Driving Sports

Have you ever asked your spouse, significant other, or even your parents if you're an easy Christmas target? If you're anything like us at Driving Sports, you probably rank in the top 5% of "pain in the ass to buy for" people.

Face it - car people are not easily giftable. How many times have you received subtle hint gifts like socks without greasy fingerprints on them, or a jumbo size jug of GoJo?  This isn't because they don't love you – it's because you're hard to understand.

So, to help you out – and to help you help your friends and relations – here's our official annual holiday edition last minute gift guide.  Simply cut-n-paste the URL for this story into an e-mail and send it around. Use an international e-mail anonymizer if that makes you feel better, but somehow you have to get this into their hands.

This year, you've got several great options for video gaming. Specifically, the latest holiday edition cars in Forza Motorsport and the current Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge, which runs through January 25, 2010. You can download the demo directly to your PlayStation 3 consoles via the PlayStation Network right now, and it might assuage your pain waiting for the full-on GT5.

That's fine for the gamers, but what about those of you who spend more time in the reality-based community? No one can be expected to pick up the tab for your track habit, but here's a good option: Consider a DVD on real-world performance driving from Skip Barber. It's a great way to while away the cold and damp winter months, and you just might learn something along the way.

To keep you up on the history and passion for speed, consider requesting a gift of the classic "Sound of Speed" short film about Lance Reventlow and the legendary Scarab racing team. Available now on DVD after a long absence, this film is perfect for the vintage and historic racing enthusiast, or any devotee of great racing action and engineering genius.

To add a touch of sporting class to your ride, try a Wheelskin steering wheel wrap. These are real high-quality leather and you get to install them yourself. Whether your wedding ring has trashed your stock leather wheel or you're just stuck with some gummy rubber or plastic POS in front of you all the time, nothing feels better than a real leather wheel, and the Wheelskins are made to fit right. You can get them in single colors, two-toned, and perforated. You can also find some great classic leather driving gloves at the Wheelskin site – and everyone loves those!

Continuing with the good stuff for your car, consider a gift basket of detailing products. This is a no-fail guarantee. Whether your beloved car nut keeps his car looking like a muddy rallycross veteran or a pristine trailer queen, detailing products send the right message. Eagle One has a whole lineup of painless car presentation products, or you can just head to the local auto parts store and find a great selection of reliable Meguiar's washes, waxes, and detail kits. For the upscale and physically distant, you can't go wrong shopping Griot's Garage.

Books are always a good choice, and no one has a better selection of how-to tomes than CarTech Books.

Whether the recipient is an avid do-it-yourselfer or someone who should never be allowed to handle a wrench, a good book on turbos, engine tuning, or specific upgrades to the happy driver's favorite ride, a good how-to book is a one-way ticket to cocktail party and online forum credibility.

You can also find a great selection of paper performance at Motorbooks and Veloce Press. Between these three publishers, they've got everything from Mini to Maserati.

Now we come to the holy grail of automotive enthusiast gift-giving. The apex of the triangle, the cherry on the double hot-fudge banana split sundae of holiday giving. We speak, of course, of tools. Good tools. And while the venerable combination wrench doesn't change much over the years, the price of racheting wrenches has continued to come down in recent years, and selection has improved. Amazon.com is your friend in shopping for cool tools, and a set of fancy GearWrench wrenches is sure to go over big. It doesn't even matter if he's already got a set – everyone loves these!