"I'm just taking the old Henry down the servo to get some juice before I go bush bashing." It wouldn't mean much to foreigners, but this motoring slang is as Australian as Holden cars.
Motoring slang is an endearing, sometimes derogatory, always colourful way of referring to man and machinery. Most of the slang we use here is home grown, but some is based on British terms and there are some foreign terms that have crept creeping in, mainly from the US, such as "stick" for manual gearshift.
Car and bike marques and models are targets for some playful derogatory slang such as Bitsaremissing (Mitsubishi) and Hardly Driveable (Harley-Davidson).
Some get several mentions such as Commodore which is alternatively Dunny Door, Bomb-a-door and Commode. We've listed a range of motoring slang which is by no means a definitive list and certainly not the end of the story with new terms being invented all the time by the Y generation of motoring revheads.
To keep it brief, we've omitted obvious abbreviations such as Merc, speedo and Suzi and avoided acronyms such as ATV, ABS and AWD. And these are just as a starter ... send your suggestions as a comment below.
AUSSIE MOTORING SLANG
Ag bike: farm bike
Anchors: brakes
Ashfelt: asphalt road surface
Backseat driver: passenger who tells driver what to do
Beamer/Beemer: BMW motorcycle
Bent 8: V8
Bingle: motor vehicle accident
Bimmer: BMW car
Blower: supercharger or turbocharger
Blown: turbo/supercharged engine
Bog standard: basic trim level, no modifications
Bomb-a-door: Commodore
Bonnet: hood of a car
Boot: Trunk of a car
Boosted: Super- or Turbo-charged car
Booze bus: random breath test unit
Burnout: spinning the tyres while standing still Bush bash: long competitive running or motorcar race through the bush
Bullfighter: Lamborghini (also Lambo)
Caddy: Cadillac
Carby: carburettor
Circle work: doing donuts or circular burnouts
Clocked: caught by speed camera or police
Commode: Commodore
Cossie: any Cosworth powered car
Cow catcher: bull-bars
Crotch rocket: fast motorcycle
Dipstick: not what you think
Disco: Land Rover Discovery
Donut: black circle from burnt rubber
Duke: Ducati
Dunny door: Commodore
Fast glass: electric windows
Fezza: Ferrari
Flog: steal or drive a car/bike really fast Grease monkey: mechanic
Hairdryer: police radar gun and turbocharger Hairdresser's car: small, often convertible but anything where style exceeds substance Handbrake turn: sharp turned caused by pulling the handbrake and locking the back wheels
Henry: Ford car, named after Henry Ford
Hood: roof
Hoon: dangerous driver
Human handbrake: passenger who constantly moans about high speed
Juice: fuel
Kwaka: Kawasaki motorcycle
Lambo: Lamborghini
Landy: LandCruiser
Left hooker: left-hand drive car
Locker: locked differential
Loud pedal: accelerator
Love tap: small crash
Mods: modifications
Motion lotion: fuel
Mud-plugger: SUV, usually stripped down with big off-road tyres Oiler burner: Car with a Diesel engine Paddock basher: non road-registerable race car, off-roader or farm vehicle
Patch: short black mark from tyres
Peel out: skidding tyres under heavy acceleration from standing start
Picks: brakes
Porker: Porsche
Pov spec: basic model with entry level specification
Pug: Peugeot
Q car: unmarked police patrol car
Rag top: convertible
Rego: vehicle registration
Revhead: motoring fan
Rice burner: Japanese car
Roller or Rolls: Rolls-Royce
Rolling burnout: moving burnout
Roo catcher: bull-bars
Rubber: tyres
Servo: service station
Shopping trolley: small hatchback
Ski lid: helmet
Slammed: lowered suspension
Slicks: race tyres with no cut tread
Slush box: automatic transmission
Spanner monkey: mechanic
Spoiler: front or rear aerodynamic bodywork
Stack: car crash
Tar: asphalt road surface
Temporary Australian: motorcycle rider
Tiller: steering wheel
Tin top: race cars with roofs
Ton: 100 miles per hour
Tojo: Japanese 4WDs
Toorak Tractor: SUV
Update: crash damage
Ute: utility vehicle, pickup truck
Vee dub: Volkswagen
Weapon: fast car/bike
Yank tank: American car
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