1. Keogh Valet calendar for Pieta House
Who wouldn’t want some gorgeous black and white photos of some of Ireland’s best and rarest cars hanging on their wall come January? Equally, who wouldn’t want to help out Pieta House, the charity that helps those affected by suicide? Well, thanks to Trevor Keogh of Keogh Valet, you can now do both. Trevor has taken a series of images of some of the coolest cars that he’s valeted and cleaned this past year, and packaged them as a calendar. “Every Euro raised from selling the calendars will go directly to Pieta” Trevor said, and he means it — he’s been personally touched by suicide himself, so this is a passion project on both the motoring and charitable sides. You can contact Keogh Valet through the website, keoghvalet.com, to order a calendar, which cost €10 each.
2. Rally School Ireland and Mondello Park
Every year we say that getting presents of doing stuff is better than just getting stuff, and both Rally School Ireland (based in Co Monaghan) and Mondello Park (in Co Kildare) prove that in spades. In a world where driving is increasingly smothered in electronic interference, a session in one of RSI’s rallying Escorts, or Mondello’s single-seaters will remind you of why you love driving — for its precision, its speed, and its thrill. If it’s a rallying you want to give as a gift, head over to rallyschoolireland.ie where you can buy vouchers valued between €50 and €500. If you’re more of a circuit racing person, go to mondellopark.ie where driving packages start from €199.
3. Puma Porsche Sneakers
In a world where everyone’s wearing designer sneakers now, why not get something a little different? Sportswear brand Puma makes shoes for a number of big-name motoring brands, including Ferrari and BMW, but we like the Porsche-branded sneakers best. The plain black ones are Porsche Design Speedcats, which cost around €115 depending on where you buy them. The chunkier multi-coloured sneaks are a tribute to the classic Porsche 917 racing car, from the Puma Legacy range, and those cost around €90, again depending upon where you by them from. Both are enormously comfortable, and the Speedcats are great if you have bigger feet, as they are narrow and fit into the pedal boxes of cars with more space to spare. Plus the look cool, of course.
4. Serengeti sunglasses
Even at this time of year, it’s crucial to keep a really good pair of sunglasses in the car as that low winter sun, and the glare of sun reflecting off a wet road, can be excruciating. Serengetis are the gold-standard driving sunglasses, especially with the brown-tinted lens option which cuts out tiring blue light, is polarised to avoid glare, and which uses a high-quality mineral glass lens for ultimate optical quality. The lenses are also photochromatic, so they adjust to ambient light levels — terrific when you’re on a long drive in changeable conditions. They’re not cheap (prices start well north of €150, depending on the style you prefer) but you can actually feel your eyes relaxing when you put them on. As much as anything else, they’re a safety aid.
5. Nomadic watches
The link between nice cars and nice watches is indelible, but the likes of a Tag Heuer Monaco or a Rolex Daytona are well beyond the pockets of most of us. Thankfully, there’s a solution and it’s a home-grown one. Nomadic Watches was established by Belfast-born engineer Peter McAuley and the brand is named after the historic Titanic-related ship that’s now a dry-docked museum piece in Belfast. The Nomadic watch, called the Marai 401 (Marai being the Irish for seafarer while 401 was the design number for the Titanic) uses the same high-grade steel as a Rolex, has a high-quality automatic movement like a Rolex, and looks just as good as anything that’s made in Switzerland. The difference, of course, is the price — a Nomadic watch costs €800, less than a fifth of what an equivalent Rolex would set you back. Better still, it’s not a smartwatch, which makes it even better for driving (less distraction behind the wheel). You can choose from different bezel and dial colours, and McAuley promises that more designs are on the way. Check out nomadicwatches.com
6. Lego Speed Champions
We love the Lego Speed Champions sets. They’re more affordable than the headline-grabbing Lego Technic car kits, and they have a pleasantly blocky, cartoon-y look to them. OK, so some of the shapes might be somewhat wide of the realism mark, but that’s all part of the charm. Our favourite this year is the Ferrari 512 M, a building-block recreation of the amazing V12-engined 1970s Le Mans racer. It won the world sportscar championship for Ferrari, but got trounced at Le Mans by Porsche, making it both a glorious success and a glorious failure. Why not commemorate all that in Lego form this Christmas? You can always pretend it’s for your kids… Lego Speed Champions from €25 available from the Lego Store, or all good toy retailers.
