#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.
A fictional all-action political thriller (The ULEZ Files) which has had tremendous reviews on Amazon (and accurately predicted Pay-Per-Mile); a collection of 13 short stories I’ve written over 20 years – covering cars, sci-fi and the human condition (Quantum Races); plus how to do, what I do – a semi-autobiographical guide to becoming a car journalist and influencer (How to be an Automotive Content Creator). Buy them on Amazon or read on Kindle Unlimited now!
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There was a time when if someone asked you what car to buy, the answer was almost automatic – get a Toyota, get a Honda, and sleep easy at night. These were the brands that built their reputations not on hype or gimmicks, but on something far more powerful: trust. Cars that started every morning, ran forever, and asked very little in return. They weren’t just manufacturers, they were institutions. Which is why hearing senior figures from these companies openly express concern about their future feels less like industry chatter and more like a tremor beneath the foundations of the automotive world itself.
There are certain cars that don’t just sit in your memory… they take up permanent residence in your soul. For me, the Lotus Esprit is one of them. That razor-edged wedge, the Bond connection, the sheer audacity of its design… it wasn’t just a car, it was a spaceship.
So when I first heard about the Encor Series 1, a modern reinterpretation of the original Lotus Esprit S1, I started wondering if aliens had probed my mind, and stumbled upon my dream car – the purity of the original shape Esprit combined with a V8 drivetrain and all mod-cons. I’ve been salivating since the first moment they started releasing teaser images, lost my mind when they revealed the car and details, and could barely contain my excitment to finally see the car in person yesterday.
Here’s my video of the car, including a full walkaround, interior details, and an in-depth discussion about the “Esprit Remastered” with one of the founders, Simon Lane.
You don’t expect to stumble across £100 million worth of machinery on an ordinary London street… but then again, Sloane Street isn’t exactly ordinary, and Salon Privé doesn’t do things by halves. Ahead of the main concours event, Salon Privé Sloane Street London delivered a spectacular preview, transforming one of the capital’s most exclusive shopping destinations into a rolling showcase of hypercars, rare classics, and cutting-edge automotive art. For a few fleeting hours, Central London felt less like SW1 and more like a curated slice of Monaco during Grand Prix
The EV5 is Kia taking its best-selling formula – the Sportage – and rethinking it for the electric era, not just swapping out the engine for a battery, but genuinely reworking the whole idea of what a family SUV should be when you start with a clean sheet, and if they’ve got this right then this could end up being one of the most important EVs on sale right now, because it slots along the combustion-engined powered Sportage as the electric equivalent. And the Sportage is a best-seller for Kia.
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and—somewhat miraculously—the world hasn’t ended. Now, I don’t say that flippantly. Because just 24 hours ago, it genuinely felt like things were teetering on the edge. When world leaders start throwing around phrases like “destroy a civilisation forever,” you do tend to sit up a bit straighter and think, hang on… where exactly is this going? And yet here we are. A ceasefire has been announced. The immediate threat of escalation appears to have eased. On the surface, you might be forgiven for thinking, right then, crisis over… back to normal… fuel prices will drop again. Yeah… about that.
Fuel prices are on the move again – and not in the direction anyone wants. With global tensions flaring and supply chains under pressure, motorists across the UK are once again being warned about rising pump prices and even the possibility of shortages. Whether that happens or not is still up for debate, but one thing is absolutely certain: driving is getting more expensive again. The increase doesn’t look dramatic at first glance. We’re talking about just 3 to 4 pence per mile more than before. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But over a year, it adds up alarmingly quickly.
For years, we’ve been told that driving is becoming safer, smarter, and more regulated, but what if the next phase isn’t about enforcement at all, at least not in the traditional sense, and instead marks a shift towards something far more pervasive, far more subtle, and arguably far more consequential for the everyday motorist?
So, I recently did what many EV evangelists will tell you is absolutely fine, totally normal, and nothing to worry about… I drove an electric vehicle from London to Bristol and back. Now before anyone sharpens their pitchforks or plugs in their keyboards to type an angry comment, let me say this upfront: this is not an anti-EV rant.
I like EVs. I really do. Around town, they’re brilliant – smooth, quiet, effortless, and occasionally smug. But take them out of their natural habitat and onto the open motorway, and suddenly things get… interesting. Let me walk you through what actually happens.
The Geely EX5 marks the official arrival of Geely Auto into the UK market, and while the badge might be unfamiliar to many British buyers, the company behind it most definitely isn’t. This is the same automotive giant that owns Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart and Zeekr, so there’s serious engineering muscle behind this car. The EX5 is Geely’s opening move in one of the most competitive segments in the country right now: the mid-size electric family SUV. Think Kia EV6, Hyundai Kona Electric, BYD Atto 3 and MG4 Extended Range territory.