Race Suits: A comprehensive guide to help you choose your perfect race suit
A Race Suit Buying Guide
There’s not one piece of kit that a true motorsport enthusiast buys without giving the product due consideration.
Therefore, whether it’s a new helmet, a race suit, or even a pair of gloves, you will want the best-quality item you can find within your budget constraints. We stock world-renowned brands such as P1 and Alpinestars, to name a few.
As you can see at Nicky Grist Motorsports, we are not just about selling motorsport products to the masses. We want to sell some of the very best motorsport items and ensure you are reliably informed as to which products will exactly match what you are looking for.
This is what gives our drivers and co-drivers the confidence to push themselves and the car to the limit within their chosen motorsport discipline.
This is why we have put together this comprehensive article to help you select the perfect race suit. Whether you plan to compete in karting or participate in the hyper-competitive world of GT racing, we have you covered, arming you with all the information you need to select the right kit.
Off-the-shelf or tailor-made race suit- which is best?
One of the first considerations we would ask you to make is whether you would prefer an off-the-shelf or tailor-made race suit. There is often a significant price difference between the two; however, a true professional racer will want a race suit that, well, fits like a glove.
A tailor-made race suit improves comfort levels because, when expertly crafted by a company such as P1 Racewear or Alpinestars, it should be comfortable and provide minimal resistance to your movement.
For example, an off-the-shelf race suit could (if incorrectly bought) restrict arm movement if it’s not fitted correctly, which would then impede performance. Getting a bigger suit one area, will then increase the size in another. Generally, off the stock size suits fit well but sometimes you may have to compromise
Take, for example, a demanding rally stage, the driver will often be fiercely turning the wheel in ferocious, often violent turns of the racing steering wheel to stay in full control of a WRC car as it ploughs through a stage. Most drivers do not want excess material, in can impede driving ability, but even worse a race suit so tight it restricts your movements. Motorsport is dangerous enough, so don’t make things even more so with a badly fitted suit.
A tailored suit, also known as “made to measure” takes into account everything from your exact height to the nearest millimetre to the size of your waistline, bicep width, length of your body and so on.
Therefore, by investing in say a P1 custom designed racesuit, you will be investing in racesuit that fits the contours of your body. The suit will be sculpted around you, meaning whether you’re a rally pro, or perhaps on course to being one of next greats in formula racing, you have a suit that fits like a glove.
A custom suit allows you to have a colour scheme and design also, add to that giving branding space to your sponsors it allows you to make something totally bespoke that will stand out in the paddock or service are.
Safety standards
Before purchasing a race suit, you need to consider which safety requirements the race suit will need to satisfy. For example, if you are competing in specific karting competitions, you may require the race suit to be “CIK-FIA Level 2”.
For certain other motorsport events, for example, in specific GT3 competitions, the governing body that is organising that particular event may state the race suit needs to be to the latest FIA 8856-2018 or above.
Therefore, whether you are competing in rallying, F1, GT racing, or karting, our team will have all the motorsport equipment you will ever need. Thus, if you are unsure which race suit to buy, perhaps the item is being purchased as a gift, do not worry, as we have one of the most knowledgeable and friendly teams on the phone who will guide you through the whole buying journey from start to finish.
Fire resistance
As you will most likely know, when purchasing a racing suit, you should carefully consider how flame-resistant it is and which materials have been used to manufacture that racing suit.
Therefore, sure, it's perfectly possible to buy a racing suit for under £100 online from some budget retailers; however, is the suit flame-resistant? Is it homologated to the right standards, Does it have low-quality zips and fastenings? The suit is therefore not a good buy; but the reality is these are potential death traps.
The modern-day homologations require the suit to offer up to 15 seconds of fire protection, these suits to the, and now have a ten-year life span. All expiry dates are sewn into the back of the collar.
This is why the suit should be made from flame-resistant materials; perhaps the most widely used in racing-suit manufacturing is “Nomex”. This way, you won't have to worry, for example, that a brush of your race suit's cuffs on the car's hot turbo or manifold after some unexpected maintenance won't result in the race suit bursting into flames!
Do consider a multi-layer suit
Consider the tremendous forces exerted on a suit, imagine if a driver was thrown from a kart in the worst-case scenario. Kart suits are made of tear resistant materials to cover these kinds of incidents. In racing or rallying the motorsport harnesses and bucket seats have come on leaps and bounds over the decades in terms of their design and safety; however, the race suit is there to protect you and is your only defence against fire.
Multilayer race suit, of which the greater majority are nowadays are advised; the different layers, there are up to four in total in suits at the higher end of the market, four thin layers offers protection but allows breathability and a lighter weight product overall.
