The Crisis of Commoditization
What happens when the thing your brand was built on starts to disappear? Recently at the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit, I watched executive after executive avoid that question with remarkable discipline.
The Temu Range Rover: Jaecoo and the Fast Fashion Car
A Range Rover Evoque, but not quite. The proportions are off, the details are softer. It has an air of AI-slop, rendered in metal and plastic.
Meet the Jaecoo: the fast fashion car. Currently the UK's best seller. Currently rated 3/10 by Top Gear.
Mark Rothko and Il Mostro
A Rothko in Florence. An Alfa SZ on a Tuscan road. One week apart. Both called ugly. Both impossible to look away from.
Execution Without Interruption: Audi’s New RS5
630 horsepower. Torque vectoring measured in milliseconds. 2,370 kilograms.
At some point, adding more stops being progress.
A Question of Scale
The car felt right for the road. But the road felt right for the human.
What do we lose when we build everything bigger?
Engineering Optimism: Japan’s 1990s Automotive Golden Age
Why did Japan produce so many iconic performance cars in the 1990s?
It wasn’t just the bubble economy. It was a convergence of craft culture, national ambition, and a broader belief that technology could be expressive—even playful.
London’s Pavement Gallery
London might be the only city where supercars feel like public art.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari and the Future of Masculinity
Hamilton’s friction with Ferrari feels bigger than sport: less about lap times, more about identity. What does strength look like when dominance alone no longer feels sufficient?
The Beginning of Ferrari’s Fall?
Where older Ferraris whispered strength through restraint, newer ones assert it more directly.
This isn’t nostalgia. It’s a question of balance: When does speed begin to dictate beauty instead of partnering with it?
Unburdened to Unavoidable: A Sentiment Analysis of the BMW M3
The BMW M3 occupies a strange position in automotive culture. It is spoken about less as a car than as a lineage; a series of aspirations and grievances layered on top of one another over four decades. Each new generation is born burdened not just with performance targets, but with a set of expectations: of what the M3 once was, what it represented, and what it lost.
Driving in Cyprus: What the Road Reveals
I had no idea Cyprus had roads like this.
A small village gives way to forest, the signage disappears, and suddenly you’re on roads that don’t explain themselves. No suggested speeds. Just turns, light, shadow, and the expectation that you’re paying attention.
Presence and Precision: How National Culture Shapes Japanese and German Luxury Cars
Luxury automobiles function as cultural signals as much as mechanical ones. In the Toyota Century and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, we see how national values—from hierarchy to uncertainty to individuality—quietly shape what luxury looks and feels like. These cars don’t compete so much as they converse.
Proportion as Power: How the Range Rover and Phantom Command Space Without Noise
Some cars don’t just pull up, they pull you in. Luxury, at its highest level, is often architectural.
When Power Loses Its Center
Mercedes-AMG, Overcompensation, and the Cost of Proving You’re Still Strong
Why the EU Is Walking Back Its 2035 Zero-Emissions Commitments and Why I’m Torn
The EU’s emissions stance has shifted.
Small Enough to Let Your Guard Down: A Day with a 356 in London
I’ve always liked small cars, that day, I finally understood their impact.
Perfection in Proportions
Some cars just look right. The perfection lies in the proportions.
Luxury Self-Sabotage: The Mercedes EQS and the Fear of Success
The EQS is a cautionary tale: Luxury brands don’t die from evolution, they die the moment they stop holding themselves to the standard that built their name.
When a Badge Stops Asking for You
Brand erosion doesn’t start with a bad product. It starts when a product stops asking anything of you.
Portfolio Gravity: When SUVs Start Tuning Your Sports Car
When your biggest volumes and profits come from comfy, tech-dense SUVs, those defaults start pulling everything—even your icon—toward refinement, insulation, and spec bloat.