Petrolheadonism is a growing community for car lovers, and an unashamed celebration of the internal combustion engine. We interview founder and CEO Ciro Ciampi
What is Petrolheadonism?
If you're a fan of cars in general, and supercars in particular, then there's a very good chance you've heard of Petrolheadonism. For those who haven't, Petrolheadonism is a community for car lovers, and an unashamed celebration of the internal combustion engine.
The Petrolheadonism club holds frequent events throughout the year at a range of venues, some of which might surprise you. Let's take the 2025 Petrolheadonism Underground event which will be held on the 29th and 30th March as an example. That one takes place in underground car parks next to Wembley Stadium in London.
As well as the club's own events, some of which are open to the general public and some only to members, Petrolheadonism has a presence at a number of other major car festivals and events around the country. In the unlikely event that you tire of flashy cars, there's always the Cars n Copters event at Airbus HQ UK, London Oxford Airport on 11th May. As the name suggests, this event brings together two entirely different kinds of transport to deliver one of the year's most exciting Sundays.
The man behind the brand
Although we have attended many Petrolheadonism events over the years, they can be pretty busy and hectic, so we caught up with the club's CEO, Ciro Ciampi, between events to learn more about the man and the history of Petrolheadonism.
"We've been Petrolheadonism since 2017 essentially, although it started back in 2007 when we opened the Sharnbook Hotel and we had our first car show.
"With our first Italian car and bike day, we saw that there was a real affinity with food, the Italian hotel and Italian cars. That grew the year after, so we had to introduce more car shows. By 2017, we were hosting nine big car shows a year. That's when Petrolheadonism was born and we found an umbrella brand for our group of car shows. From there it kind of spiraled."
COVID brought everything to a grinding halt. Hotels and hospitality in general experienced enormous challenges, and isolation rules made public events, such as car shows, even in the open air, completely impossible.
"Reopening after COVID, we went heavy into collaborating with car clubs and brands to bring people together on a small scale, selling out regularly. We were able to expand from that to other venues for bigger numbers and so it's grown from there."
Petrolheadinism today
"Now, in 2025 we host three halo events: Petrolheadonism Underground at Wembley at the start of the season, Petrolheadonism Live at Hertfordshire County Showground at the end of the season, and Cars n Copters in the middle of the show season. That one's crazy, like 45 helicopters, 120 supercars, and raising money for charity."
Collaboration has always been a crucial part of what Petrolheadonism does, and Ciro works with some of the biggest names on the automotive scene to deliver spectacular events for his members and for the attending public.
"We host events with several automotive celebrities from TV and YouTube, such as Adam C, Auto Alex, Mike Brewer… We're working with Richard Hammond this year, and we just keep working with other shows as well. So, when we're not hosting one of our own shows, we're attending other shows and, you know, contributing to building the community."
Part of that process of building the community is welcoming the uninitiated into the world of Petrolheadonism. That is made possible by opening the majority of events to the public as well as to the existing membership.
"Ninety-nine percent of our events are available to ticket buyers, the community, petrolheads, enthusiasts. There are some events through our Petrolheadonism World Network which are exclusive just to our members."
'Petrolheadonism World' refers to one of the brand's two main websites.
"So we have our Petrolheadonism Club (Petrolheadonism.club) and Petrolheadonism World (Ptrlhdnsmwrld.com) websites."
"The 'World' website is the membership and merchandise arm of our business: that's where we have our members' driver days, experiences and special invitations to events. 'Club' is about the community and the events we organise for the wider public."
Looking back
We asked Ciro about his memories of the first event he organised.
"I remember it like it was yesterday. In 2007, we'd just opened the Sharnbrook Hotel. We were essentially an Italian hotel restaurant, so I put together an Italian Car and Bike Day. We had approximately 50-60 cars, including several Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Fiats, Abarths, three or four Ferraris, two Lamborghinis, and a couple of Maseratis. There were about 250 people and it was a really intimate affair with a pig roast. That was such a cool day and everybody loved it.
"Primarily, in the beginning it was just to showcase the hotel, but the next year we hosted the event, it doubled in size. Then the next year we added Classic Car Day, and the year after that, 2010, we added Supercar Sunday, and it just blew up from there."
Scaling up
"All our event venues have different capacities. At the bigger events, we see from 5,000 up to 10,000 people per day, depending on the venue size. Some of the smaller events could be 2,000 people.
"It all depends on the venue, the cost of the venue and obviously trying to make it break even because ultimately it is a business. The last event we hosted is usually the best event we hosted until the next one because we're always trying to make things bigger and better quality, so we always change things up.
"Knebworth was our last event and that was absolutely phenomenal. It grew by 30% in terms of content from the previous year and we added a third stage and more family fun activities.
"Wembley on 29th and 30th March is going to be our biggest and best event ever. Petroheadonism is constantly evolving, we're trying to grow the membership, trying to grow the experiences and, this year we've added the Isle of Man, which is our Supercar Island. We're taking 55 supercars there, and working with the Tourist Board and the government to give our members and friends a holiday on a motoring island, which is phenomenal. We're there for four or five days, about three weeks after the TT, for an amazing experience.
"We're also doing more driving days this year, so the brand keeps constantly evolving and working with new partners."
Doing what it says on the tin
The name Petrolheadonism very much implies the love of combustion engines. Ciro isn't aggressively anti-EV like some well-known figures from TV car shows, but he caters to a specific community of enthusiasts - one of which he is personally very much a part. That doesn't entail denial or disregard for moves to reduce carbon emissions, but neither does it mean accepting that there is no way for the combustion engine to adapt and survive for some time yet. It may be on a modest scale, but Petrolheadonism's events acknowledge the reality.
"There is a small space for EVs at our shows, especially the classic car conversions. It is a really cool kind of space. However, we do predominantly aim our events at petrolheads who enjoy and love petrol cars. The future, I believe, is a mixture of synthetic fuels retaining the combustion engine, and EV as an alternative. As for me, personally, I don't think I'll ever own an EV."
So what does Ciro Ciampi drive himself?
"I'm lucky to have a variety of cars. I have that variety because they all give me a different experience. From my 1974 Mercedes SLC and my new Corvette C8 to the 1951 Fangio MX-5 kit race car that we're building and my Renault 5 GT Turbo ... All the cars I have offer a different experience. Also, with some of the cars I get to drive through our partners, I'm constantly experiencing different cars and understanding that from Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini to McLaren, they're all very different driving styles."
Cool cars, cool plates
"I've got about 16 private number plates. Thank you Regtransfers for being there for me since I was probably 17 years old!
My first number plate was C1 ROC when the 1985 'C' plates were released. That is my plate for life. It doesn't matter how much somebody could offer me for it, I'm never selling that number plate.
"I've got about 14 or 16 other plates. Some are names, like my daughters' names and my wife's. I have others that are related to the cars, and some are just quirky. I also have some for sale, like 'My Italy' (MY17 ALY) and 'Go Italy' (GO17 ALY), 'My GT2' (MY67 TWO) and 'V12 one power' (V121 PWR). Just plates I picked up over time that were either on a car or I thought were a good buy."
Visit: Petrolheadonism Club, Ptrlhdnsm Wrld.
