autoevolution
 

Vlad Radu

1,110  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
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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.
5 Greatest American Straight-Six Engines Ever Mass Produced
5 Greatest American Straight-Six Engines Ever Mass Produced

28 Feb 2024, 00:26 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / When it comes to US-made engines, the V8 reigns supreme, but American manufacturers have also built several iconic straight-sixes throughout the years. The straight-six engine is nearly 121 years old, and while electric power has become the wave...

 
A Look Back at the Mid-Engine 914, the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Porsche
A Look Back at the Mid-Engine 914, the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Porsche

27 Feb 2024, 17:20 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Co-developed with Volkswagen, the 914 was a quirky departure from the 911, and today, many people unjustly see it as a failed experiment that lacks the genuine Porsche allure. By the mid-1960s, Porsche was still a relatively young company, but t...

 
5 Worst Imports Ever Sold in the United States
5 Worst Imports Ever Sold in the United States

26 Feb 2024, 22:41 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / While there's a long list of legendary imports that were very successful in the US, in this article, we'll remember the worst. The first automobile was not conceived in the US, but that's the place where it thrived during the earl...

 
Mark IV LS6 454: A Look Back at One of the Muscle Car Golden Age's Most Impressive V8s
Mark IV LS6 454: A Look Back at One of the Muscle Car Golden Age's Most Impressive V8s

26 Feb 2024, 17:37 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Available in factory-built models for only two years, this iconic powerhouse is still the largest V8 ever fitted into a mass-produced Chevy passenger car. The American car-buying public's appetite for faster, more powerful models led to mor...

 
5 Greatest Maserati Production Models of All Time
5 Greatest Maserati Production Models of All Time

25 Feb 2024, 09:47 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For more than a century, Maserati has produced many intriguing road cars. Some have become automotive icons, but others have been unfairly underrated and forgotten. Founded in December 1914 by the Maserati brothers, the company began making a n...

 
5 Most Iconic Graphics Packages From the Golden Age of Muscle Cars
5 Most Iconic Graphics Packages From the Golden Age of Muscle Cars

24 Feb 2024, 23:52 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Besides potent V8s, muscle cars became extremely popular during the 1960s and 1970s thanks to their unique looks, often bolstered by badass graphic packages. Muscle cars, or supercars (as they were initially called), emerged during the early 19...

 
5 Wildly Futuristic Concept Cars of the 1950s
5 Wildly Futuristic Concept Cars of the 1950s

24 Feb 2024, 23:14 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Though the idea of what we now call concept cars was still relatively new, the 1950s saw the birth of some legendary one-offs that are still fascinating today. Initially called dream cars or idea cars and often built in a single unit, these vehi...

 
The Underdog Story of the Dauer 962 LM: An Outdated Porsche That Won Le Mans 30 Years Ago
The Underdog Story of the Dauer 962 LM: An Outdated Porsche That Won Le Mans 30 Years Ago

24 Feb 2024, 17:39 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / In 1994, rulebook loophole masters Porsche shocked the motorsport world by winning at Le Mans with a mid-1980s car that hadn't been competitive in the legendary 24-hour race for over six years. Over the last 100 years, the Circuit de la Sar...

 
5 Wildest Rally-Bred Homologation Specials
5 Wildest Rally-Bred Homologation Specials

24 Feb 2024, 09:08 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / During the decades when competition cars had to be based on road-legal models, the world of rallying gave birth to some epic homologation specials, and in this article, we'll remember five of the wildest. Though not the most popular form of...

 
5 Largest-Displacement Engines Ever Fitted Into American Production Cars
5 Largest-Displacement Engines Ever Fitted Into American Production Cars

23 Feb 2024, 18:15 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For decades, American manufacturers went by the phrase " there's no replacement for displacement," and these five behemoths embody that philosophy best. These days, the automotive industry is slowly but surely moving away from th...

