They’re a strange species, prowling neighbourhoods in vehicles that growl and snarl. 

Their screeching tyres and revving engines send waves of noise pollution across the suburbs. I’m talking about a particular type of revhead.

Kicking back in the garden recently, I heard a big burnout at a nearby intersection.

The noise pierced my skull. It was a bit like fingernails down a blackboard. I swear it was worse than the sounds of a vuvuzela, cicadas in January and a car alarm combined.

As the senses settled and the annoyance slowly subsided, I began to wonder.

Why do blokes do burnouts? Do they have brain damage?

I’m a bloke. I like cars. I used to have an HR Holden back in the day. I drive a beast now. I like the sound of an idling engine. I like the curves of a cool car. But I don’t feel the need to do burnouts.

Is it a macho insecurity thing? If a bloke doesn’t do burnouts, does this means he’s comfortable with his manhood?

If a bloke does do burnouts, does this mean he’s not comfortable with his manhood? Does it mean he’s compensating? Is he lacking in some department or other? Is he too attached to his mother? Did daddy neglect him?

I’m not sure if this amateur attempt at pop psychology can explain the mind of a revhead. And it’s not that I think the world should be populated by metrosexuals.

It’s just that burnouts get my goat. It’s not only the noise, it’s the drivers’ arrogance. Then there’s the mindless revving. I can’t for the life of me understand the point of this.

You’ll see a hotted-up car cruising along slowly and pumping the gas. Then the vehicle will stop at an intersection. The revhead will pump the gas again.

Are these blokes attention seekers? An article on psychologytoday.com said “extreme attention seekers go to unhealthy lengths that are driven by emotional desperation”.

“Excessive attention seeking is not a character flaw. It is a brain wiring response to early developmental trauma caused by neglect.”

Maybe I was right. Maybe their daddies did neglect them. I’m not the only one to wonder about the minds of revheads.

On a Yahoo forum, a woman asked: “Why do guys think it’s cool to rev their engine when they drive past me?

One response said: “Sadly they often have little else in their life and they can't impress you with their character (they have none) or their intelligence (they have none).

“To them, it tells everyone else they are 'a big man’ (which they're not) and 'look at me' (which nobody has any interest in doing).”

In a post on the blog Rants About It All, an unnamed male wrote a piece about blokes revving their engine “as loud as they could” in a car park. He dubbed them “rednecks”.

In the blog, he too asked why blokes felt the need to rev their cars.

“There wasn't anyone paying attention to them, so they had nobody to impress,” the post said.

“The only reason I noticed them is because the revving of their engine was so loud I couldn't hear the conversation I was having.

“Bottom line to me is that guys who use too much machismo are just really dumb.”

I’ll leave the last word to my neighbour, who’s one of the blokiest blokes I’ve ever met. Whenever a revhead does a burnout, he always yells the same thing: “Bloody dickhead”.