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From YourSITE.com Miscellaneous Features The holidays are quickly approaching and black Friday is past. Tis the season for holiday shopping and Fourtitude to publish its annual Holiday Gift Guide for Audi enthusiasts – a list of cool Audi-centric items for the enthusiast who has everything or ideas for our readers to share with inquiring loved ones when asked for a wish list. The mix you see below represents a whole range of prices and focuses on must-have gear that isn't necessarily for your car because it's hard to wrap a set of OZs.
GameRacer + Xbox + Forza Motorsport 3 During the era of quarter-fed, sit-down arcade Pole Position or Outrun it would have been hard to imagine the level of driving games available for your living room today. The modern field of Gran Turismo, iRacing and Forza Motorsport make for plenty of choices for enthusiasts. If you’re anything like us then you probably consider buying a console solely for the driving games. We recommend going one step further by picking up a cockpit rig like the GameRacer Elite complete with Corbeau racing seat. You can get the Elite for $499 or package it with an Xbox wireless steering wheel for $599.
GameRacer offers a $649 package that includes the Forza game itself for one-stop shopping, but we recommend you hit up a store like your local GameStop where you can pick up a refurbished Xbox Pro with two controllers for $200 and the Forza Motorsport 3 Exclusive Limited Edition for about a $20 premium over the usual $50 price of the game. The latter will net you a slick 2G memory keychain and, more importantly, access to cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Ferrari F430 Scuderia and Lamborghini Superleggera that aren’t available to the non Ltd. Ed. plebes. Once you’re up and running, the Forza experience is incredible with excellent physics, car damage simulation and useful driving instruction such as driving line for those who need it. Buy and sell cars in online auctions with your winnings, design new liveries for your cars like our Martini-look Audi R8 LMP1 racecar or even perform virtual engine swaps such as dropping a Bentley twin turbo W12 or Audi R8 LMP1 biturbo V8 FSI into a roadgoing R8.
So there you have it, highly realistic racing in your living room against your friends via the internet, comfortably cuddled by a big-bolstered Corbeau for just over $900. Even better, you’ll be perfectly prepped with your GameRacer when Gran Turismo hits stores sometime next year.
There’s no doubt that extra memory storage is becoming increasingly useful in daily life. If you need a drive to carry around, we’ve found the perfect answer for car enthusiasts from Flash Rods in the form of the Audi R8. FlashRods offerings come in two varieties – a 4-gig memory stick deftly installed in an R8 matchbox car or a more capable portable storage unit slotted into a 1:18 scale R8. Prices start at $19.50 for the memory sticks and $209 and $229 respectively for 250 Gig or 500 Gig 1:18 units.
A word of warning here. When contacted by our editors, employees of Flash Rods mentioned that business has been so brisk that it would be a challenge to even fulfill current orders already received in time for the holidays. Order early and verify availability if on-time delivery is more important than the gift itself.
Rallye Monte Carlo Wall Sign from Griot’s Garage It’s well known that Audi’s venerable quattro system cut its teeth competing in world rally during a now iconic era. Though muddy factory quattros may be long parked in museums, the folks at Griot’s Garage offer a way to celebrate this history with a cool 24 gauge steel garage sign mimicking official rally signage affixed on every rally entrant. The sign measures 17 inches wide by 7 inches tall and would make for great wall art in any Audi aficionado’s office or garage. Even better, at $29.99, you won’t feel guilty requesting one from your in-laws.
TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre RS Chronograph Watch We’ll accept only the slightest degree of ribbing for our TAG Heuer obsession on the count that they’re actually a sponsor of Team Peugeot and not Audi Sport. Nevertheless we remain ardent fans of this Swiss watch company, synonymous with endurance racing ever since Steve McQueen first wore one of their Monacos in his movie Le Mans. Where the Monaco is TAG’s most-known square-faced design, the Carrera must certainly be their most popular round-bodied watch. We’re particularly big fans of the new Grand Carrera Calibre RS series. There’s no official Audi tie here, but we think you’ll also appreciate the red, black and silver color scheme of several in the series as well as the RS nomenclature - elements more than familiar in the halls of Audi Sport’s Neckarsulm home. We like the 17RS2 Chronograph and 36 RS2 Caliper Chronograph versions.
