Personally, I can't stand gloves while driving; they cut so much of the steering feel.

It's easy to understand why real racecar drivers like Rob wear protective gloves, as well as the rest of the gear. Sporting gloves, booties, a suit and balaclava on a track day, paying your few bucks to drive around with the other guys in street cars, well, I probably don't have to expand on the hilarity. This being said, wear anything you like if you're good. If you're not God behind the wheel, the suit, gloves and booties make for a fun moment of bonding with the other participants. Just sayin'.

 

gloves - rub vaseline on your hands then try going for a cruise. now try pulling over 1G through a corner while holding the wheel. Not easy, right? Now try doing that 10 times in 2 minutes. That's 1 lap. Do 20 more. With no gloves on a 90f day on the track (windows down, no AC), its about the same. FWIW, you need a much lighter grip with gloves, which lets you feel much more feedback from the wheel than the numbing death-grip you need without gloves.

'booties' - you say gloves hurt feel of the wheel? What about feel of the pedals? lighter thin-soled shoes do wonders for accuracy with heel-toe and feeling brake feedback when finding the threshold. its equally as important. your stacy adams take away magnitudes more feel compared to a good pair of real driving shoes than the gloves you can't stand.

balaclava - ever smell a hockey player's gear bag? would you like your helmet to smell like that? it will without one. it keeps it from getting rank as hell. Mostly a maintenance item, considering an average entry level helmet costs about $400 and a balaclava costs $15. See comment about no ac, 90*f days, etc...

about being a 'god behind the wheel'... what about the other 20-40 goons on track with you? what if they're not all gods? in the hands of a novice, todays 'street cars' are turning lap times faster than the pros driving race cars a couple decades ago. the only difference is when you get 20+ novices on track exceeding speeds of yesterday's legends, they probably don't have a fraction of the skill or talent of the legends. what you're saying is like suggesting people don't need to wear seat belts as long as they're good drivers.

not that any of this has anything to do with what the OP was talking about (street driving), but i hate seeing fools give idiotic advice on stuff this important. the best advice i can give to anyone getting into tracking their car: don't take advice from people who've never done it before

 

Shoes, to some degree, are a personal thing. Booties, aside from looking ridiculously pretentious, aren't comfortable for everyone. For example, I prefer to have a sole that's a bit stiffer like the one on the Chuck Taylors (I sport). This being said, I'm not sure I see your point. Colorful racing booties are the only way to feel the pedals? A balaclava is the only way to control perspiration? If not, then where is this going? Same goes for everything else. It's like your mention of hell-and-toe, above, that you (personally) cannot perform in your FIA-approved booties without additional pedal covers mounted on top of the factory pedals. I love the Internet, don't you?

 

I wear chuck's too. And I have a set of Piloti street shoes which are about the same. I wear both to drive to work or around town. They're decent as far as street shoes go, and they're comfortable as hell

I wear them TO the track, and even worn both on track before I got a set of real driving shoes. I still wear the street shoes between sessions just because they're comfortable and deal with the dirt and rain better. Driving shoes have a soft leather sole, so if its raining, they suck up water like a sponge and soak your feet =(

But when driving, the difference is night and day. After track weekends, I sort of have to re-learn how to adjust to the numbness street shoes add between your foot and the pedal. Even with the Piloti's, which are made for driving. I always over-rev when matching the first few shifts, and brake a bit harder than i mean to on my way home. its a bit hard to explain. You're waiting for feedback that you never get in time and have to re-tune you brain. It makes more sense if you experience it

fwiw, i didn't get a set because i thought it'd be cool or it would help my driving. i actually expected them to be a waste of money I got them because the karting league (gas tank is between your feet!) requires them and i didn't like relying on the loaners they have. But now, totally worth the $80 or whatever

 

There is no substitute in pedál feedback of the pedalbox....
The stock set up for me has a negligable difference in pedal feedback between two shoes. Unless you are driving some New orthopedic designed shoe vs race like shoes. The pedál feel is literally spongie with a stock ABS and brakebooster etc. So the race shoe do not help much, fact at that point i didn't felt any major difference because of that.
So i cant See the point there. You have too feel the Grip of the tires on the road instead to adjust the shoe feeling... Which is more steering wheel related then pedál related at this point.

Rob

 

I've got the smaller wing, and would prefer a do-luck trunk over that for my daily driver. But ya, I'd bet money there's people that think I'm a d-bag for having any wing at all.. and a few others that think the SSS/MR wing looks better aesthetically, regardless of function.

Anyway, was just looking out for the OP.. if he wants to don full nomex gear and a helmet while cruising down the highway, that's totally fine w/me. Was just saying that he might be someone else's point of ridicule for doing so.

 

Rob, you're exactly right. the pedal setup is super soft and it doesn't take much pressure to get the job done. And that's part of the problem With 1" of thick rubber between your foot and the pedal you're actuating, you don't get much feedback from the soft action. Take that 1" solid buffer out of the way and it's more manageable... at least in terms of threshold braking on asphalt where you're almost standing on the pedal, with your toe, and heel-toe'n. Trail-braking (especially on dirt), that's a totally different game! I'm also not sure if we're talking apples-to-apples - I've had an aftermarket brake kit for a couple years and hardly recall how it felt stock. I think its similar in terms of feedback, but the new setup (brakeman kit) is more linear with pressure build-up.

Out of curiosity, any details on your pedal box? I assume you had your shop do it custom? Did you invert the pedals and have to re-route all the linkages? I'm thinking of doing something similar to my lemons car soon, since it looks like I need to do a trans swap, add a clutch pedal (auto->5spd conversion), and re-route my throttle linkage (carbureted -> efi megasquirt conversion) anyway

 

I wear these when I'm out doing hits for da boss.



I wear these when I'm at the track.

 

 

 

i wear gloves for daily driving since ive already ruined one steering wheel, not doing it again. suede doesnt last long if you dont take care of it.

right now im on Oakley Factory Pilots and they feel great

 

track yes road no. so gay lol

 

driving gloves...reminds me of 80's movies

 

kinda dig them after watching Drive

 

No its all about being brotastic cool. God forbid you have a nice helmet and gloves for when its 100 in the car at a track day and your sweating alot.