petrolheadn.
/ˈpɛtrəlhɛd/, U.S. /ˈpɛtrəlˌ(h)ɛd/, Australian English /ˈpetrəlhed/ colloquial (originally Australian).
A car enthusiast.
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1973 Tharunka XL5 (Univ. New S. Wales) 4 Sept. As a footnote for the petrol-heads, come Harry-hots amongst you the claims of improved performance are so much crap.
1986 N.Y. Times 9 Nov. 6/6 When he isn't sailing boats, he is tinkering with old cars. As one friend put it: ‘He is an absolute petrol head.’
1999 P. Carey Tax Inspector xxiv. 116 Petrol-heads came here to do one dusty spin-turn before screaming up through the S's for the race back to the skid pan at the Industrial Estate.
2003 Leicester Mercury (Nexis) 1 May 20 It's that fast, furious, foot-to-the-floor, V8-powered action that's brought crowds of petrolheads flocking to the new 52,000-seater Rockingham Motor Speedway Course.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1973