PETROLHEADS - THE UNTOLD STORY

WE ARE NOT THEM

Text and Photos: Reinis Babrovskis

PETROLHEAD /ˈpɛtr(ə)lhɛd/ - A NOUN

"A young man who drives recklessly fast, especially one who participates in gatherings of car-culture enthusiasts and/or illegal street racing"

"One who is enthusiastic about cars"

So which one is it; two explanations given for the same noun in the same thesaurus book, yet they couldn't be further apart from each other. Two different things, two different views. Every man has a story, every story has 2 sides. I want you to tell mine. I want to tell you WE ARE NOT THEM...

#PETROLHEAD

There may be many terms that folks use to describe the car people - "boy racers", "street racers", "motorheads", "speed freaks" yet none of them describe what we really are. We are neither of them. 

We are not the bad guys; we are not the hooligans; we are not menace...We do not throw things at the police, we do not wreck our meeting venues, we do not drink and drive, we do not smash bottles, we do not act like pricks!

We are people with passion for cars, bikes. We buy cars, we build cars, we race cars, we attend events, we help each other. We live and breath for cars. Above all we are friends; brothers and sisters, we are car community. We are car enthusiasts, petrolheads if you wish, but we are not "them"...

#AREWEHOOLIGANS

Are all football fans hooligans? Are all people that attend music festivals drug addicts? So why is it that all car community gets thrown into the same bag. Media has been portraying us as the devils for long enough. It is time to wake up. We are not them...

When a person is a real car enthusiast religion, race, colour doesn't matter. There is no place for racism or hate towards anybody in the car community. What matters is the passion for cars. We are all friends. We respect each other and others around us. 

#CARSUNITEUS

Be it a classic car, a supercar, a hypercar, an electric car, a hotrod or a race car, we love them all. The cars unite us. We love working on them, we love washing them, we love driving in them. What we do not like is being called "them"... 

#ITISINOURBLOOD

We're all born with some talent/interest/hobby that has been written in our DNA. For us it is the cars. It makes us happy, it makes us at peace, it makes us be ourselves. 

I shall never be ashamed of it, I shall never find it weird - cars after my family is the most important thing in my life. 

#WEKNOWTHERULES

So what makes us different? We know the rules, we have respect. Be it a car show, a motorsport event or a basic cars and coffee gathering a real car enthusiast will respect the local residents, the marshals , venue and organisers and above all we will not act in a way that portrays us in a bad light. 

The strict hand of Law? Nope, no problem there - you respect them and they will respect you. In all my years of attending events around the globe I've never witnessed a police officer harassing a car enthusiast for nothing. Do you really believe police officers are not into cars themselves? 

Are we all the saint? Hell no, but there is a time and place for everything. Do you want to show off with your loud exhaust or drifting skills? Trackdays, drift days, rally - it is all there for you. Local town square at midnight is not the place for it. We have all done things that may not be the smartest, but there is a time and place for everything. 

So why is that we can host charity events, cars and coffee gatherings and car shows without disturbing the law and peace? Because we are #NOTTHEM.

#SOWHATISITFORUS

So if revving the car like an absolute baboon in front of the female company is not our thing, nor is the showboating (or shall I say lack of talent) in a local roundabout, so what is it that really for us that makes the car world so appealing?

Well it can be as simple as a Sunday morning drive with our car for a coffee that makes us smile.

It can be memories that we build with our kids.

It can be the friends we make along the way?

It can be the amazing memories we obtain, the parties we attend and atmospheres we witness.

#WEKNOWHOWTOHAVEFUN

But for no second believe that we do not know how to have fun. There are no parties like motorsport festivals, let me tell you that.

#FUTURE

All I hope is that people are smart enough to learn that we are all not the same. We are not out there to terrorise, drive like maniacs or cause havoc. We just want to have fun, meet each other and spend some time with like-minded people. We just love cars.

Do not judge a book by its cover. Judge an event, judge the bad individuals, but not the community. I really hope the negativity that surrounds the car community can be destroyed for once. I hope we all learn to respect each other some day. And remember, we are not them!