#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
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.
The other day I found myself driving around London. Well, “driving” might be stretching the definition somewhat because most of the time you’re crawling along, staring at the back of somebody else’s hatchback while trying to remember whether this particular road is still 30mph, has become 20mph, or was quietly changed last Tuesday while you weren’t looking. And it got me thinking that perhaps the future of motoring isn’t going to be electric versus petrol, hydrogen versus batteries or even SUVs versus saloons. Perhaps the real battle is going to be something entirely different. Perhaps the future is going to be driverless cars versus restomods. Bear with me, because the more I thought about it, the more it actually started to make sense.
Car S.O.S. (Car Sausage) is back for a brand-new Series 13, and once again, I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with the legends themselves – Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend in an exclusive interview, in which we covered everything from the cars on the show, the celebs involved (including the one that said ‘no’!) and Tim’s mid-life crisis and hair dye fiasco!
This year marked a monumental occasion for West London Classics as the club made its debut at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024. I had the chance to catch up with club founder Kirpal Singh Randhawa and long-time member Dave – two passionate petrolheads who brought with them not only stunning classic cars but also a true enthusiasm for sharing the classic car lifestyle.
The other day I popped up to Burntwood near Birmingham to visit the E30Centre. This isn’t just any garage; it’s a sanctuary for classic BMWs, where Simon Williams, master mechanic and E30 wizard, revives and restoring these iconic cars. So, if you’re a BMW fan, particularly if you have an example of the legendary E30 series (as I do) – this could be quite useful!
The Paddock Speedshop is a new Classic Car TV Show set to hit our screens in May 2024. In this video you’ll learn all about the show and meet the young stars who are vowing to inspire the next generation of car enthusiasts who will take the classic cars – and their internal combustion engines – forward into an exciting – and sustainable – future!
Open Day at JD Classics yesterday (they’re held on the last Saturday of each month – invite only, register with them in advance) to see several significant classic Minis including Peter Sellers’ Radford Mini, classic Ford Cortinas, a Thunderbird and Mustang, 80s S-Class, Ferraris, Jaguars, Bentleys plus a stunning 80s Porsche 911 wide-body whale-tail Targa and a Toyota Century.