With the holiday season in full force and Christmas rapidly approaching, the great thing about having a gearhead in the family is that you’ll never be stuck for gift ideas for them. We’ve come up with 20 ideas ranging from affordable stocking fillers to rather more serious gifts that probably cost more than your car.
Porsche 911 Ice Cube Tray ($22/£18)
You might find yourself spending more time drinking than driving during the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get your car-based kicks. You could chug beer out of an old BMW M3’s washer bottle, but a classier option might be to drop a couple of 911-shaped ice cubes in your glass of vodka and soda.
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Tile/Apple Airtag From ($20/£20)
Related: Thieves Are Now Using Apple AirTags To Track And Steal High-End Vehicles
We’ve reported on a worrying trend for car thieves to fix these kinds of tracking devices to expensive cars then use the corresponding smartphone apps to locate the car later and steal it. But don’t let that news distract you from the fact that Tile and its new Apple Airtag equivalent are still useful gadgets for those of us who are forever misplacing our car keys.
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Forza Horizon 5 ($60/£50, but available on Game Pass)
Spare your kids the tedium of having to sit through hours of boring chitchat with great aunt Joan by letting them escape to a fictional Mexican winding road in Forza Horizon 5 for the Xbox. Unfortunately for Playstation fans, Gran Turismo 7 has been delayed until mid 2022, but WRC 9 (also available on Xbox) makes for a great alternative.
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Gaming Sim Rig (from $300)
And if the little gamer in your life is really serious about polygonal driving, they’re going to want to do it in a proper rig. You can get a basic seat and frame package for $300, though you’ll need to factor in the same again for a decent wheel setup like the ($350/£330) Ferrari SF1000 from Thrustmaster. But if your ceiling (and your wallet) can stand the strain, go all out and splash for the fully mobile Motion Systems Qubic System QS-S25 seen in this video, a snip at $27k/£19k.
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James Bond’s DB5 Book $49.95/£34.99
You can guarantee there’ll be at least half a dozen Bond movies playing at some point this Christmas, and your dad will try to impress you with facts about the DB5, conveniently forgetting that he’s done the same for the last 12 Christmases. So get him some new material with this book that charts the story of how a silver Aston came to be 007’s most memorable car, and even reveals some secrets behind the most famous stunts and chases.
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Gillette Labs Bugatti Special Edition Heated Razor ($170/£125)
Related: Bugatti Just Released A Carbon Fibre Pool Table That Costs $300,000
Genuinely the Bugatti of razors, this heated chin trimmer from Gillette is supposed to be mimic the effect of a hot towel shave. It features two heat settings and some nice branding on the handle that might make you more excited about getting out of bed on cold winter mornings, though it would have been cooler if the handle was carbon fiber. Looking for a more extravagant Bugatti-themed gift? The automaker also sells a pool table, though a $300,000 price means you’ll need slightly deeper pockets.
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Engine Remap $400/£325 (approx)
Credit: Superchips.co.uk (BMW M4 shown)
One hundred extra ponies sounds like a great Christmas present to us, and that’s what you might get with a simple remap. Results vary obviously, and naturally aspirated cars won’t see anything like the same gains as turbocharged vehicles, plus you need to make sure your car is in decent fettle before you start winding up the boost. But there’s no other way to add this much power for so little money.
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Lego Technic Ford F-150 Raptor ($99.99/£129.99)
Featuring 1,379 pieces, this Ford F-150 Raptor kit should keep Lego fans busy for hours over Christmas. You get to choose between 35-inch all-terrain tires or massive 37-inch (scaled, obviously) off-road rubber for extra ground clearance, and since this is an entirely electronics-free model, unlike Ford, you don’t have to worry about a shortage of semiconductors bringing production to a halt midway through the build process.
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Lamborghini MW65 Headphones ($499/£449)
Developed by HiFi experts Master & Dynamic, these Alcantara-covered, noise-cancelling Lamborghini cans actually came out just before Christmas 2020, but since no one bought them for us then, we’re giving them another airing. You reading this, Dad? The battery lasts for 24 hours and has a 30 m/100 ft connection range, while Lambo also offers in-ear versions for those that like to keep things discrete.
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GoPro Hero 10 ($350/£330)
There are plenty of cheaper action cameras on the market, but if you want a dependable, quality device to record your track exploits, road trips and desert blasts it’s hard too argue with a GoPro, particularly since prices have just dropped by $200. Externally, the latest Hero 10 looks much like last year’s 9, which introduced a bigger case and batteries, but inside it’s packed with a faster processor that delivers crisp slow motion footage in 4K.
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Garmin Catalyst Driving Performance Optimizer ($1000/£899)
Want to improve your lap times but can’t afford hours of tuition from a real life driving coach? Garmin’s Catalyst works out your optimum lap time and gives you audible cues to help you improve. It comes preloaded with data from circuits all over the world and, unlike some other devices, there’s no need to download the data to analyze it. You can review everything, including footage from the remote camera, via the 7-inch touchscreen.
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Wallet Werks BMW M-Technic Wallet (from $30/£28)
Related: Who Else Wants To See Cloth Seats Make A Comeback?
Opening your wallet isn’t usually a joyful experience, but Wallet Works can help you make it more pleasurable for the car obsessive in your family. Choose from conventional wallets and simple credit card holders, each covered in upholstery from a automotive icons. This one’s in BMW M-Technic fabric, but VW Golf GTI and classic Porsche plaid options, plus blue Alcantara Subaru STI versions, are available.