very long hiatus that was interrupted only last ye...

 
Mercedes-AMG G 63 Tug-of-War With Russian Sherp Turns Into Bouncing Contest
Mercedes-AMG G 63 Tug-of-War With Russian Sherp Turns Into Bouncing Contest

29 Nov 2021, 06:50 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / With its three locking differentials and huge amounts of power, the Mercedes-AMG G 63 is one of the most fearsome vehicles you could meet in a friendly competition of tug-of-war. The AMG variety of the German SUV is indeed better known for other...

 
600-HP Tuned BMW M3 Drag Races Porsche Taycan Turbo S To Prove a Point
600-HP Tuned BMW M3 Drag Races Porsche Taycan Turbo S To Prove a Point

27 Nov 2021, 08:46 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / Some drag races are the very definition of a foregone conclusion, but they usually involve stock cars. Whenever tuning gets involved, predicting what will happen becomes a lot trickier since there's no real way of knowing exactly how those mod...

 
Ferrari SF90 Vs Porsche GT2 RS Drag Race Ends With Frustrating Cliff Hanger
Ferrari SF90 Vs Porsche GT2 RS Drag Race Ends With Frustrating Cliff Hanger

23 Nov 2021, 09:57 UTC · By: Vlad Mitrache / The Ferrari SF90 Stradale is one of the quickest cars out there that still rely on an internal combustion engine to generate power – even if only partially, in its case. Naturally, that makes it a drag racing's favorite, except it's...

 

Stories by Vlad Mitrache