What Pride Means to a Petrolhead: Charlie’s story and advice
I’m Charlie and I’m Cazoo’s motoring expert and content editor. Since I can remember I’ve been fascinated by cars – my mum says I’d always sneak a couple of Hot Wheels cars out with me and cling onto them in my pushchair as we walked my brothers to school. When I grew up and realised I was gay, I thought those things weren’t compatible – oh how wrong I was.
Charlie Harvey
Published on 19 June 2026 | 10 mins read
I’m not sure what it is about cars, but it’s probably the way that technology, science, art and design all intersect that made them more than just a tool that got people from A to B or simply the sum of their metal parts. They just brought me so much joy in the same way that football or video games do for other people.
What I didn't know then was that loving cars and later coming to terms with being gay would, for years, feel like two halves of me that didn’t feel like they were allowed to coexist. If I’d have known then that one day I’d be a motoring journalist getting gigs alongside heroes like Jeremy Clarkson, Vicky Butler-Henderson, Tiff Needell or James May, I’d have scarcely believed I’d be doing them as an openly gay man.
For Pride Month I want to share what it's really like for me growing up as a gay petrolhead – the insecurities that admittedly held me back, the joyful bits, and how I finally found my people on four wheels. If you've ever felt like the car world wasn't quite built for you, you’re not the only one, so this one’s for you.
Here's what we'll cover:
- Why cars and queerness can feel worlds apart
- The moment things started to change for me
- The clubs and events proving we belong
- How you can find your own community
Two Worlds That Felt Miles Apart
Growing up, the car scene didn't exactly feel like a welcoming place – even if that wasn’t necessarily through active homophobia. There’s a lot of banter and bravado on the car scene, all of which contribute to unspoken ‘rules’ about who belonged. Girls in skimpy outfits draped over highly modified cars from the Max Power era also sent a quiet message that I picked up loud and clear – cars were for ‘real’, straight men.
For the longest time I kept my personality and my passion in separate lanes. I liked cars, but I’d never be a real ‘car guy’. Then I came out and my world changed, a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I could be the real me, but in the gay community I was always told that I was so ‘straight’ for liking anything with four wheels and an engine, and I listened. Why do we pigeon hole ourselves in our own community, even when we should be free from the burden of a stereotype?
It's a strange kind of loneliness, loving something deeply while assuming the people who share it wouldn't accept you. For a long time, I just believed that was the deal.
The Moment It All Clicked
When I finished university, Covid hit, and I was furloughed for the longest 18 months of my life. It was a strange time but it did give me an opportunity to reconnect with my old passions.
I watched so much car content on Youtube and went out to buy car magazines like Auto Express, Autocar and Practical Classics. These were the same ones my dad used to buy me with a chocolate bar and a bottle of fizzy pop to keep me quiet while I was sitting on the side of the pitch on cold Sunday mornings at my brothers’ football matches.
Reconnecting with my inner toddler – the same one that used to merely stare at the pictures in those mags before I could read – inspired me to apply for a job in automotive media. I was going to bridge the gap between the gay me and the car me, and show other car gays out there that we were represented.
I definitely wasn’t the first, though, because it didn’t take me long to discover there were loads of gay motoring journalists and car enthusiasts out there, and I’d just convinced myself of the contrary. That’s why representation matters, and why we should shout about it, and that’s what’s inspired me to write this. Meeting gay car experts and colleagues in the media proved to me that you don't have to pick between your passion and your identity. You really don't.
The Clubs and Events Proving We Belong
Once I started looking, I found a whole community hiding in plain sight. Turns out LGBTQ+ car lovers have been building spaces for ages, but I just hadn't known where to look.
These groups changed everything for me, and they might do the same for you:
The Gay Classic Car Group (GCCG)
Shortly after starting my work in journalism, I discovered the GCCG. It’s so big that it’s split into regional branches all over the UK for LGBTQ+ car lovers to attend. My local branch (GCCG South Coast) meets every first Wednesday of the month in a pub to show off our classics and modern cars alike, order some food and mingle – you don’t have to be a member to attend this meet, as it’s intended to encourage potential future members.
It might not sound like a groundbreaking concept, but it was a game-changer for me. Because it’s made up of LGBTQ+ attendees from all generations, it blessed me with the opportunity to connect with those age groups who I might not otherwise cross paths with. Gay people are more often than not born to straight parents, and that means we can often struggle to find role models that truly understand the struggles unique to us. I found the GCCG was full of people with life experience and guidance they could impart with me, whether that be car-related or not.
It was also educational – while the AIDS crisis and the illegality of homosexuality may have been covered loads in media, I met people that had really lived through that, or lost friends and partners in the midst of it. Without the GCCG, I’d never have mixed with these people with such different, but valuable life experience. Hopefully more members from all corners of the LGBTQ+ community will start to attend, as in my branch at least, there’s a distinct lack of lesbian and trans attendees – I want you to know you’re welcome, too.
