autoevolution
 

Vlad Radu

1,144  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 Obscure Yet Breathtaking Supercars Based on the Corvette
5 Obscure Yet Breathtaking Supercars Based on the Corvette

21 Oct 2023, 22:00 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Though they donned exquisite bodies with little to nothing in common with America's favorite sports car, these obscure supercars were all Corvettes underneath. When it debuted in 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette aimed to demonstrate that the US...

 
Forget the Mustang: The 1970 Torino Cobra Was Ford's Best Muscle Car of the Golden Age
Forget the Mustang: The 1970 Torino Cobra Was Ford's Best Muscle Car of the Golden Age

21 Oct 2023, 21:40 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / While high-performance versions of the first-gen Mustang were (and still are) more popular, let's take a moment and remember the Blue Oval's ultimate street fighter from the golden age of muscle cars. Retired in 1976, the Torino namepl...

 
5 Cheapest Used Ferraris That You Can Buy Right Now
5 Cheapest Used Ferraris That You Can Buy Right Now

21 Oct 2023, 18:23 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / If you dreamed about owning a Ferrari but don't have a six-digit budget and are willing to compromise, you can get one of these less glamorous models. Since introducing the first Ferrari-badged model in 1947, the Italian manufacturer has be...

 
Meet the BimmBug Pickup: The Badass Offspring of a New Beetle and a 3 Series Wagon
Meet the BimmBug Pickup: The Badass Offspring of a New Beetle and a 3 Series Wagon

21 Oct 2023, 08:49 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Masterfully put together by fabricator extraordinaire Jo Riley, the owner of Jo's Fab Lab, this wild daily-driven workhorse looks like a New Bug but is all Bimmer underneath. Some enthusiasts - including myself - have a soft spot for sporty...

 
5 Greatest European V8 Engines Ever Mass-Produced
5 Greatest European V8 Engines Ever Mass-Produced

20 Oct 2023, 21:05 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Take every single list of the greatest V8 engines ever put together, and you'll find at least two US-build units in the Top 3. However, European carmakers have also mass-produced some legendary V8s. When I say V8, the image of a bright oran...

 
Dodge Deora Story: From Iconic Custom to Chrysler Show Car and Popular Scale Model
Dodge Deora Story: From Iconic Custom to Chrysler Show Car and Popular Scale Model

19 Oct 2023, 13:13 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Less than two years after it was completed, the Dodge Deora became a legendary custom, an official Crysler concept, an AMT plastic scale-model kit, and one of the very first Hot Wheels die-cast toy cars. Though some may think that customizing ex...

 
5 Rarest, Most Impressive Limited-Edition JDM Legends
5 Rarest, Most Impressive Limited-Edition JDM Legends

18 Oct 2023, 18:39 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Legendary high-performance model lines like the Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, or Honda Civic Type R have spawned some legendary cars but also a range of rare, jaw-dropping limited-editions. Before the 1970s, Japan wa...

 
Torino King Cobra and Cyclone Spoiler II: The Story of FoMoCo's Stillborn 1970 Aero Cars
Torino King Cobra and Cyclone Spoiler II: The Story of FoMoCo's Stillborn 1970 Aero Cars

17 Oct 2023, 12:13 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Developed to continue the Blue Oval's reign of NASCAR dominance, the Ford Torino King Cobra and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II homologation specials nearly went into production for the epic 1970 model year. During the 1960s, the NASCAR Grand ...

 
Remembering Studebaker's Last Flagship: The Potent and Glamorous Gran Turismo Hawk
Remembering Studebaker's Last Flagship: The Potent and Glamorous Gran Turismo Hawk

16 Oct 2023, 15:23 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Developed in record-breaking time with few resources by a company facing extinction, the Gran Turismo Hawk was one of the finest purebred grand tourers produced in the US. Though few remember it today, Studebaker was once one of the oldest, most...

 
5 Greatest High-Performance Mopar V8s From the Golden Age of Muscle Cars
5 Greatest High-Performance Mopar V8s From the Golden Age of Muscle Cars

14 Oct 2023, 16:51 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Chrysler's Dodge and Plymouth often led the charge during the original muscle car era thanks to not just the timeless design of their models but the terrific high-performance engines hidden under their hoods. During the 1960s and the first ...

