The Tip Sheet: Meet the world’s coolest trike and your Mercedes on steroids; experience a Talladega night.

PRIX VIEW: If multiple viewings of Talladega Nights have imbued you with the desire to scrape a car into a wall at 225 mph, then you’re in need of the Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving. The venerable Phoenix School offers a four-day Grand Prix Road Racing Class ($4,525 for four days; bondurant.com) that delivers all the basics: from heel-and-toe downshifting to cornering lines to how to leap feet-first into a rival driver’s windshield and pummel him senseless with your helmet. It also features a full-day in a Bondurant-designed Formula car on one of three Firebird International Raceways.

WORLD’S COOLEST TRICYCLE: Looking for the kind of vehicle that can turn heads — no, make that snap necks — everywhere you go? Look no further than the Carver One ($37,582; carver-worldwide.com). A three-wheel motorcycle/car from the minds of (some clearly zonked) Dutch aeronautical engineers, the Carver One reaches a top speed of 115 mph and leans into turns at angles up to 45 degrees. It blends the agility of motorcycle with a car’s steering wheel and with luxury-car options like suede seats, an MP3 player and a GPS navigatpr fpr the two-seat “cockpit.” Only 500 will be produced per year — in case you’re worried about it becoming, you know, commonplace.

THIS IS YOUR MERCEDES ON STEROIDS: The folks at German tuning company Brabus have a fun job. They spend all day tricking out Mercedeses into freakishly fast rides. Now they’ve taken the already feisty Mercedes SL600 and turned it into an even sexier 730-horsepower supercar. It’s called the Brabus SV12 S Biturbo Roadster ($221,807; brabus.de) and it goes zero to 60 in four seconds at an electronically limited top speed of 217 mph. Any faster, they say, and the potential 973 pound-feet of torqur might tear it apart. Which would be bad, yes. But really, really cool.

Flush with cash from another obscene bonus? With the hours ticking down on 2006, now is the right time to arm yourself with one of the year’s most popular timepieces.

GRAHAM SWORDFISH; 
LIMITED EDITION BREITLING NAVITIMER (from left)

CASH: £3,750 (Graham); £6,627 (Breitling)

CACHET: When counting down to 2007, there are no finer tools than two of 2006’s top chronographs. The stainless-steel case on Graham’s automatic Swordfish can withstand even the wildest New Year’s Eve party. Plus, its large 46mm black dial makes for easy reading when the clock strikes midnight, even if your vision’s a bit blurry by then.

The Navitimer, first released in 1952, is the oldest chronograph still in production, and this limited-edition automatic version comes in an 18-carat rose-gold case. Only 500 exist worldwide, though, so you might not want to leave yours casually strewn about — unless your New Year’s resolution involves donating a rare watch to a lucky stranger.
 

MAURICE LACROIX LE CHRONOGRAPH;
FRANCK MULLER CONQUISTADOR CORTEZ 

CASH: £12,500 (Maurice Lacroix); £10,510 (Franck Muller)

CACHET: It may seem like there’s no way to stand out amid the sea of penguin suits this festive season. But there’s no need to don a Father Christmas costume when you’ve got the right set of complications on your wrist. Leave it to Franck Muller, the “Master of Complications” himself, to design the Conquistador Cortez, a two-counter steel automatic with a sunburst dial, clear lacquer finish and luminous Arabic numerals. Because when you’re known for personally designing every bell and whistle, and you name your watch after a sixteenth-century treasure hunter, more is definitely more.

Likewise, Maurice Lacroix’s Le Chronographe, in pink gold, is 36.6mm of elegant innovation. It features a hand-decorated chronograph movement — the first of Maurice Lacroix’s own manufacture — as well as a patent-pending lever mechanism for stopping and zeroing.

HUBLOT BIG BANG BLACKMAGIC; 
CHOPARD L.U.C. TECH REGULATEUR

CASH: £4,370 (Hublot); £16,580 (Chopard)

CACHET: Some traditions — like popping a cork at the stroke of midnight — are inviolate. Others are meant to be tinkered with. When Hublot first put a black rubber band on a gold face watch in 1980, they made timepiece history. Since then, they’ve stuck with their tradition of, well, bucking tradition. Take the Black Magic, an automatic chronograph with a 44.5mm black ceramic face and bezel and Hublot’s signature black rubber strap.

But if you’re more of an “out with the old, in with the even older” kind of guy, the Tech Regulateur has been designed to mimic the precision of the classic master clocks. It features separate axes for hours, minutes and seconds but has been brought into modernity with a 39.5mm polished-steel case and an elegant black crocodile strap.