Zoltan Glass Auto Union Photographic Prints You can’t go wrong with black and white photography of high-quality engineering when outfitting your office or urban loft. If you agree then we suspect you’ll enjoy perusing the webstore of the Science & Society Picture Library and specifically the collection of Zoltan Glass. Glass, a Hungarian Jew, is best known in automotive circles for his work as a factory motorsport photographer for Mercedes-Benz during the pre-war years including most of the Silver Arrow era. Zoltan Glass was a racing enthusiast and his wide portfolio includes a number of Auto Union shots, several including Hans Stuck and photos of a younger Tazio Nuvolari during his Alfa Romeo days before the Italian’s stint with Auto Union.
We’ve dug up a mix of photos from Glass, highlighting shots of Auto Union automobiles, Stuck and Nuvolari. Surf the website and you’ll also find a wider selection of Glass’ Mercedes work and extensive Bugatti coverage. Photographic prints can be ordered to 8X10 inches or one can opt for a canvas presentation that ranges up to a more studio loft-worthy 125 cm. Prices range from $21 to $325 depending on preferred medium and framing services are also offered.
Land of Nod Speedster If your kid’s yearning for something a bit more vintage-looking than the ride-on Audi in the Audi Collection and that motorized kiddy Auto Union Silver Arrow shipped in from Ingolstadt doesn’t quite fit within your holiday budget then look no further than this Speedster push car from the Land of Nod. Okay, with painted vents at the front and not the rear the Speedster is perhaps a tad inconsistent in its imaginary engine placement, but it’s hard to deny the sloping rear Silver Arrow shape or the very Auto Union-like grille at the front. Cost is $89, so you won’t be wincing too badly when it gets into a sidewalk tussle with the neighbor kid’s Big Wheel.
Vintage ArteHouse V. Grosser Preis der Schweiz Poster Classic Racing posters from Vintage ArteHouse remain a favorite in our Holiday Gift Guides. Our pick this year is this 1938 Swiss example prominently displaying a speeding Auto Union Type C grand prix car. This and other classic racing posters are available on paper or on large canvas spreads that’ll swallow up the better part of a wall and range from $17.99 for an unframed 9”X12” print to $239.99 for a 44”x60” canvas. Vintage ArteHouse also offers a long list of framing and matting options.
‘The Original Stig’ T-shirt from RaceRallyRoad Top Gear’s Stig may be better known even if he is anonymous, but Audi’s Stig came first. RaceRallyRoad (a.k.a. R3) has added a T-shirt to its motorsport-inspired clothing range that heralds Audi Sport’s 80s era rally ace Stig Blomqvist as the original.
100 Years of Audi Cufflinks Audi’s 100th anniversary is nearing its end, but we’ve found a classy way to further celebrate it when dressed your best thanks to the North American Audi Collection in the form of this attractive pair of cufflinks. Of course, they’re made of silver and reasonably priced at $59.95
Audi quattro – The Rally History by Reinhard Klein Reinhard Klein is a well-known motorsport historian renowned for his thick multi-lingual rallying tombs rife with amazing photography. For 2009, Klein has published his latest offering dedicated to Audi’s own rally era. We picked one up during our most recent trip to the Audi Museum Mobile and marveled at Klein’s level of detail. As is usual for this author, the book is packed with an amazing mix of photos and extensive indexes that offer great detail of the time, including a listing of every Audi that ever competed in professional rallying during the era. Like many good racing books not about NASCAR, you’ll have a hard time finding Klein’s latest on Amazon or in your local Barnes & Noble. If the book is in your gifting plans, allow for extra time just in case you source it from points abroad such as the UK-based MotorMedia linked below.
Die-Cut Audi R8 Wall Art Vinyl decals as art are new to us, but we can certainly appreciate the subject matter. We’ve found this work over on the Etsy marketplace that’ll allow you to put a stylish Audi R8 design on everything from the wall of your man cave to your garage refrigerator or oversized toolbox so long as its 24” x 52” size will fit. Cost is $59.99.
Oakley Inmate Sunglasses Wrap-around Oakleys are standard fare amongst Audi Sport’s driver squad, so we were surprised to see Tom Kristensen change it up a bit when we ran into him at the 2009 12 Hours of Sebring. In the bright Florida sun, Mr. Le Mans sported Oakley’s modern interpretation of the Aviator style known as the Inmate. If you want something a little more classic that won’t clash with more formal attire than most Oakley offerings, follow TK’s lead.
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