petrolhead (US gearhead)
noun (informal)

- a person who is excessively interested in or is devoted to travelling by car

- someone who likes and uses their car a lot, and does not want to use any other type of transport

Cambridge Dictionary / Dictionary (dot) com

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WORD ORIGIN

The term "petrol" originates from the French word pétrole, which itself comes from Medieval Latin petroleum, meaning "rock oil" (from Latin petra for rock and oleum for oil). The word "petroleum" was used in various forms to describe naturally occurring hydrocarbons known to ancient civilizations like the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. In Britain, "petrol" was marketed as a refined mineral oil product by Carless Refining and Marketing Ltd. in the 1870s and later became a common term for motor fuel.

The term "petrolhead" originated in the 1970s, primarily in Australia, to describe a person who is very interested in cars, often to the point of being excessively devoted to or reliant on them. The term has both informal and colloquial uses, sometimes carrying a negative connotation.

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FORD'S BLUNDER

Oops! In Brazilian Portuguese, "Pinto" is a slang term for "small penis", this caused a marketing blunder for Ford when they tried to introduce the Pinto model in Brazil. They were forced to rename the car to "Corcel", which means "horse" in Portuguese.

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SYNONYMS

For e-enthusiasts, could these alternatives replace the word petrolhead?

ampheads, electroheads (sometimes crunched down to e-heads), torqueheads, sparknuts, voltheads

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a sentence, say something like:

“Many PETROLHEADS seem to be drawn by the aesthetics and the sound of classic and high-performance cars.”

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