The best gifts for that special gearhead, when money is no object

• Price: €499 per lap, plus airfare and hotel accommodation
  
• Available at: Hot Taxi Laps with Sabine Schmitz
  

Germany’s famed Nurburgring race track is the world’s most beautiful and intimidating race track, careening through deep forests and plunging hills for 45 km. There are 170 turns, and straightaways where speeds can reach more than 300 km/h. And you can experience its thrills and flat-out terrors with The Queen of the ’Ring, Sabine Schmitz, a professional racer known as “The World’s Fastest Taxi Driver.” Riding with Sabine in her race-prepped Porsche GT3, you will see what it takes to compete on the race track known as “Green Hell.”

by Peter Cheney

• Price: $75,000 (U.S.)
  
• Available at: slotmods.com
  

Long before racing video games, we had slot cars, those electric-powered miniature race machines that were guided by a groove in the track. How many hours were spent in the basement taking the corners too fast and watching helplessly as your little racer veered hard and out of its slot? Now you can relive your childhood – except on a grander scale – with this 1960s GM Tribute Track: it’s a 1969 Z28 Camaro with a 6-foot by 15-foot two-lane, 1:32-scale slot car recreation of Watkins Glen International raceway.

by Darren McGee

• Cost: $2,650-$13,285
  
• Available at: Astonmartin.com/events
  

Perhaps someone you know would like to try slipping and sliding a few hundred thousand dollars worth of Aston Martin sideways around an icy track? Nothing could possibly go wrong. Aston Martin on Ice takes place at its private track in February, in Crested Butte, deep in the Colorado Rockies. Chalets, dinners and expert tutelage from professional racers are all part of the package, depending on which one you choose. You might even learn something about winter driving.

by Matt Bubbers

Price: approximately $1.7-million

Available at: Pfaff Automotive

Who wouldn’t want a Pagani Huayra parked in the driveway? It’s one of the world’s top high-performance supercars. It’s gut-wrenchingly fast thanks to a 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 engine, which is custom-built by Mercedes-AMG – the only engine it sells to an outside supplier. This mid-engine, RWD two-passenger two-door coupe delivers a heart-stomping 730 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. It can hit 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds. Hand-built by Pagani Automobili, in Modena, Italy, it’s a visual masterpiece with its distinct, cutting-edge design.

by Petrina Gentile

• Price: $65,000
  
• Available at: By special request
  

For the real superhero wannabe, consider a hand-built 1989-era Batmobile. Built in Brampton, Ont., by hobbyist Glenn McCullagh, these replicas usually start off as an old Chevy Caprice and take more than 2,000 hours to construct. When finished, McCullagh’s road-worthy works are stuffed with 300-horsepower, air conditioning and heated seats (ripped from retired Lamborghinis). Not included in the purchase price: the pleather outfit you’ll need to really rock an impersonation of the caped crusader. If there’s anyone who knows where to get one, though, it’s McCullagh.

by Jessica Leeder

• Price: $199,800 (U.S.)
  
• Available at: Lamborghini.com
  

A gorgeous return to Lamborghini’s roots, it boasts a rear-wheel drive set-up. The Huracan 580-2 was designed to maximize weight reduction along with with recalibrated power management that, the press material says, results in a “highly-involving driver experience.” We’re not sure what that means but it sounds great. The Huracan can go from 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 320 km/h. And it’s the cheapest new Lambo you can buy. As if that matters ...

by Andrew Clark

• Price: Starting at $2,698
  
• Available at: liftsuperstore.com
  

The appeal of do-it-yourself wrench-work fades fast when it involves crawling around on a dirty garage floor to access the underside of the car. Regular jacks and axle stands just don’t cut it. Well, power lifts that can raise the whole car up to working height aren’t exclusive to the garage trade. Check out Oakville, Ont.-based liftsuperstore.com that sells hoists that are suitable for home garages. On those with high enough ceilings, four-post lifts can also be used to store an additional car, double-decker style.

by Jeremy Sinek

• Price: Starts at $10,700 (U.S.)
  
• Available at: ferrari.com
  

There’s no better place to wear your Tod’s for Ferrari Gommino Driving Shoes in Suede than at a factory-authorized Ferrari driving school. This experience is available at two great tracks, Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec and Circuit of the Americas in Texas, and features arguably the best instructor team in the world. There are countless driving courses, but there are key differences between Corso Pilota and all others, something that might help bring the high cost into sharp focus: The ratio of instructors to students is about 1-to-1 and the cars used comprise the most current models from the Ferrari fleet.

by Mark Hacking

Price: $30,000

Available at: rickbye@rogers.com

Porschephiles know long-hood 911s – pre-safety bumpers – sell for $75,000 and more. Buyer beware: elves could toil well into 2016 restoring this fixer-up, for $30,000 or more. Disclosure: the writer is a friend of Horst Kroll, 1986 Can-Am champion, who remembers this coupe as his favourite 911 with its Sportomatic (no clutch pedal) shifting. He hasn’t driven it in a decade. With his 80th coming up, Rick Bye and I are helping Kroll sell the car.

by Dan Proudfoot