Why I Love Cars, and How Being a Petrolhead Boosted My Confidence & Sense of Belonging

The freedom of driving your car with no particular destination in mind. A car you service and modified yourself with your own hands. A car you take to shows or track days to meet and share stories with others with the petrolhead affliction. This is not just my passion, it has been at the centre of who I am.

It all started with the Mini

I didn't grow up in a household that had a passion for cars. My Dad was a fan of bog-standard Japanese made cars and held on to them as long as possible to get the most value possible from his investment. Nissan Bluebirds, Mazda 626, etc.

I'm not really sure where I caught the bug, but it all started when I was a teenager dreaming of owning a Mini (the classic one, the BMW one had not been released at that stage). I loved the styling and the low slung stance. I was never actually inside one until I was 22 and my brother bought an end-of-the-line Cooper Sport (2000), but that never stopped my teenage obsession.

I would buy Mini magazines and mull over all of the modified parts and build my fantasy Mini that I would one day own. Each Mini in the magazine was unique, each one was an expression of individuality and the desire to be different.

Learning to drive, and discovering freedom

As soon as I turned 17, I applied for my provisional license and started learning to drive in my Mam's 1995 Nissan Micra (1 litre). By law, you were required to have a fully licensed driver with you at all times if you are on a provisional license, but this was overlooked by most.

You never realise how restrictive your life is when you need to walk or cycle to get everywhere. Even getting a bus required walking a couple of kilometres to get to the bus stop, which is too far for a lazy teenager. The freedom of being able to drive wherever you want opened new experiences and made me want to explore the world.

My first car

After college I got my first job as a web designer. Once the money started rolling in, I bought my first car as soon as I could. Apart from the practical stuff, like how much it cost to tax and insure, I wanted something outside the norm, something I could modify, and something that I could make my own - unique to me.

So I bought a 598cc left hand drive Smart ForTwo (as you do).

I still miss it to this day. It was great craic to drive, and was the platform that got me started with learning about maintaining and modifying cars.

Let the mods begin!

As there was no one in the family really that interested in cars, there was no one to teach me about servicing or modifying. I read guides on online forums, and got stuck in! Plenty of mistakes along the way, but there is a great satisfaction in learning through doing. The next time you tackle the same job, you'll do it in half the time and without any drama.

Once I mastered the basics - oil changes, spark plugs, brake discs & pads, I wanted to push myself further, so started modifying my Smart Car. Again there are lots of online guides for the popular mods - like changing the air filter, intercooler pipes, turbo pipe, stereo & speakers, wheels, exhaust, etc.

What I really enjoyed was trying mods that were not documented, or that others had not tried. Taking risks (nothing dangerous), and trying new things was a big boost to my self confidence, even if the first few attempts failed.

Car Clubs & Community

Car forums were well established when I bought my first car, however there was not a huge selection of Irish clubs, and certainly not brand-specific forums. So I created one! I created a website for Smart Car Ireland (no longer running) and organised events and meetups. I even arranged events where specialists from the UK flew over to remap cars here.

The number of Smart Car owners in Ireland was very small, so in 2005 I traveled over to east coast of England to attend an event called Smart Billing which opened my eyes to a whole new level of what was possible with these funky little cars.

I've been a member of a countless number of online car club forums and Facebook groups over the years, but where I truly found my family was on an Irish website called Octane.ie, which has now evolved into Backroads.ie. Here you can find a diverse range of interests and owners, from people who own a fleet of bangers, to Lamborghini owners, and everything in between. They organise regular track days and monthly Cars & Coffee meetups, so you can take your chats 'offline' as well!

The People

From my encounters, petrolheads couldn't be friendlier. Always seem willing to help each other. Offering their advice and often willing to get their hands dirty and help you with any car related job.

Whether I was attending an organised meetup, hanging in the paddock at a track day, picking up second hand car parts, or having a chat with a complete stranger at the petrol station, we seem to gravitate to each other and fall into easy conversation. It crosses generations too. In any other situation, I wouldn't walk up to a stranger 30 years older than me or 15 years younger and spark up a chat, but when they are standing next to an interesting car, it's an open invite!

