Have A Wheely Good Christmas

Cars come packed full of features nowadays, but only you really know what you want. However, when it comes to buying gifts for your car-loving friends, things can get a little tricky guessing what they want. Our Christmas gift guide for drivers is here to help, with ideas for presents for nearly all the drivers in your life.

For The Stressed-Out Commuter

The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class boasts features like an air purifier and hot-stone massage seats, but not everyone can be a towkay. Osim’s uSnooz massage wrap cushion sounds bizarre but is in fact a great gift for tense drivers. Looking more like a plush snake, you can wrap it around your neck or shoulder to relieve tension with its six different massage programmes. It’s powered by batteries so you’ll have no worries about getting tangled up while you’re driving.

Osim uSnooz (S$68), www.osim.com.sg

For The Lazy Greenie

The most cost-effective way to improve your fuel efficiency is to practise eco-driving techniques, such as planning your route, emptying your boot and driving in a smooth and gentle manner. But if that’s too much information for a tree-hugger, just slap on a set of Bridgestone Ecopia tyres. With 20-per-cent less rolling resistance than a comparable conventional tyre, the Ecopias will improve your fuel efficiency by 3 per cent. It’s not a huge amount, but the driver doesn’t need to do anything to get it.

Bridgestone Ecopia tyres from S$150.

Visit a Bridgestone B-Select store or your nearest dealer or check out online tyre retailers Tyrepac or Tyrequeen.

www.bridgestone.com.sg

For The Restless Foodie

Wheels For Fun is a local company that specialises in driving holidays to Malaysia. Now in its 15th year, Wheels For Fun is one of the most experienced operators in this department, and it’s the Malaysian Tourism Board’s preferred event organiser for driving holidays. The main man behind the company, Chris Quek, said that tours can last from two to six days, and, that participants can expect a little adventure, new sights and sounds and, of course, the awesome food of Malaysia.

Wheels For Fun driveaways

From S$80 to S$100 a day.

www.wheelsforfun.com.sg

For The Track Nut

Driving in Singapore can be a pretty tiresome experience, but getting your car to a track day isn’t easy either. The simple solution is to join a club. Singapore’s Traction Circle Club is one of the best-organised driving clubs around; and despite its regular monthly driving events — mostly track days at Sepang International — it boasts a blemish-free safety record. Even better, the club accepts all driving enthusiasts, no matter what brand of car you drive. A membership and annual fee are required, while track sessions at Sepang start at S$250 for three hours.

The Traction Circle Club

S$30 joining fee, S$60 annual fee

www.tractioncircle.com

For The Tech Head

Advanced infotainment systems with large screens haven’t trickled down to all types of cars just yet, and even then, not all of them can play nice with anything that’s not an iPod. Pioneer’s solution is the AVH-X5650BT, which supports the latest Android phones (4.0 and above) in addition to Apple devices, so you can browse your media library or watch videos from the seven-inch touchscreen, as well as controlling music functions and phone calls.

Pioneer AVH-X5650BT, S$999

www.pioneer.com.sg

For The Horologist

Congrats if you can afford the car, but if you can’t, there’s always a Ferrari that you can wear on your wrist. Or around your neck. The Cronometro from Ferrari’s watch collection has a removable strap and a lanyard so that you can convert it to a handheld stopwatch, just like the kind Enzo Ferrari used to time his Formula One drivers before berating them for being too slow. The numbers replicate the typeface used on historic Ferrari F1 cars, and the watch comes with a leather pouch emblazoned with Scuderia Ferrari’s racing shield. Buy one and you can tick owning a Ferrari off your bucket list.

Scuderia Ferrari Orologi SF112 Cronometro, S$795. store.ferrari.com