I blame the Australians. It was the Aussies, in the Eighties, who coined the term ‘petrolhead’. (“From ‘petrol’ + ‘head’”, notes the dictionary sagely. Cheers for that, lads.)
Man, I hate ‘petrolhead’. Probably my least favourite word in the English language. Top three, definitely, up there with ‘pustule’ and ‘orifice’. Horrible connotations, ‘petrolhead’. Because it doesn’t just say ‘cares about cars’. It says ‘cares about cars to the exclusion of literally anything else including Planet Earth and children’s lungs and not being an utter sociopath’.
I am not overreacting. ‘Petrolhead’ contains its own inexorable, hideous logic. You are interested in cars, therefore you are a petrolhead, therefore your sole desire in life is to execute a great billowing burnout in some pig-iron muscle car, cackling demonically as clouds of carbon monoxide and…
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Top Gear South Africa (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2019