I've made long term friends, mentors, through my passion for cars. I feel like I belong.

Belonging

A quotation from psychologytoday.com:

Belonging means acceptance as a member or part. A sense of belonging is a human need, just like the need for food and shelter.

Feeling that you belong is most important in seeing value in life and in coping with intensely painful emotions.

Some find belonging in a church, some with friends, some with family, and some on social media.

Content Explosion

Once, the only way to find out about the latest car models being released, or trends and modifications was though magazines or TV shows. I have a huge collection of magazines that I used to spend many hours reading (especially Practical Performance Car magazine). Once broadband internet reached Ireland, I then discovered online content.

Motoring related online content used to exist solely on forums and websites. However, in the last 5 years, most of the growth in content has come from YouTube and Social Media. And with popularity comes revenue, and higher levels of production quality - some YouTube channels now have production levels matching the world's most expensive global car shows, like Top Gear / The Grand Tour. I haven't watched Top Gear in about 5 or 6 years, and am currently subscribed to about 50 car shows on YouTube. Some personal favourites are Mighty Car Mods, SOUP Classic Motoring, Juicebox, B is for Build, Speed Academy, Skid Factory and Car Throttle.

The online world has brought about great opportunities for petrolheads, lowering the bar for entry into commerce. YouTubers sell branded mechandice (clothes, stickers, accessories). The proliferation of online content has resulted in a much higher awareness of how different cultures around the world modify their cars, or how they were offered as standard by manufacturers - one example of this is the JDM obsession that has been popular for many years now.

For those interested, JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market, and when related to cars, refers to any car, accessory or modified part that was sold in Japan, for the Japanese market. Some cars were never sold outside Japan (like the Nissan Figaro), some cars came with more powerful engines that were not available outside Japan (like the Toyota Soarer Turbo), some had options unique to Japan (like the glass roof on a Honda CRX). This had led to a general interest in many Japanese modified parts manufactures - but with good reason; their quality is generally a step above even the Germans.

The Keeper

So what is my niche within the car community? Am I loyal to a specific brand or type of car? Yes and no. I change my daily driver every 6 months. There is just too many nice cars out that that I want to experience, and not enough time to get around all of them. I try to mix it up as much as I can - for example my last 3 cars have been a 4 litre V8 Lexus, a 1.5L turbocharged hot hatch, and a Toyota hybrid.

However, there is one car I keep coming back to. The Mazda MX5 (or Miata if you're in USA). I've owned 5 of them over the years! There's just something so simple and pure about them. They sold in HUGE numbers, so have HUGE followings and clubs all over the world. When I recognised this obsession was not going away, I decided to hunt for one that I could keep for the rest of my life. A tall order, given the longest I've owned any car was 1 year.

The tax laws in Ireland are quite expensive, and you pay an annual motor tax for every car you drive on top of the hefty tax on fuel. But there's a silver lining for petrolheads. When a car turns 30 years old, the motor tax gets cheap - VERY cheap. MX5's are not 30 years old yet, but I wanted to find the oldest one I could and keep it. Once it turns 'classic', it will be cheap to tax for many years.

So about 2.5 years ago, I picked up this beauty. An early 1990 model.

I have big plans for this car next year. I'll be taking it off the road, and doing an engine change - upgrading from the 115bhp 1.6 litre engine to a 3 litre V6 Jaguar engine with double the power. The plan is to get it back on the road in January 2020, just as it turns 30 years old, and instead of paying €1494 per year on motor tax (due to the large engine), I'll pay €56 :)

This engine change will be a large job, and will require me to buy new tools and learn new things - I'm VERY excited for the challenge! I also plan to film the experience and put it on YouTube to help others who may be considering this job.

Passing the Torch

My son's idea of helping daddy with the car is to hit it with a hammer (he's nearly 3 now), but I'm hoping my love of cars is something I can teach him about and bond over as he gets older. If he plays his cards right he might even inherit my MX5!

Hopefully that's given a little insight into my passion in life. If you're into cars, hit me up or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Appendix 1: Most of the cars I've owned

This is not an exhaustive list, I'm sure I've missed a few. I won't add labels to these. If you're a petrolhead, you should know what most of them are!