#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
Gotta be honest. I’m starting to feel it. It’s my birthday today. I’m 57 years old. Five, seven. Fifty-seven. How did that happen? When? Surely that’s an admin error. A typo someone forgot to correct.
Continue reading “When the Years Catch Up: A Birthday Reflection”
Some news knocks the wind out of you, even when you don’t expect it to. The passing of Quentin Willson did exactly that. A motoring journalist, consumer champion, former Top Gear presenter, and one of the sharpest, driest voices ever to grace British car culture. For many of us, he wasn’t just part of the furniture – he built the room.
For me and Imthishan, the shock ran deeper because we’d spent a week with Quentin in December 2024 when we hosted him as a guest of the Mille Miglia. It meant we got to spend some time with him: conversations, long drives, and the sort of unexpected moments you only appreciate later. Now, looking back, that week feels very precious.
I know that I’m pigeon-holed sometimes. And I know why. I love cars, especially big hairy monstrous motors that smoke their tyres and obliterate decibel detectors.
Yes, my name is Shahzad and I’m an Autoholic. I confess the thrum of a V8 turns me on, octane is my cologne, and a gear-snatching, wheel-twirling thrash up a twisty road is my therapy. Cyclists are annoying, traffic cameras are the enemy, and the Highway Code is a quaint little booklet that’s just the right thickness for the wobbly leg of my coffee table.
And most damning of all, I refuse to apologise for any of this.
Stardate: Right-Here-Right-Now
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved Star Trek. Not because of the phasers, photon torpedoes, or the occasional red-shirt casualty (though let’s be honest, those were fun too). No – it was the future it promised. A future built on intellect, compassion, curiosity, and progress. A future where humanity finally grew up, stopped arguing about nonsense, cured disease, ended hunger, explored the stars – and had the decency to put cup holders on shuttlecraft.
Continue reading “The Future We Promised Ourselves – And Why We’re Not at Warp Yet”
Imagine being fined £160 – not for speeding, not for parking on double yellows, not even for driving in a bus lane – but for doing absolutely nothing more than being in the wrong bit of yellow paint for a few seconds. Welcome to Kingston Road, South-West London – home of Britain’s most expensive yellow box junction. Or as locals call it: the cash cow!
Somewhere between haunted roads, electric cars, and the eternal fight between influencers and journalists, a very honest discussion broke out. In the latest BrownCarGuy Therapy Session Podcast, I was joined by Jeff Bailey – long-time motoring writer, serial car buyer, and author – and Imthishan Giado, my partner-in-crime from our Car Middle East and Motoring Middle East days. We didn’t plan to solve the mysteries of the universe, but somewhere between the nostalgia and the banter, we might just have done that – or something…
Cardiff Council has approved a policy that introduces higher parking permit charges for larger and heavier vehicles, starting with those over 2,400kg – and soon expanding to 2,000kg for non-electric cars. The Council claims the aim isn’t to punish, but to “gently encourage behaviour change,” arguing that bigger cars take up more space, cause more road wear, and are a greater danger to pedestrians.
Have you noticed it lately? The roads feel slower, the signs look stricter, and the cameras are multiplying like roadside mushrooms after a rainstorm. Suddenly, even the most careful motorists are finding themselves on the wrong side of the law – or rather, the lens.
Honestly, the 1990s don’t seem that long ago – however, it was the decade that popularised email and the World Wide Web; we got mobile phones that weren’t bricks, as well as digital SLR cameras, Sony Discmans and MP3 players; 170Mb was a lot and Y2K was terrifying but never actually happened.
September came at us fast and furious – a month of breaking news, motoring drama, cultural flashpoints, and a few laughs along the way. Lotus is clinging to life, Porsche is making (and unmaking) decisions, politicians are meddling, and I even roasted some of your cars just for fun. If you missed any of it, don’t worry – here’s the complete BrownCarGuy digest from September 2025.
Continue reading “BrownCarGuy September 2025 Round-Up: Shocks, Scandals & Supercars”