"Car enthusiast" is one label for at least six different people. The bloke who has owned the same Torana for thirty years and the kid filming Lamborghinis outside a hotel both claim it, and they would struggle to hold a conversation. This is our honest take on the types of car enthusiast, written from a lot of years standing in car parks. You will recognise yourself in one of them, and probably in a couple.
If you want the definition first, start with what a car enthusiast is. This is the part where it gets personal.
1. The one-car devotee
Fixated on a car. Normally their own car, their pride and joy, and they do not really care about anything else on the road. They know every bolt on it. They have a folder of receipts. They can tell you the date of every service and the name of the person who did it. Ask them about the car parked next to theirs and you get a shrug.
A close cousin is the person fixated on one model rather than one car: the Mustang person, the Commodore person, the Skyline person. They can identify a VL from three streets away and they will tell you which year had the good gearbox. Everything else is just traffic.
The tell: the phone wallpaper is their car. So is the profile photo. So is the coffee mug.
What they are actually good at: depth. Nobody knows a car like the person who has only ever loved one.
2. The brand loyalist
All shapes and sizes, from the mild "I only like Fords" to the BMW fanatic who will defend a car they have never sat in. Push a Ford loyalist and ask whether they like every Ford, because there have been some very ordinary Fords, and you will find the loyalty is really to a feeling. It usually traces back to something: the racing they watched as a kid, the car their dad had, the first car that felt fast.
In Australia this used to be the whole culture. Ford or Holden, pick a side, argue about it at Bathurst every October. Both badges are gone from local manufacturing and the argument has not stopped, which tells you it was never about the cars.
The tell: the badge is on a hat, a shirt, a sticker and at least one tattoo.
What they are actually good at: history. A brand loyalist can walk you through fifty years of a marque without notes.
3. The car lover
This is the big one, and it is what we think a real car enthusiast is. Someone who can see every car in its own right. They do not look at a Kia Carnival and dismiss it as a boring van. They look at the lines, the details, the reason it exists, and they can find something interesting in it. They love experiencing different cars, from a Fiat 500 to a Ferrari, and they want to understand how things work: the design, the engineering, why one car feels alive and another feels dead with the same numbers on paper.
Car lovers are the easiest people to talk to at a meet, because they are curious rather than competitive. They will ask about your car before telling you about theirs. They will admit when something they do not own is better.
The tell: they stop to look at a well-kept Corolla. On purpose.
What they are actually good at: everything above, and being good company.
4. The driver
Racers, drifters, rally drivers, hillclimb and track day regulars. A surprising number of them are not car enthusiasts in the way the rest of this list assumes. Some, maybe most, are chasing the excitement and the feeling, because there is not much in the world as exciting as driving a car flat out around a racetrack all day. The car is the tool. If a different car did it better they would swap without sentiment.
You can spot the difference at a track day. The driver is looking at tyre pressures and lap times. The car lover next to them is looking at the car in the next garage.
The tell: the car is filthy, the seat is a bucket, and they can tell you the corner where they lose a tenth.
What they are actually good at: driving. Actually driving. Which, it turns out, is rarer than owning.
5. The show pony
Has the car for the status. Does not, if we are honest, care about much beyond being the top dog at the meet and knowing that people are taking photos. The car is usually expensive, always clean, and often stock, because the point is the badge, not the build. They arrive last, park where everyone can see, rev it on the way out and leave before the conversation starts.
We are not going to pretend this type does not exist, and we are not going to pretend they do not add something. A meet with a couple of show ponies in it draws a bigger crowd, and a bigger crowd is more people who might become one of the other types. Just do not expect a chat about camshafts.
The tell: the car is worth more than the house, and they have never had the bonnet up.
What they are actually good at: the photos. The photos are genuinely good.
6. The spotter, the clout chaser and the influencer
Most of them love cars and belong in one of the other categories, but plenty land here. These are the short timers: the ones who think they are going to be the next big car channel. They are at every meet for two or three months, phone on a gimbal, and then they move on to the next thing. Good on them for trying, and honestly the more the merrier. Some of them come back years later with a good car of their own, ready to inspire the next lot of newcomers, and that is how the culture keeps going.
The pure spotter is a different animal and a more durable one. They may never own anything interesting, but they know what is in every garage in the city and they will drive an hour for a rumour.
The tell: they are filming before they have looked.
What they are actually good at: finding things. Half the great cars you have seen online were found by a spotter.
So which one are you?
Most people are two of these at once and a third on weekends. The mix changes with age, money and how many cars you have owned. The teenager spotting supercars becomes the twenty-something with a project, becomes the driver with a track car, becomes the retiree with a classic they will never sell. Every type is welcome at a meet. The only rule is the same for all six: be decent to the person next to you and do not lean on their car.
If you want to find the other five, they are on Drivesome, the social network built for car enthusiasts. Every car has a page, every member has a garage, and the meets and Cars and Coffee mornings where all six types turn up are listed by city.
More on car people
Questions people ask
What are the types of car enthusiasts?
We count six: the one-car devotee, the brand loyalist, the car lover, the driver, the show pony, and the spotter or clout chaser. Most people are a mix of two or three.
What is the difference between a car enthusiast and a petrolhead?
Nothing, really. Petrolhead is the British and Australian slang for a car enthusiast. Gearhead is the American version.
Is someone who only likes one brand a car enthusiast?
Yes. Brand loyalists are one of the oldest types of car enthusiast, and usually the best informed about their marque's history.
Are racing drivers car enthusiasts?
Some are, some are not. Many drivers are chasing the feeling of driving fast rather than the cars themselves, and would happily swap cars if another one was quicker.
