We check out Britain’s newest and most fabulous car show - Petrol & Pride

All images in this article were taken by the author

Traditional car shows are usually filled with anoraks on market town high streets, or full of high-end exotica at a well-known venue. The newest and most fabulous event on the motoring social calendar brings enthusiasts together, rather than just the vehicles.

Petrol & Pride aims to be a different kind of car show, being Britain’s first ever fully inclusive show for members of the LGBTQ+ community (yours truly included), as well as supporting partners including Bentley and Genesis. They also need an appropriate venue to host the event, which had to have ample parking and other key facilities, so they went for the British Motor Museum at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

The idea for Petrol & Pride came from the brains of Darren Styles and Cliff Joannou from Attitude magazine, who approached a number of manufacturers for support, many of whom are making DE&I a top priority. Bentley is one of these manufacturers, and their head of communications, Wayne Bruce, as well as their events team, Goose, helped bring Petrol & Pride to life.

Over 200 cars arrived on the day, featuring an incredibly diverse range of vehicles to inspect. One of the main attractions of the show was a rainbow display of vehicles, which was made up of everything from a gorgeous 1960s Mercedes SL, a Volkswagen Beetle and Bentley Bentayga’s, to name a few.

Pictured: Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet, Skoda Citigo, Audi R8 LMX

In the manufacturer’s row, there was a strong turnout from the Renault Group, with them bringing the Renault 5 E-Tech, a Dacia Duster and the new Alpine A290. Members of the Volkswagen Group turned up, which of course includes a Bentley Flying Spur, but also a Volkswagen ID. Buzz GTX and the recently refreshed Skoda Enyaq. Other stand-out motors from the manufacturers included a Rolls-Royce Spectre, which sported the most purple interior I’ve ever seen, a Scania lorry and a Lister LFT-666, which is based on the Jaguar F-Type.

Elsewhere in the show, there was an excellent range of metal on show. I naturally turned up in my very own red Skoda Citigo, which was parked between a yellow Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet and a blue Audi R8 LMX. Other highlights include a Peugeot Hoggar pick-up truck, a Honda Accord hatchback, and a gorgeous original Citroen DS.

Thankfully, the weather was on our side, with clear blue skies throughout the day and scorching hot sun - at the time of writing this, I’m still quite burnt from overexposure to the sun. But let’s not get bogged down with that. For those wanting to get away from the sun, you could seek shade and air conditioning within the British Motor Museum, which kindly opened one of the doors (after many attempts behind the scenes trying to get the electrics working) to the hot pink Ford FAB1 used in the live-action Thunderbirds film from 2005. Of course, I had to get a photo in the car with my partner, but sorry, that photo is reserved for my Facebook only. Instead, here’s a video of James May driving the very same car.

Being a car show, there were, of course, awards to be handed out.

There were three unique categories, two of which had a winner and a runner-up. The ‘butchest car’ award went to a 991-generation Porsche 911 GT3, with the runner-up being a deliciously ratty Pontiac Catalina, which made some excellent V8 noises upon arrival and departure. There was also an award for the ‘gayest car’, which naturally went to the very same Futura Yellow Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet, which was parked next to me, with the runner-up being a delightful Lotus Europa.

The third award, the ‘best story’, was handed to an original Vauxhall Frontera, which had only just been rescued from a garden and was put through an MOT, which it passed, before making its way to the event. The runner-up was a motorbike which was covered with photos of the icon and daddy, that is, Pedro Pascal. Unfortunately, Pedro Pascal wasn’t in attendance - perhaps next year?

The event had a great turnout in terms of people. I had the opportunity to catch up with people I know, as well as meet some new faces whom I’m sure I’ll bump into again at other shows.

It’s so important for brands and people to get behind events like Petrol & Pride. Sure, support for the LGBTQ+ community has increased massively in the past 20 years, but the support needs to be constant, and there’s still room for improvement. In a world where things seem to be going backwards in terms of politics and society as a whole, events like this are crucial.

This isn’t ‘woke’ by any means. We’re just people like everyone else, who just happen to like cars too. We don’t live in the 1940s anymore - it’s okay to be yourself.