Now that I've bought a race car, I need all the driver gear (aside from a helmet).
What brands of driver gear do you recommend? I'm looking for good quality, but budget friendly. I realize the cheapest stuff may not be the best, but I also don't want to spend more on driver gear than I did on the car.
The best recommendation I can make is to go to a brick and mortar race shop with a lot of inventory and try everything on. Discovery Parts, Winding Road, OG Racing, etc. If you live somewhere hot, it's doubly important- being in a thick racing suit that doesn't breathe when it's 120 degrees in the car is miserable and dangerous. When I got started racing in Lemons I bought a bunch of cheap Amazon stuff. It can pass tech and get you by, but it's really hard to focus on racing when you're hot and uncomfortable in your car. In less than three years I replaced every single piece of gear with nicer stuff that I got at a race shop. Yes, it's expensive- with all the stuff (socks, underwear, HANS, coolsuit, etc.) I'm probably into it for a few thousand. But I could have saved myself $1k or more by just getting the right stuff in the first place. Good gear lasts-buy once, cry once.
I found Sparco's entry-level gear to be a pretty good balance of price and quality.
What kind of racing? Are you getting a head and neck restraint?
In reply to obsolete :
I'll be doing regional racing, and I believe head and neck restraint is required by the rules. Even if it isn't required, I'm getting one.
BMWGeoff said:In reply to obsolete :
I'll be doing regional racing, and I believe head and neck restraint is required by the rules. Even if it isn't required, I'm getting one.
Wise choice on the head and neck restraint. If you watch the GRM videos, you'll see that JG wears his every time he's on the track, and that includes all of the street car tests.
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:BMWGeoff said:In reply to obsolete :
I'll be doing regional racing, and I believe head and neck restraint is required by the rules. Even if it isn't required, I'm getting one.
Wise choice on the head and neck restraint. If you watch the GRM videos, you'll see that JG wears his every time he's on the track, and that includes all of the street car tests.
If you're going to wear a head and neck restraint in a street car with factory seatbelts, you need to get one of the ones with the vest-style jacket. The conventional collar style only work with 5 or 6 point race harnesses. I have an original HANS Sport, but there are lots of different options now.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I will definitely have to watch all of these today... safety on track is more important than working, right?
As David Wallens pointed out, we have written a whole bunch about this topic. Some of our biggest suporters in the safety field are HMS Motorsports, Sube Sport, I/O Port, Simpson and a few others. Please support those who support our publications, videos, and websites.
You can get really nice (used) suits at a massive discount from www.raceimage.com.
One caveat there is most of the one-piece suits are coming from pro drivers that are shaped like pro drivers (skinny). If you're more American sized you'll probably be stuck with only a two-piece offering from them.
In reply to Tim Suddard :
I'm in Canada, so while I will gladly support the manufacturers' you recommend, I will in all likelyhood purchase from a more local retailer to avoid the hassle of cross border shipping, customs, duty charges, and the inevitable "brokerage" fees charged by the various shipping companies.
In reply to ross2004 :
I'll take a look... I'm not exactly thin, but I have seen a few pro drivers that are a similar build to me.
You'll need to log in to post.
