#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
A relentless chase. A deadly secret. No way out. That’s the promise at the heart of Silent Ruin, my brand-new international spy thriller and the first in a new series featuring Jamshed Khan. This is a character I originally created over three decades ago, now reborn into a far more grown-up, high-stakes world of espionage, danger, and consequence.
From a political thriller that eerily predicted the introduction of Pay-Per-Mile in the UK’s “War on Motorists” (The ULEZ Files), to a bold new international spy series launching with Silent Ruin, a collection of thought-provoking short stories spanning two decades (Quantum Races), and a semi-autobiographical no-nonsense insider guide to breaking into the automotive media world (How to Be an Automotive Content Creator)…
This is the complete BrownCarGuy library. Whether you’re here for action, ideas, or real-world experience, there’s something here for you. Available now on Amazon or Read free with Kindle Unlimited.
Let me start with something that should be so staggeringly obvious that having to write it feels rather like explaining to an adult that fire is hot, cliffs are high and attempting to headbutt a moving train is unlikely to improve your afternoon: if you drive dangerously on a public road, film yourself doing it and then upload the footage for likes, follows, shares, notoriety, validation or whatever tiny digital pat on the head you are desperately seeking, you are not proving that you are a petrolhead, a skilled driver, a rebel, a hero or the missing member of some bargain-basement Fast & Furious tribute act; you are proving that you are prepared to endanger your own life, the lives of complete strangers and, because the consequences never stop with the person holding the steering wheel, the future freedom of every responsible enthusiast who enjoys cars without treating the rest of the population as unwilling extras in a stunt video.
Here is something rather important that is probably buried three menus deep in your next car. Actually, scrub that: it may already be buried three menus deep in your current car, somewhere between the ambient-lighting colour selector and the setting that makes the dashboard bong furiously because you dared to glance at the heater controls it forced onto a touchscreen in the first place.
Next month, September 2026, marks an extraordinary milestone: 60 years since Star Trek first hit television screens, and in recent years we’ve been particularly lucky to have an avalanche of Trek on TV, from Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks and Prodigy, to Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy. But as we approach that anniversary, something rather sad is happening because, as I write this in August 2026, there are no new Star Trek television shows or movies currently in production.
Someone has just spent $40 million on the world’s most expensive toaster. That is the sensational headline emerging from Monterey Car Week, where the first production chassis of Ferrari’s controversial electric Luce crossed the block at RM Sotheby’s.
Imagine you own a perfectly good petrol car. It works, it is reliable and it might be only a year or two old. According to a startling new scientific study, the environmentally responsible thing could be to scrap it and buy a brand-new electric car. Yes, really. New Scientist summed up the finding with the wonderfully provocative headline: “It’s good for the planet to scrap a new petrol car and buy electric.”
Do speed cameras have to be yellow? Is the famous “10% plus 2 mph” allowance actually written into law? Can you briefly exceed the limit while overtaking, or argue that a 20 mph restriction is absurd for the road? Speeding law inspires more folklore than almost any other part of motoring. Unfortunately, repeating something confidently in a pub, owners’ club or WhatsApp group does not turn it into a defence.
Detroit is rediscovering the immense profits in petrol-powered trucks, Europe is cutting jobs and cherished models while funding a painful transition, and China is building electric cars at a scale and price the old guard cannot match. Who is winning the Car Wars?
Have you seen the news from the car industry lately? There is a very clear trend emerging, and it looks like some have played a solid hand while others are flailing about trying to find a way out of the quagmire. Or is this really a rabbit and tortoise situation?
Whether you are writing a fast-paced spy thriller, a mystery, sci-fi, or contemporary drama, crafting authentic characters from underrepresented backgrounds can be one of the most rewarding – and intimidating – parts of story development. Get them right, and you’ll win new friends and appreciative fans. Get them wrong and there could be derisive boos, or worse still – you could be cancelled!
Think you know what a speed camera looks like? The familiar yellow box beside a British road is only the beginning. Around the world, cameras can hide inside parked vans, monitor six motorway lanes, calculate your speed over several miles, distinguish a lorry from a car and even observe traffic from the air.
The next James Bond should not be Brown. He should not be Black. He cannot be Asian. And he certainly cannot be a woman. Can I actually say all of that now? Well, I’ve said it. I suppose I had better explain what I mean.