Guides and artworks
The technical answers, the stories behind the shapes and the practical side of putting a picture on the wall.
01 · 3 reads
The wall
Car poster sizes, and how to pick one.
Five poster sizes, from A4 to 70 by 100 centimetres. The right one depends on the wall and the viewing distance, not on the picture, and it is the decision people most often get wrong in…
How to frame a car print.
A frame is not decoration, it is a decision about how much attention the picture gets. The good news with car art is that the artwork's own ground colour makes most of the choice for…
All about the wall
Size, frame and room. What each format does to the same picture, and which one the wall in question actually wants.
02 · 2 reads
The gift
They already bought it, in the spec they wanted.
The best petrolhead gifts are things they would never buy for themselves: art for the garage wall, a picture of their own car, or something for a car they used to own. They have already…
All about the gift
Buying it for somebody else: what a car obsessive already owns, and what they do not.
03 · 17 reads
The car
How many cars from each year are still licensed?
The DVLA publishes the licensed car fleet by year of first registration. As of the end of December 2025, 13,785 cars first registered in 1973 still hold a licence, and 245 from 1923. The…
Cars turning historic: the 1986 cars that reach the historic tax class on 1 April 2027.
At the end of 2025, 25,537 cars built in 1986 were still on the DVLA's books in the UK, licensed or declared off the road. On 1 April 2027 they become old enough for the historic vehicle…
Is my car old enough to be historic?
Put in the year your car was built. You get two answers, one for vehicle tax and one for the MOT, because the two rules are not the same. Then put the year on the wall.
Car questions, answered.
Straight answers to the car questions people actually type into a search bar. Where a term has a real engineering definition, you get it with the source it came from. Where it doesn't,…
What is horsepower?
Horsepower is a unit of power, meaning a measure of how fast work is done. One horsepower is 550 foot-pounds per second, which is about 745.7 watts.
What does BHP mean?
BHP stands for brake horsepower: power measured at the engine's own crankshaft, before the gearbox, driveshafts and tyres take their share of it.
What is torque in a car?
Torque is turning force. In a car it is the twisting effort the engine makes at its crankshaft, quoted in pound-feet in the UK or newton-metres elsewhere.
What is the difference between torque and horsepower?
Torque is a force that twists. Horsepower is a rate at which work gets done. Engine speed is what connects them, and it is why the two peak at different points.
What does 0-60 mph mean?
0-60 mph is the number of seconds a car takes to reach sixty miles an hour from a standing start. It is a stopwatch figure, not a certified one.
What is engine displacement?
Displacement is the total volume all of an engine's pistons sweep through in one stroke, quoted in litres or cubic centimetres. It is a measure of size.
How does a turbocharger work?
A turbocharger puts a turbine in the exhaust stream and bolts it to a compressor. The escaping gas spins one, and the other forces extra air into the engine.
What does naturally aspirated mean?
A naturally aspirated engine breathes on its own. Each piston moving down creates a vacuum, and atmospheric pressure alone fills the cylinder behind it.
What is a hot hatch?
A hot hatch is an ordinary small hatchback given a much stronger engine and a firmer, sharper chassis. No official body certifies the label, which is why the arguments never end.
What is a supercar?
A supercar is an extreme performance car, expensive and built in small numbers. There is no threshold of power, price or speed that officially makes one.
What is a JDM car?
JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market. Literally it describes where a car, part or specification was built to be sold: inside Japan, not exported.
What does GT mean on a car?
GT is short for gran turismo, Italian for grand tourer: a car built to cross long distances quickly and comfortably, not to lap a circuit.
All about the car
What the numbers on the spec sheet actually measure, how the engine breathes, and which of these words mean anything at all.
04 · 1 read
More guides and references
Car poster guides.
Everything written on this site outside the journey itself, listed here: two guides on getting the physical object right (size and frame), one page of DVLA fleet numbers, and two on…
05 · 1 read
The art
All about the art
The picture itself. One from the collection, your own car repainted from a photograph, or that photograph printed as it is.
06 · 9 reads
By car
Supercar posters
Supercar posters are usually photographs, which means licensing, which means the same dozen press shots on every site. Ours go the other way: original car art in the spirit of the…
Muscle car posters
Muscle car posters should look the way the cars sound: big, warm and a little chrome-edged. The engine is the heart of the genre, so start with Rear-Engine Study, a cutaway in precise…
Rally posters
Rally is the discipline where cars leave the ground and posters earn their drama. The one picture in the shop that is literally a rally car is Pixel Rally Stage: a 16-bit rally car…
Endurance racing posters
Endurance racing is the romantic discipline: long hours, low sun, the long game. Apex at Dawn is the opening lap of that story, a 1930s open-wheel racer cresting the hill at sunrise in…
Hot hatch prints
The hot hatch is the people's performance car, with a shopping-trolley shape and a motorsport heart, and it deserves wall art with the same wit. Pixel Rally Stage has that energy: a…
Classic American car prints
Classic American car prints trade on a specific dream: big chrome, long bonnets, golden light. Deco Metropolis is the city version of that dream, an elegant coupe before stepped Art Deco…
British classic car prints
British classic car culture is roadster culture: low doors, long bonnets, weather optional. 1930: The Roadster opens our Silhouette Era set with exactly that shape: swept wings and a…
Roadster prints
The roadster is the purest car shape there is: two seats, no roof, nothing it does not need, and it draws beautifully. It opens our Silhouette Era set as 1930: The Roadster, one…
Classic car posters
A classic car poster should feel like the era it celebrates, not a stock photo of another car. Ours are original art drawn in the spirit of the golden age. Pit Lane, 1955 captures…
07 · 5 reads
By room
Car posters for bedrooms
Car posters for a bedroom have to pass a harder test than garage art: you fall asleep looking at them. Loud photography dates fast. Original art lasts. Deco Metropolis was practically…
Car posters for boys' rooms
Car posters for a boy's room usually mean a cheap multipack that peels off the wall in six months. Original art goes the other way: a print they choose at eight can survive the…
Car prints for the office
Car prints for an office have a diplomatic mission: show the passion without undermining the professionalism. Photography of someone else's supercar fails that test. Original art passes…
Man cave wall art
Man cave wall art carries the whole room's identity: it is the difference between a den with a sofa and a place with a point of view. The Workshop was painted for these walls: a classic…
Car art for the living room
Living room car art has to earn a place among the furniture, not shout over it. Canvas suits the room: no glass glare and a soft gallery edge. Deco Riviera and Deco Metropolis sit as…