Tag: car culture UK

Are Speed Cameras Making Us Worse Drivers? & How to Avoid Speeding Fines in the UK

Are Speed Cameras Making Us Worse Drivers? & How to Avoid Speeding Fines in the UK
After 40 years behind the wheel, I’ve never felt more anxious driving in the UK—here’s why, and how to stay legal without losing your focus

Speed Cameras. Sheesh. So listen, I’ve been driving for around forty years now. Across continents, cultures, and conditions that would make some sat-nav systems simply give up and blue screen. I’ve driven in the UK, across Europe, through the Middle East, around the United States, and in places where traffic laws are more of a philosophical suggestion than a legal requirement. I’ve navigated cities where lane discipline is an abstract concept, deserts where the horizon never seems to get any closer, and mountain roads that appear to have been designed by someone with a grudge against gravity.

And yet, despite all of that, I have never felt more anxious behind the wheel than I do today – right here in the UK.

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Cycle Lanes Are Causing Chaos – Who Actually Has Priority on UK High Streets?

Pedestrians and cyclists are being forced into the same space – and the result is confusion, conflict, and a design problem nobody wants to admit

Spend five minutes on a busy London high street – Kingsbury, for example – and you’ll see it play out in real time. A cyclist glides along what looks like a pavement. A pedestrian steps sideways without thinking. A sudden brake. A raised voice. Maybe worse. Fisticuffs at tea time. It’s not rare. It’s not isolated. It’s not even surprising. Because what we’re seeing isn’t bad behaviour. It’s bad design.

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The Ultimate Lotus Esprit? Inside the Encor Series 1 – A Modern Reimagining of a Legend

The Lotus Esprit reborn: inside the £430k Encor Series 1 V8 re-engineering of a true British icon

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.

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The UK Is Punishing Drivers for Keeping Old Cars Alive

A tax system that claims to be green is quietly punishing drivers for preserving perfectly usable older cars – and the contradictions are impossible to ignore.

There is something deeply, almost comically broken about a system that tells you to consume less, waste less, and think about the planet, while simultaneously financially penalising you for keeping a perfectly usable car on the road. Yet that is precisely where the UK finds itself today. If you own an older car, a modern classic, or even a relatively ordinary early-2000s performance saloon, you may now be paying more in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) than someone who has just driven out of a showroom in a brand-new supercar costing six figures. That isn’t hyperbole. It’s arithmetic. And it exposes the sheer lack of joined-up thinking in modern motoring policy.

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Budget Black Hole? Why the UK Car Industry Might Be Our Unexpected Economic Lifeline

Britain doesn’t need higher taxes – it needs smarter growth, and the car industry could deliver billions in extra revenue without changing a single tax rate

Next week’s Budget is already being whispered about in tones normally reserved for horror films and MOT failures. The words “stealth taxes” and “tough decisions” are being tossed around like loose change in the Chancellor’s red box, and ordinary Brits are bracing for yet another round of financial whiplash. But here’s the bit nobody seems to be talking about – in all the noise about tax rises, cuts, freezes, and fiscal black holes, we’re ignoring one of Britain’s biggest, most underappreciated economic engines.

Cars. Not just the things on your driveway – the entire UK automotive ecosystem. Let’ me explain…

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The St James’s Motoring Spectacle 2025 – Over A Century of Motion on Pall Mall

Videos and photos of the cars shows at spectacular London event, including the line up of veteran cars attempting the London-to-Brighton Run

London did what London does best today – mixed elegance with engine oil. Pall Mall transformed into a living timeline of motoring at the St James’s Motoring Spectacle 2025, a glorious preview to tomorrow’s London-to-Brighton Veteran Car Run. The whole street hummed, clattered, and occasionally coughed to life as machines older than most family trees sat alongside the latest electric wonders.

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From Kop Hill to Karachi – BCG Therapy Session Podcast!

A Beetle, a Ferrari & a Car Culture Rebellion – my latest therapy session podcast with Sy and Fiona Easterby

Some people just talk about car culture – we live it. In this week’s BrownCarGuy Therapy Session, I was joined by two proper legends of the community: Syed Ali of Drivers Union, and Fiona Easterby, world traveller, petrolhead and the proud pilot of the now-famous Baja Bug, Pedro.

Together, we took a wild ride across stories, streets and scenes – from the dusty roads of Pakistan to the adrenaline-pumping climb up Kop Hill in a Ferrari 360 Modena, and finally… to the most dangerous motoring frontier of all – the British High Street.

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Imposter Syndrome in Car Journalism + Why 911s Are Driven by Pricks!

Welcome back to BrownCarGuy Therapy – and this one is going to ruffle a few feathers

Because when you get me, Naveed Hussain (aka Naveed4Speed) and my long-time mate Imthishan Giado (ex-CAR Middle East deputy editor, and my co-founder on Motoring Middle East) together, things get spicy. This episode kicks off with imposter syndrome in car journalism. Do creators feel like frauds? Are influencers wrecking credibility? Or is the whole “journalist vs influencer” debate just another form of automotive gatekeeping? Naveed gets brutally honest about being the outsider, and Imthishan doesn’t hold back on the invisible barriers brown car guys still face in the industry.

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