Some of the Best Adverts Have Wings

Are these racing cars, or complex adverts with wings and a wheel on each corner?

The answer is: both.

And for romantics like me, they’re also mechanical works of art and examples of iconic visual design.

Four of my all-time favourite Williams Racing liveries are pictured here.

With the 2026 reveal just days away, I’m curious to see if a new favourite is about to arrive.

Let’s see.

Flat White or F*ck Off

There’s a coffee pop-up in London tomorrow (28 January) called Flat White or F*ck Off.

They only sell one thing: flat whites.
And if you don’t want one of those… well, yes, you’ve guessed it.

The idea originated with marketing/ad guru Rory Sutherland – a frequent rail user – who was fed up with getting stuck behind someone ordering an elaborate iced concoction when he’s got a train to catch.

Now Tom Noble and Charlie Hurst are making the idea happen for real.

On the face of it, it’s a cheeky stunt. But underneath, it’s a neat real-world experiment in something I think more businesses should think about:

Confident specialisation.

Knowing what you’re great at.
Saying no to the rest.
Letting customers self-select.

In a world of endless options, there’s something refreshing about a business that takes a clear point of view.

Not just in coffee. In any industry. And I’m personally drawn to it.

A worthy endeavour.. even if I’ll get my flat white somewhere a bit more permanent.

(Who am I kidding… I’d definitely give Flat White or F*ck Off a try if I was passing!)

More Than Just Paint

It was the colour.

A hint darker than British Racing Green. Plain and honest. Not shouting “look at me”.. more like quietly saying “this is who I am.”

I’d been after a new bike for a while. Temple Cycles had them in my size in blue and beige. Mmmm, I think not.

This green was a special edition – unavailable in Large – until an ex-demo appeared. That was all it took. Sold.

Two of my cars are green. The third is a close rural cousin in brown. Same emotional territory.

We tell ourselves we make our transport purchases with logic: performance, efficiency, reliability, numbers.

The paint has no engineering value – and yet its shade carries a surprising amount of emotional weight in whether something feels right.

For me, colour isn’t just decoration.

It’s probably the deciding factor.

Properly Practical

I’m not particularly practical.

I can mow a lawn straight-ish.
Top my cars up with fluids.
Change a flat tyre or battery.
Keep my bike on the road.

And that’s probably about it.

Which is why I always find it uplifting to spend time with people who are properly practical.

Like the team at our composites manufacturing facility in Bordon. A small group, working in a very traditional British engineering environment – and doing so with a real sense of industrious camaraderie.

You can picture it.

Lathes.
Ovens.
Autoclaves.
Cutting tables.


This is where metal and composite parts are machined, bonded, etched, cured, prepared and stored – before ending up inside satellites that will orbit around 500 km above the Earth.

High-quality space hardware doesn’t just come from spotless cleanrooms or clever software.

It often comes from skilled hands, proven processes, and people who know how to shape raw materials into something that really matters – usually in modest industrial units on small industrial parks. Little more than sheds, really.

Lovely.

Results Fade. Beauty Lingers.

F1 teams are starting to unveil their 2026 cars.

And for me, it’s always about the livery. The look. The visual design.

Fast cars aren’t always beautiful.

And beautiful cars – like the ones pictured – aren’t always the fastest.

But if we’re still talking about them… still admiring them… still lusting after them, decades after the season was won or lost, then maybe choosing this design was the right decision after all.

Results fade. Beauty lingers.

Before the Brain is Invited to the Meeting

There are times when I make buying decisions before my brain is even invited to the meeting. Usually with cars.

Last year that led me to this 24-year-old Nissan Micra – in glorious, if hastily resprayed, green, with bonkers orange faux-leather interior and retro-fitted electric windows. I ‘needed’ a local runabout, and the Micra was bewitchingly listed on Autotrader. So I rang up and bought it blind.

This is not wise, rational, economically-optimised behaviour. And it wasn’t the first time. My other two similarly aged cars – a Jaguar XJ8 and a Range Rover Vogue – were bought in much the same way.

Ok, none of them were expensive. The Micra was £3k. A grand over its fair market value – I knowingly overpaid. But I didn’t care. If it had been sold from under me, saving a thousand pounds would have been scant consolation.

Because here’s the truth: there are times when we’re not really choosing between options. The decision has already been made.. and we’re just catching up. In those moments we haven’t asked ‘which one is best?’ We’ve asked ‘how do I make this mine?’

I’m sure there’s a label for people like me – impulsive purchaser, meaning-seeker, hopeless romantic with an Autotrader habit. I don’t really mind. I know myself well enough by now.

When I’m in the market, one glorious photo is all it takes.

A Teasmade and a Time Machine

I heard the word ‘Teasmade’ today on the Vine Show on Radio 2.

And just like that, fifty years collapsed.

I was three years old again, climbing into bed between my Mum and Dad, waiting for the Teasmade to start hissing so the day could begin.

We had the model pictured here.
And I would be given a small cup of my own – in a Mr Men mug. Mr Bump – the round blue one with the bandages.

Objects like this Teasmade end up in museums now.
Partly to celebrate great industrial design.
But mostly because they carry something else with them too.

For people like me, it isn’t just a gadget from the 70’s.
It’s a time machine.

When Space Became Visible

Yes – this is a satellite leaving a rocket.

It’s drifting away from a SpaceX Falcon 9, hundreds of kilometres above the Earth – and anyone can watch it happen on a laptop or a phone. I’ve worked in space for many years, but moments like this still impress.

When the first SSTL satellite went into orbit in 1981, all we got was a phone call to say:
“Yes – it’s gone up.”

That was it.
No video.
No telemetry dashboards.
No live view of anything at all.
Just a voice on the other end of a line.

Forty-odd years later, we can all watch as our satellites gently float free from their rockets, live, in real time.

We talk a lot about how fast technology moves.

Sometimes it’s nice to actually see it.

A Winter Story

Meet my so-called summer car. A 28-year-old Jaguar XJ8. Not exactly designed for full winter-duty service. But here we are. Because my 16-year-old Range Rover – its usual cold-weather companion – broke down just before Christmas.. the Jaguar has been promoted. Or perhaps drafted. And it’s now responsible for the weekly commute between an icy Shropshire driveway and Surrey Research Park.

The Jaguar is enjoying this more than I am. Cars never like to sit around. They get grumpy when left unused. Being driven, exercised, warmed through.. that’s what they’re built for. It’s me that’s uneasy. Because once you’ve had a proper mechanical failure – thank you, The AA, for rescuing me – something temporarily shifts in your head. Your confidence takes a knock. And suddenly every vibration, every unfamiliar noise, every minor pothole or icy stretch of major road carries a question mark. Will we make it there? And will we make it back?

If you’re thinking, “well, what do you expect when you own old cars… you need a Plan C,” I’m with you. Because sitting quietly on the same driveway is exactly that. A 24-year-old Nissan Micra. The cute, rounded one. In fine, fingers-crossed fettle. Yes, it rattles. Yes, the sunroof leaks. Yes, it was bought for characterful local trips rather than heroic cross-country missions. But if it comes to it, there is a motorway odyssey in that Micra. I’m certain of it.