zoomvroom Car Culture, Gifts for the Car Enthusiast, Random

What to Buy Car People This Holiday Season

You have a car person in your family. Maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s that cool cousin who just got a classic car. It can even be a friend. Whomever it may be, these are the gifts to buy them.

  • Blipshift T-Shirts: I’ve always loved the Blipshift designs. They are humorous, and all around awesome. In the world of car-themed t-shirts, nobody does it better than Blipshift. Their shirts are affordable and cool. The catch is that they are all limited editions. Once that shirt sells out, that design is gone forever (or at least for a few years, when they’ll do an extremely limited run). Plus, they always have amazing deals around this time. A perfect excuse to buy one (or six). But don’t take my word for it. Visit them at blipshift.com
  • HeritageRacing Motorsports Calendar: Lots of races happen throughout the year. If you like going to some (but not all), it can be difficult to keep up with them. That won’t be a problem for this calendar! It has the entire racing schedule for 13 racing series. An added bonus is the retro racing artwork. You can buy it at https://www.etsy.com/listing/245716201/2016-racing-calendar?ref=shop_home_active_1
  • Valentine One Radar Detector: When you have a lead right foot, it can be very hard to stay under or at the speed limit. I know. I’m one of those people. Get a Valentine One radar detector for that member of your family. Buy one at http://www.valentine1.com/
  • One More Than 10: Singer and the Porsche 911: Air-cooled Porsche 911’s are the new classic car fad. If you, or someone in your family is a Porsche 911 fan, chances are they are a huge fan of Singer’s restomodded (restored and modified) classic 911’s. Even if you can’t afford to buy them a classic 911, you can at least keep them temporarily happy with reading the story of Singer on their coffee table. Just make sure to get a copy for me. http://www.stanceandspeed.com/automotive-books/one-more-than-10-singer-and-the-porsche-911
  • Side Glances: Anybody who has read “Road & Track” in the past, oh, 10 years or so, will recognize the name Peter Egan. Any fan of Road & Track, or anybody who’s a fan of amazing writing will never stop thanking you for this gift. It’s more than 300 pages of Peter Egan’s incredible columns on literally every aspect of the automotive industry. He shares 48 of his columns, all of which are bound to teach you something new, or make you become incredibly fond of British cars (I am, thanks to him). These columns cover his time at Road & Track between 2002-2006. Again, you can get me a copy at http://www.roadandtrackshop.com/road-and-track-books/!/peter-egan-side-glances
  • Die Cast Cars: Die cast cars of any make and model are a great addition to a desk, a diorama, a bookshelf or your garage. Even if you just buy one, it will be a nice addition to that collection we all have. These die casts are high-quality, and worth a boy. http://www.roadandtrackshop.com/road-and-track-die-cast
  • Forza 6: Even if cars are your life passion, you will likely never be able to drive a hypercar around a world-famous racetrack. Most people will only be able to somewhat replicate that experience by playing a world-class racing game like Forza 6. If the person you’re buying Forza 6 for doesn’t have an XBox One, you can buy the two in a bundle at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/consoles/1tb-forza-6
  • Motoring Art: Every car enthusiast worth the oil running through their veins needs some automotive art gracing their garage or living room. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anything better than Guy Allen’s motoring art. It’s truly beautiful. http://guyallen.co.uk/motoring-art
  • Cutaways: David Kimble is a well-known automotive artist. If you’ve ever seen a cutaway of a car, chances are, he drew it. His illustrations are incredibly intricate. In Cutaways, he shows you the secrets, techniques and procedures he uses to create his masterpieces. Definitely a good gift for that family member who loves the technical aspects of cars. http://www.roadandtrackshop.com/road-and-track-books/!/rt-david-kimble-cutaways
  • Team O’Neil Rally School: It doesn’t matter how talented of a driver you, or anyone you know is. You can never have enough training driving a car. If you’ve ever seen videos of how fast rally cars go, and the superhuman reflexes of the drivers, you’ve probably wondered if you could do that too. Yes, you can, thanks to Team O’Neil Rally School. https://teamoneil.com/rally-school/

That’s all folks!

zoomvroom Car Culture, Gifts for the Car Enthusiast, Random

Why Gearhead Shirts are Important

You can always recognize a car person by their t-shirt, sweatshirt, or polo shirt.  I won’t even go into the different kinds of car t-shirts you can find – that would be an undertaking in insanity.

Ed Iskendarian is the guy who started the whole car t-shirt craze way back in 1949.  He’s still alive today.  Almost 67 years later, the car t-shirts are a mainstay of automotive culture.  It’s automotive anthropology.  You might not realize it, but you’re an automotive anthropology student if you have a car t-shirt.

Here are the main kinds of car t-shirts you will see:

Car Show T-Shirt:  Most car t-shirts typically have two or three cars drawn on it, along with the name of the event, maybe a palm tree, diner, or gas station, and the date of the event.  The name of the event is usually in cursive on the front, with the drawing on the back.  These t-shirts tell other car people you’re a park and polish kind of person.  You’re probably not the person you’ll see ripping around an autocross – you might see them cruise the main boulevard of town once in a while on a nice day.

Retro Style T-Shirts:  This is dangerous ground.  Anything with pinstriping, vintage lettering, iron crosses, or distressed lettering could mean that you really do live the vintage lifestyle with cars – all the power to you then!  It could also mean that you just jumped onto that Von Dutch bandwagon.  Tread lightly.

Race T-Shirts:  Any race car driver worth their car will have a race shirt.  These usually aren’t t-shirts (sometimes they are), but rather bowling shirts that have the logo of the team, name of the car, and primary sponsors.  Wearing one of these means you know your stuff.  You’re either a racing insider, fanatic, or you know somebody who is.  Most big-time racers will sell t-shirts that look like their race shirts.  They will usually have other merchandise, like sweatshirts, baseball caps, beanies, etc.  Just be careful if you’re a racer wearing your own merchandise in public.  It’s like a band member wearing a band t-shirt while on stage.

Old Race Track T-Shirts:  When you wear something like an Orange County International Raceway shirt, and it’s threadbare and faded, it’s obvious you bought that shirt AT Orange County International Raceway, and would never consider buying a reproduction shirt.  Instant cred among any car nut.  It’s not nearly as much cred as the guys who got a Lions Drag Strip leather jacket when they won a race at Lions.  This also applies to old event shirts, or ancient speed parts shirts.

Wrecked:  It doesn’t matter what style of t-shirt you’re wearing (it doesn’t even need to have to be a car t-shirt), but if it’s got oil stains, holes from welding, it’s got that hands-on cred.  Wearing that shirt in public and not caring if you smell like you rubbed that shirt in coolant says you’re hard core.

What do I have?  Well, I have a couple of car show t-shirts, a race t-shirt, a lot of vintage-style t-shirts, and a couple of wrecked shirts.  I’m still looking for a race track t-shirt.  I’ll find one…eventually.

These t-shirts, or other car apparel make great gifts for other automotive enthusiasts.  Hint, hint!