#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.
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.
Imagine ordering a brand-new Toyota AE86 bodyshell for around £7,000. Fresh steel, a perfect floor, an unblemished roof and not a single crusty sill, suspicious patch or wheelarch apparently reconstructed from newspaper, filler and the lid of an old biscuit tin.
Geely is one of the world’s largest automotive groups, owner of Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, LEVC (maker of London’s new hybrid black taxis) and nearly a 10 per cent stake in Mercedes-Benz, so it already knows a thing or two about building desirable cars. The question is whether that expertise has filtered down into the new Geely Starray EM-i, a plug-in hybrid SUV that arrives in the UK with bold claims, impressive specifications and pricing that looks incredibly competitive.
If you still think MG is simply the company making affordable electric family cars, think again. I was invited to MG’s London headquarters for an exclusive technology preview, and what unfolded wasn’t merely another product presentation. It was a statement of intent. From a cheeky little electric hatch that wears its British heritage proudly on its sleeve, to a dramatic performance SUV concept, plus a roadmap for hybrid powertrains, semi-solid-state batteries and autonomous driving, MG is making it abundantly clear that it wants to be seen as far more than just a value brand.
For more than thirty-six years I’ve made my living in the media. I’ve written for newspapers, edited magazines, presented television programmes, hosted radio shows, produced online content, attended hundreds of international launches and interviewed some of the biggest names in the automotive industry. I’ve seen the media world from almost every angle imaginable. Then, six years ago, I started BrownCarGuy on YouTube, not because I had to, but because I genuinely believed something remarkable had happened. For the first time in the history of broadcasting, ordinary people had finally been given a chance to compete with the biggest media organisations on the planet.