Pride and Joy
What does queer representation mean to car enthusiasts? Two communities come together as one at Petrol & Pride, with the context of this year’s running making this event more important than ever.
Words and images - Oli Hunt
The automotive hobby can be truly wonderful. Days out, completely immersed in your passion with like-minded people. For people going through difficult times, cars can be a lifeline. This sense of community makes it easy to open up to people you have only just met as it lays a foundation of common interest, but within automotive circles, there can be so many layers to this. We live in a time where many marginalised groups in society are struggling for their right to exist in a world that was safer and more welcoming to them not so long ago. For so many, having a hobby that facilitates going out and connecting with friendly faces can make this struggle a little less daunting.
This is where Petrol & Pride comes in. It has been established to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ automotive enthusiasts where they can enjoy celebrating their car and their identity under one proverbial roof.
Aware that this event is now several weeks in the past, there is a very good reason for delaying the release of this article. The weekend of Petrol & Pride proved to be an eventful one for us, for a couple of reasons. We firmly believe that the events of that weekend call for a wider discussion of queer representation in the automotive world, and how we cannot take for granted the protections that are quietly being stripped from us.
Conceived and organised by Attitude Magazine, Petrol & Pride 2026 was the second running of this event, and saw an increase in attendance and commercial interest that suggests it is very much here to stay. From its inception, major manufacturers were along for the ride to show their support, with this year’s running seeing Aston Martin and Bentley demonstrating their pride. Furthermore, Carwow brought along a specially liveried-up Jeep Wrangler.
With around 200 cars present this year, vehicle variety was a thing to behold. My humble Alfa Romeo Mito was in good company when a brace of Fiat Puntos parked up right beside me, but there truly was something for everyone on the day, including a Green Line Routemaster bus. As part of the proceedings, a group of judges were present to decide on winning cars for 3 categories – Gayest, Butchest, and Best Glow-Up. Honours respectively went to a pastel pink Audi A3 convertible, a 1980s Chevrolet Caprice police cruiser and a 1980s Chrysler New Yorker which had been rescued from banger racing circles and given a new lease of life.
The Gay Classic Car Group had a large presence as well, with a selection of member vehicles on show. We caught up with Andrew Sinclair, area organiser for Scotland. “We have members who join, who don’t have an interest in cars but they don’t have a queer community to be part of.” He continued, “They found the club and they thought, well, everyone seems like-minded, and they’ve enjoyed the social aspect of it.” We discussed the importance of Petrol & Pride as a whole. “What’s nice is that it’s not the GCCG that have made this event. I think it was Bentley and Aston Martin and the museum. So, absolutely very important that this event evolves and continues to grow. They doubled it from last year with just over 200 cars, so if we can double it again next year, fantastic!”
Andrew made an excellent point, and brought light to something that had left a lot of people in quite a reflective mood – “It’s very important that this happens, as the owners have mentioned, especially after Berlin last night.”
And he’s right. The importance of this event was reinforced by the harrowing attack at Berlin Pride less than 24 hours earlier. This saw some 29 people injured, and one victim killed.
This cast an unmistakeable shadow over the proceedings at the British Motor Museum on the day of Petrol & Pride. The day went ahead as planned and the atmosphere was one of enjoyment, but the events of the night before remained fresh in the minds of many. Andrew had more to say on the matter – “It’s important to bring it up, people have to know about it. It’s very important that these events happen, because it’s a safe space for everyone here.”
The eclectic GCCG lineup represents the inclusivity of Petrol & Pride.
“It’s very important that these events happen, because it’s a safe space for everyone here.””
Pride – in some circles, this celebration comes under much scrutiny. “Why do we need it in a part of the world where gay marriage is legal?” Or, perhaps, “Why does it get a whole month?” Short-sighted comments like these completely undermine the point. The world would be an incredibly boring place if everybody was the same, much the same way it would be boring if we all drove the same car. Individual identity is worth celebrating regardless of any further rhetoric, but in the context of pride in 2026, its continued celebration is absolutely essential, and the devastating events in Berlin are testament to that. Social equality is more than legislation, and the fight for true equality isn’t over until everybody is able to express themselves without fear or discomfort.
The UK in particular is rapidly becoming one of the most difficult places in western Europe to live as an LGBTQ+ individual, with rights for transgender people in particular continually being wound back like an ugly revival of Section 28. If pride doesn’t continue to go ahead and marginalised people aren’t given this platform upon which to stand their ground and embrace their identity, we don’t know where this is going to end.
Recently, The Intersection attended Hagerty’s Festival of the Unexceptional, another extremely important event on the automotive calendar. This is an event that turns car culture on its head and over the years has become a safe space for people of varying queer identities to feel included and free to express themselves within the car hobby, quite often making their vehicle part and parcel of this expression. Here, people celebrate cars that would normally seem incredibly out of place in enthusiast circles, and this very sensation of ‘otherness’ is inherently queer-coded. During this year’s running of the event, this safe space was infiltrated by people covertly photographing and posting on social media pictures of people who were there, simply trying to enjoy the show and have a fun day out. People of outwardly queer presentation and people with physical disabilities were the primary targets, in some cases people who belonged to both groups. For a lot of queer people, it’s not unusual to get the occasional dirty look or rude comment out and about, but for it to occur at an event such as FotU rang alarm bells. As someone personally affected by these posts on the day, and with many friends similarly targeted, I would be doing a disservice to remain quiet about this. It isn’t right that any queer person should feel sidelined in any setting, but this behaviour has absolutely no place in the automotive community in 2026 and needs to be eradicated as a matter of principle.
Hundreds of people took to social media to call out this behaviour and bring it to the attention of the organisers of the Festival. Hagerty were quick to acknowledge, and reached out directly to myself and a number of others who had spoken up. An investigation took place, and upon its conclusion Hagerty confirmed that the primary suspect had been banned from attending any of their future events. I have to commend Hagerty for their action here, as well as other prominent social media personalities who used their platform to call out the wrongdoings and bring attention to this behaviour, but it has left a sour taste in the mouths of many who previously felt that there was a place where they could be themselves and be free of judgement, if only for a day.
Pride is more important than ever, both in the car community and beyond. The fact people can’t attend a celebration with not so subtle queer undertones without experiencing discrimination is proof enough that our work is far from done. These attitudes cannot be allowed to persist, but it’s encouraging that the organisers who hold all the cards are on the right side of history thus far – long may it continue.
Events like Petrol & Pride further demonstrate the resilience and strength of the queer community. Existing loud and proud in a world seemingly intent on making every day harder than the last is not easy, and takes commitment to oneself. Equally though, in a climate where even rainbow capitalism is falling by the wayside, the support of major media outlets and car manufacturers bolster the strength of this movement within the car community.