 
5 Cool Muscle Cars From the Malaise Era That Are Still Affordable Today
5 Cool Muscle Cars From the Malaise Era That Are Still Affordable Today

14 Oct 2023, 08:45 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / The Malaise era spelled the end for true muscle cars like those that hit the streets from 1964 to 1971. Though performance figures and design standards dropped during those dreadful years, some performance-oriented, V8-powered models pushed through...

 
Superlite SL-C: The Supercar Slayer That You Can Build at Home for Less Than $100K
Superlite SL-C: The Supercar Slayer That You Can Build at Home for Less Than $100K

13 Oct 2023, 12:48 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / With only basic knowledge and tools, you can build this Le Mans prototype-style track weapon for less than $100,000. Even better, the lightweight monster can be street-legal in the right configuration, so you'll turn heads on every corner, not...

 
The 911 GT Story: How a Nearly-Bankrupt Porsche Built the Greatest Air-Cooled 911
The 911 GT Story: How a Nearly-Bankrupt Porsche Built the Greatest Air-Cooled 911

12 Oct 2023, 11:15 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Collectively (and unofficially) dubbed the first GT2, the 993-generation 911 GT was the road-legal, air-cooled Porsche that came closest to perfection - even though it was developed with a small budget on hand. During the first part of the 1990...

 
1970 El Camino SS 454: How an SUV Looked Like During the Golden Age of Muscle Cars
1970 El Camino SS 454: How an SUV Looked Like During the Golden Age of Muscle Cars

11 Oct 2023, 14:52 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / A dependable workhorse from Monday to Friday and a Mopar assassin on Sunday, the El Camino SS 454 was a sport utility vehicle decades before the term was applied to vehicles that, in most cases, have nothing to do with sportiness. The El Camino...

 
Eunos Cosmo: A Look Back at the Forgotten, Three-Rotor JDM Legend
Eunos Cosmo: A Look Back at the Forgotten, Three-Rotor JDM Legend

10 Oct 2023, 12:12 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Even though 27 years have passed since the last example rolled off the assembly line, the Eunos Cosmo is still one of the most innovative production cars that Mazda has ever unleashed on public roads. Invented and demonstrated by German engineer...

 
5 Most Expensive Movie Cars Ever Sold at Public Auctions
5 Most Expensive Movie Cars Ever Sold at Public Auctions

30 Sep 2023, 11:34 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Any example of the rare cars in this article is worth a fortune, but because these five starred in epic movies, their value went through the roof. For some enthusiasts, the spark that ignited their passion for cars was either their dad's da...

 
5 Most Breathtaking Ferrari One-Offs Built for Private Collectors
5 Most Breathtaking Ferrari One-Offs Built for Private Collectors

30 Sep 2023, 07:41 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For a chosen few, simply owning a Ferrari wasn't enough, so they commissioned the Italian carmaker to build these stunning one-off Prancing Horses. Recently, Ferrari revealed the KC23, a bonkers one-off that looks like it was created for a ...

 
1967 GT500 Story: When Carroll Shelby Turned the Mustang Into a Venomous Grand Tourer
1967 GT500 Story: When Carroll Shelby Turned the Mustang Into a Venomous Grand Tourer

29 Sep 2023, 23:30 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Shelby called the Mustang "a secretary's car" and wasn't very fond of it, but despite this, he transformed the plebian pony car into an automotive legend. By the 1960s, the grand tourer (Grand Turismo in Italian) was the mos...

 
5 Best Muscle Cars Introduced During the Epic 1970 Model Year
5 Best Muscle Cars Introduced During the Epic 1970 Model Year

29 Sep 2023, 14:14 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / For muscle car enthusiasts, 1970 was the model year when some of the most legendary high-performance tire-shredders were unleashed on public roads. The golden age of muscle cars started in the first part of the 1960s when drag racing (of both le...

 
Remembering the Dubonnet Xenia: An 85-Year-Old Masterpiece Created To Honor a Woman
Remembering the Dubonnet Xenia: An 85-Year-Old Masterpiece Created To Honor a Woman

29 Sep 2023, 10:52 UTC · By: Vlad Radu / Throughout history, many of humanity's most precious masterpieces were inspired by the love for a woman. This is the case of the Dubonnet Xenia, one of the most breathtaking cars ever conceived. During the 1930s, automobiles were improving...

 

Stories by Vlad Radu