 
Monza GT Concept: The Early-Sixties Mid-Engine Corvair That's Still Fascinating Today
Monza GT Concept: The Early-Sixties Mid-Engine Corvair That's Still Fascinating Today

22 Feb 2024, 14:27 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / While it was one of the most out-of-the-box passenger cars ever created by Chevy, the Corvair never became a Bowtie legend. However, its story could've been different had the mid-engine Monza GT made it past the concept stage. A graduate o...

 
5 Most Legendary Muscle Cars Ever Produced by Pontiac
5 Most Legendary Muscle Cars Ever Produced by Pontiac

17 Feb 2024, 19:29 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Now defunct, Pontiac helped kick-start the muscle car phenomenon, and thanks to these five legendary models, the brand will live on in the hearts of performance enthusiasts. Named after the Odawa chief who led an indigenous uprising around Detro...

 
Maverick Grabber: Ford's Muscly Compact Gem That Deserves To Be Remembered
Maverick Grabber: Ford's Muscly Compact Gem That Deserves To Be Remembered

16 Feb 2024, 10:57 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Today, the Maverick is Ford's compact pickup truck offering, but back in the 1970s, the Maverick Grabber was a sporty two-door coupe that kept the muscle car flame burning during the dark age of performance. During the 1960s, Ford rode the ...

 
1965 Skylark Gran Sport: The Forgotten Buick Muscle Car That's Still Affordable Today
1965 Skylark Gran Sport: The Forgotten Buick Muscle Car That's Still Affordable Today

15 Feb 2024, 19:32 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Conceived as a direct response to GM sibling Pontiac's 1964 GTO and based on the same A-body platform, the Gran Sport was Buick's first foray into the realm of 1960s muscle. Throughout its history, Buick has been responsible for buildi...

 
Maserati Shamal: The Underrated Italian Grand Tourer That No One Remembers
Maserati Shamal: The Underrated Italian Grand Tourer That No One Remembers

31 Jan 2024, 15:50 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / While based on the forgettable, often-ridiculed Biturbo, the Shamal was a surprisingly good high-performance grand tourer that never got the credit it deserved. Throughout its history, Maserati went through more ups and downs than any of Italy&...

 
5 Most Impressive Kit Cars You Can Buy Today
5 Most Impressive Kit Cars You Can Buy Today

30 Jan 2024, 18:49 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / If you dreamed about building an awesome car but only have basic mechanical knowledge and tools, you can turn your dream into reality with one of these impressive kits. Kit cars allowing enthusiasts to build and customize their dream rides have ...

 
1966 Fairlane GT: Remembering Ford's First Thoroughbred Muscle Car
1966 Fairlane GT: Remembering Ford's First Thoroughbred Muscle Car

30 Jan 2024, 14:50 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / By the strictest definition, a muscle car is a mass-produced American two-door intermediate equipped with a big-block V8. For the Blue Oval, the first model to abide by this definition was the 1966 Fairlane GT. During the early 1960s, Ford launc...

 
5 Coolest American Vehicles From the Dreaded Malaise Era
5 Coolest American Vehicles From the Dreaded Malaise Era

29 Jan 2024, 20:06 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Though the Malaise era can be described as a mini-dark age for American design, the dreadful period gave birth to some awesome models that have now reached legendary status. Generally used to depict American-built vehicles marketed from 1973 to ...

 
Banshee XP-833: The Stunning Concept That Could've Rewritten Pontiac's History
Banshee XP-833: The Stunning Concept That Could've Rewritten Pontiac's History

29 Jan 2024, 14:17 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Conceived to be a sports car that most Americans could afford, the fantastic XP-833 could've been a paradigm-shifting halo car for Pontiac, but GM management prevented it from going into production to protect the Chevrolet Corvette. For dec...

 
5 Used Mid-Engine Sports Cars That You Can Buy for Under $30K in 2024
5 Used Mid-Engine Sports Cars That You Can Buy for Under $30K in 2024

28 Jan 2024, 10:00 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Are you looking to turn the dream of owning a mid-engine sports car into reality this year but only have $30,000 to spare? Then, here are five used models that you should consider. Though used decades before in experimental race cars, the mid-en...

 

Stories by Vlad Radu