The short version. Anything functional, they have already bought and researched. What is left is the one category people rarely buy for themselves, which is decoration, and the reason it works is that people who love a hobby feel faintly self-conscious about hanging it on a wall.
The hours spent on a project car, in golden light. The present for anyone with a garage.
From £15.99 · Poster
The crew at work on a stripped racer. For the one who has rebuilt something themselves.
From £15.99 · Poster
Why the usual list fails
Run down a typical petrolhead gift list and it is polish, cloths, a torque wrench, a keyring, a mug, a book. Every one of those is something they either own, or have deliberately not bought because they prefer a different brand of it. Buying a tool for somebody who cares about tools is the same bet as buying a badge: you are guessing at a preference they hold strongly and have never explained to you.
Decoration escapes that trap. There is no wrong brand of picture, nothing to compare against the one they already own, and nothing that has to fit anything.
Gifts for car enthusiasts that get kept
Two things, consistently. The first is anything about the car they own, which is why Your car as art is the strongest answer available whenever you can get a photograph. It cannot be duplicated, it cannot be the wrong marque, and they will not have made it themselves.
The second is a picture about the part of the hobby that is not the car. The Workshop is about the hours, which is what a project consists of. Pit Lane, 1955 is about the crew, not the result. These land with people who'd tell you they aren't interested in art.
The engineer variant
Engine, gearbox and suspension in fine line. At A2 or larger the linework has room to read.
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Some enthusiasts are not into cars so much as into mechanisms, and a beautiful photograph of a car does nothing for them. Rear-Engine Study is the answer there: a 1960s rear-engined coupe in cutaway, engine, gearbox and suspension in fine white line on deep blue, in the visual language of an engineering office, not a showroom. Buy it at A2 or larger, because the linework is the point and it needs the size. Your car as art can also do their own car in the same blueprint style.
The set play
If you want the gift to look considered, not bought, three prints in a row do that in a way one print cannot. The racing posters suit it: Apex at Dawn, Pit Lane, 1955 and The Hairpin, hung as a run along a hallway. Measure the wall before committing.
Practicalities
Because each piece is made to order, allow a fortnight before the date, not a couple of days: four to nine working days is the arrival window, and nine working days is nearly two calendar weeks once a weekend or two is in the way. Posters travel rolled; framed and canvas pieces arrive ready to hang. The size guide is worth two minutes if you are buying for a wall you have not measured, because undersizing is the mistake that cannot be undone afterwards.
If it is specifically December, car Christmas gifts deals with the timing as well as the choosing.
Written by Craig Fearn, Petrol & Ink. Last updated .