Petrol and Pride
Petrol and Pride held its first event in 2025 in – of all places – Gaydon, at the British Motor Museum. It was a brilliant event that invited queer people from across the country to showcase their diverse cars, even arranging them side by side depending on the colour to create a rainbow flag visible from the sky. Manufacturers such as Jaguar and Genesis joined in on the event to show support, which was appreciated, too.
Fun awards with a gay theme were given out to attendees, such as ‘gayest car’, which went to a Futura Yellow Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet, ‘butchest car’ which was awarded to a Porsche 911 GT3 in Lava Orange, and ‘best glow up’ went to a Vauxhall Frontera that had been lovingly restored and saved from a pensioner’s garden.
This was a great event because it showed just how many queer car people there are to have filled the entire car park of the British Motor Museum, but also markedly showed the overlap between gay and car communities with the tongue-in-cheek awards – that felt important for someone like myself who had grown up so insecure about the two worlds colliding.
Caffeine & Machine: Pride
Caffeine & Machine is a well-known trio of car cafes dotted around the UK. There’s the original branch, known as The Hill, in Warwickshire, The Hut based in Hampshire and The Bowl in Bedfordshire. During Pride Month the venues host their own celebration – an invitation to queer car lovers to come and share their cars and mingle.
It’s great to see such a well-known establishment serving the car community showing its support for LGBTQ+ people. Sadly many of the comments from its patrons via social media throw out the exhausting ‘why do they need to shout about Pride, it’s about cars?’ or make distasteful jokes, which only serves to prove why events like these are needed. That aside, I hope C&M continues to show its support regardless, because that’s the real test, and it gives queer car lovers the explicit message that they are welcome, even if they might not sometimes feel it.
Why these spaces matter
While we’ve made massive strides for LGBTQ+ rights and tolerance in many ways, there’s still unfortunately a stigma attached to being gay or queer, especially in niche pockets of society like the car community. It’s still a big issue here, but events like those mentioned above that help bridge divides are essential – ever more stringent motoring regulations and rising running costs for cars are already enough of a headache for a petrolhead, and that’s why the extra layer of prejudice or homophobia needs to be quashed so we can all stand together as car enthusiasts without gatekeeping the space.
How My Two Worlds Became One Career
I still sometimes have to stop and remind myself of my wins as Cazoo’s motoring expert and a former writer for big names like Auto Express, Carbuyer, Driving Electric, Car Throttle and Evo magazine. The young gay me would have scarcely believed I’d ever be able to work in this field – it always seemed so saturated with bravado in a way I felt I’d never be able to live up to.
I remember being on a test shoot with a group of Youtubers I’d always massively looked up to, and then having my whole view of them shattered listening to their gay jokes, not to mention the misogynistic comments about an ex female coworker. That was actually the point I decided to push through the insecurity and move forward, because if I didn’t make my own place in the industry, there’d be no one to counteract that voice and attitude.
It’s worth pointing out that now I’ve met so many other motoring journalists who are queer and haven’t struggled in that same way, and I’m glad that they haven’t. The reality is, though, that I allowed that voice to get in my head and others might, too – just one person feeling they don’t belong in a community that shouldn’t have anything to do with sexuality, but subtly does, is reason enough to do something about it.
Now I can proudly say that I attend some of the same events as my heroes growing up – I was star struck when I bumped into Vicky Butler-Henderson at one recently. She may not be queer, but women are another underrepresented group in the motoring space and she was a big inspiration for me. I told her how seeing her on a 90s Jeremy Clarkson VHS tape, racing a Vauxhall Nova against his Rover SD1 showed me you didn’t have to fit the mold to make it – she seemed genuinely flattered and happy to have made an impact on me, which was a proper full-circle moment.
Finding Your Own People on Four Wheels
If you're an LGBTQ+ car lover who's ever felt like an outsider in this scene, I want you to hear this clearly: there is space for you, and there are people waiting to welcome you.
Here's where I'd start:
- Look up the GCCG for LGBTQ+ motoring meets and drives across the country.
- Go to an event like Petrol and Pride to connect with others who get both halves of you. You might feel vulnerable, but go represent yourself and meet like-minded people, it helps!
- Bring your authentic self. Your car taste and your identity can share the same seat.
You might be surprised how quickly "I don't belong here" turns into "where have these people been all my life?"
The Takeaway
For too long, I believed loving cars and being gay had to stay separate. Communities like the GCCG and Petrol and Pride showed me how wrong I was and gave me a place to belong, exactly as I am.
So this Pride Month, my message is simple. Whether you're into classic restorations, track days or just obsessed with engines and motors, the automotive world has room for you and those interests aren’t mutually exclusive to your sexuality. Your people are out there, somewhere down the road.
Go and find them, the drive is definitely worth it! 🌈