#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, is going ahead with plans to expand the ULEZ – Ultra Low Emission Zone – to cover the whole of Greater London right up to the M25 from 29th August 2023.
Continue reading “ULEZ: Everything you Need to Know!”
Unknown to a lot of people, the authorities are not only planning city-wide and possibly even nationwide road-charging, but is opening talking about it, and is now inviting public consultation responses on it. You’d better respond quickly. I only found out yesterday and the deadline is tomorrow Friday 10th March 2023! Here’s the link and below are my responses to the very loaded questions! https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/london-assemblys-current-investigations/road-user-charging
Continue reading “Govt Road Charging Consultation Deadline Tomorrow!!”I don’t normally commute on public transport these days (I work from home). But as Conference Coordinator for the Proptech Show in Angle the last couple of days, I was taking the London Underground into town in rush hour. I had forgotten just how crowded, awful and potentially dangerous that experience was. How is this better for our health?
Report from the Anti-ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) protest this afternoon at Bromely Market Square. We speak to Councillor Colin Smith, Leader of Bromley Council plus Peter Fortune, the Conservative London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, as well as protestors and participants directly affected and concerned by the ULEZ Expansion, due at the end of August this year across the whole of Greater London. Don’t miss the next big protest – which is promising to be HUGE – Trafalgar Square, Saturday 25th February – see you there!
In the wake of London’s Islington Council announcing it wants to ban cars from 70% of its roads, Hackney Council went further yesterday and said it will bar cars from 75% of its tarmac. The anti-car march continues – from London to Scotland to other parts of the world, this is getting very depressing for car lovers.
Porsche Taycan Does K2K in India. Autocar India drove the K2K in an electric Porsche Taycan. That’s 4000km from Kashmir to Kanniyakumari. They drove through 10 states across mountains, deserts and teaming cities. It didn’t help that some roads had been washed away by the Monsoon rains. The journey took 2 weeks including a 2-day stopover in Mumbai, and a day lost to a landslide!
Continue reading “Taycan Drives 4000km Across India”
An epic classic car rally – I join the “Freedom Drive” – a line-up of dozens of stunning classic cars, including the actual Rolls-Royce that took MA Jinnah (Quaid-E-Azam) and Lord Mountbatten to the signing of the Declaration of Independence of Pakistan on 14th August 1947 – 75 years ago. I ride in it ahead of the parade from Frere House to Nishan-E-Pakistan in Karachi, on 14 August 2022. What an incredible privilege and honour!
Continue reading “Riding in Jinnah Rolls-Royce on 75th Pakistan Independence Day”
Not a single plain straight panel on it, a bazillion miles over terrain that would defeat a modern SUV, on an odometer that’s probably long since given up clocking along with the rest of the instrumentation; still tackling this evening’s thunderous rain and treacherous flooding like a trooper, this ancient Datsun Sunny taxi, having long over-baked in the fierce South Asian sun, welds upon welds, constituting a hotchpotch of mix and match cannibalised and recrafted parts, keeps plying its unrelenting trade on the thankless streets of Karachi. This isn’t a classic, it’s a beaten-up and hardened old warrior that refuses to die. Salute.
Continue reading “Classic Karachi Cab”
Exclusive coverage of a special Karachi Classic Car Meet in association with Pakistan Cafe Racers and Antiques Car Museum of Pakistan (Online) at Do Darya – featuring some of the country’s top car enthusiasts and collectors. Featuring is Karim Chapra with an ex-pop star Alamgir MG, Razi Nayyer with an ex-former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jaguar XJ, plus a former British Consul 1956 Austin Vanden Plas Princess owned by Shoaib Qureshi founder of the Museum and Cafe Racers, who organised this event.
Continue reading “Exclusive: Brown Car Guy Karachi Classic Car Meet”I meet with third-generation car industry executive, Murtaza Mandviwalla, Chairman of Mandviwalla Motors and author of a new book, ‘Steering the Pakistani Wheel’ which chronicles the first 100 years of cars and motoring in Pakistan, the extraordinary but failed attempts at a home-grown car industry, the present trends and the future. This fascinating podcast/interview provides an in-depth look at the automotive scene from a business as well as a cultural perspective.
Continue reading “Past, Present & Future of the Car Industry in Pakistan 2022”
Brown Car Guy 