I don’t think it is about knowledge about cars, be it about models, pricing, depreciation, features, or technical aspects. It’s just about showing more than average interest.
BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
I don’t believe in a strict definition of a petrolhead. Anybody who is genuinely interested in cars, or particular aspects of cars, is a petrolhead as far as I am concerned.
I don’t think it is about knowledge about cars, be it about models, pricing, depreciation, features, or technical aspects. It’s just about showing more than average interest.
With that in mind, when did it become obvious you were likely to become a Petrolhead?
Share your story and or an image that tells us about your ‘Petrolhead-journey from as early on as possible.
I recently found my parent’s photo albums. I found this image, which I presume was taken by my dad. He was the one that knew (sort of) how to operate a camera.
The year is 1960! I am 16 months old! The location is somewhere near the town of Groesbeek in the Netherlands where my parents had rented a small holiday home. My youngest sister had not been born, so it was just my parents, my two elder sisters and me.
The car is my dad’s. It is a DKW Autounion 1000 or 1100. Not sure. This was a typical family car with a tiny two-stroke engine! In those days, less than half the families in our street owned cars. Going on a holiday in your car was pretty special. Most families stayed home.
According to my mum, I always demanded to sit in the front on my mum’s lap. So I could watch my dad drive and look out for traffic!
In those days there were no kiddy-seats, let alone airbags or even seatbelts. My parents were chain smoking with all the kids in the car. No speed restrictions on the Dutch motorway. Although you’d be hard pushed to get a DKW much over 100 km/h. And you would need a fair bit of stretch road to accelerate up to 100 km/h. Don’t hold your breath!
My mum told me I always demanded to help my dad when he went to fill up the car or fit the roof rack for the holiday. And wherever the car was parked, I wanted to open the driver door and sit behind the wheel.
The rest is history as they say!
Lets have your earlier “petrolhead story and or image”!
Jeroen
Here’s what GTO had to say on the matter:
Dad loved driving. I remember him revving his Padmini in 3rd gear on Worli Seaface & Marine Drive (what a feeling!). Among other cars, he had a souped-up Ambassador with lots of add-ons and a custom dark green paint job (National Garage was famous for them back in the day), a Standard Herald (convertible IIRC), a Mercedes W111 S-Class. Guess that was a major influence and cars have been in my blood since the earliest days. Used to sit on the bed with a shirt hanger as a steering wheel and go for imaginary drives. Ditto with the cars parked down the house. All my toys were cars.
The love for anything with wheels…happy to enjoy that more with Team-BHP. Starting with a picture of my first “4 wheels”
Here’s what BHPian Fueledbyfury had to say on the matter:
If you ask any generation in India, from the 1980s to the early 2000s, about the first car they owned or the one they learned to drive in, over 90% will say it was a Maruti Suzuki 800. Me with my Maruti 800, the car that put India on wheels.
My trusty sister as my co-driver.
Here’s what Bhpian Saikishor had to say on the matter:
I was probably 3 or 4 years old. That is our 1995 Nissan Altima that we had when we were in the US.
Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