Therefore, if you were in the worst-case scenario of being thrown from the race kart, you need a multi-layered karting suit with the correct materials to protect you against abrasions.
Being able to wash the suit
It is important on a practice session or on during an important race day that you feel cool and collected. You will want your racegear to feel as fresh as you, therefore the racesuit will need to be washed from time to time.
Therefore, choose materials that can be hand washed, that are designed for washing and keeping fresh.
You shouldn’t tumble dry any race suit, make sure you contact us who help provide you with care instructions for the race suit. This way you will get the maximum value from your racesuit. Keep the washing instructions supplied with your suit to make sure you or your partner follows the correct washing procedures.
Driver and co-driver comfort
Whether you are purchasing an off-the-shelf race suit or opting for a custom-made suit, you need to consider driver comfort in terms of overall suit ventilation.
The race suit needs to consider ventilation carefully; it should include areas where special, breathable fabrics are used, and airflow is allowed.
Imagine a race you have been practising for and working towards for some time; your heart is likely to be racing as hard as the car's engine. You're likely to have sweating hands and armpits; therefore, the race suit needs to have airflow and be designed to make you as comfortable as possible.
Sponsor Branding
Primary considerations when purchasing a racing suit should centre around the driver's comfort and safety. However, a sponsor requires his advertising in pace of his sponsorship. Consideration towards sponsor branding is vitally important; it's also essential to advertise to the world you have arrived at that race event that you are participating in. P1 offer various options of suit branding to match your budget and is normally completed with a 5 week period. To stand out in the crowd consider investing in a race suit with strong, distinctive branding.
P1 Racewear
P1 is an Italian company who are a manufacturer of motorsport safety equipment with a strong company heritage built over the decades since its inception. The company owner created the highly successful company Sparco, and since selling this company allowed owner Enrico Glorioso to go on with his golden-touch to turn P1 Racewear into the company it is today.
We here at Nicky Grist Motorsports partner with P1 Racewear to offer both off-the-shelf designs and a tailor-made race suit service. We therefore cater for all budgets.
When you call us, we will walk you through the entire process of designing and custom-making a race suit with P1. It's important to remember that this Italian company has extensive experience designing and manufacturing racing suits and Enrico Glorioso only places his name to quality race suits. Therefore, you won't just be obtaining a race suit that’s made to measure; you will also be obtaining a suit that incorporates the latest innovations in materials and safety features, ensuring your overall safety is a top priority.
P1 have dedicated their product range to cater for drivers of all shapes and sizes. A lot of brands are made for a certain shape and size, but P1 offer a range of specific ladies’ suits giving a suit that fits the female form. Then there are suits that makes the gentleman racer feel far more comfortable in car and in the paddock. This suit with additional stetch panels allows the extra lumps and bumps to be far more comfortable. Add to this junior suits to the latest standards, as well as budget options right to top end professional model, P1 has the best selection.
Alpinestars
Alpinestars is another company that needs no introduction. If you want to enter most motorsport events, it's pretty much guaranteed that many participants will rely on Alpinestars race suits, gloves, and underwear to improve their overall safety.
This company has a powerful reputation for bright and distinctive designs, using cutting-edge features, yet offering them at highly competitive prices.
What other motorsport safety equipment do you stock?
When it comes to purchasing motorsport safety equipment, it's essential to know that we are known as a one-stop shop for your safety equipment needs here in the U.K and Ireland.
Therefore, whether you need a racing helmet or you want to be kitted out from head to toe, we have you covered.
Here are some of the safety equipment you may also want to purchase from us:
Racing gloves and boots
A professional driver must be able to feel how the car is performing and have complete control over its handling and performance. For this to happen, the sense of touch is essential, whether it's to feather the throttle or feel the hydraulic steering rack turn with each turn of the steering wheel along the road that lies ahead.
Gloves and racing shoes are therefore not just there to satisfy a safety standard, even though that is vitally important.
Instead, they are like a paintbrush to a true artist: they allow you to feel the road, its surface, and how you are controlling the car.
We partner with many leading companies such as P1 and Alpinestars which supply some of our best-selling race gloves and shoes. These, therefore, are high-performance clothing items that would complement a well-tailored race suit. All these items covering the latest FIA homologations as required for top end motorsport
Racing balaclavas
When many drivers and co-drivers come to us for a custom-made race suit, it goes without saying they also want a good selection of balaclavas to accompany their purchase.
A balaclava is one of the final layers of defence if a fire were to break out in a car. In this situation, every second that the protective clothing buys you to unbuckle and make your exit is a matter of life or death.
Therefore, you can't compromise on any aspect of the clothing, including the balaclava. At the same time, you need to be comfortable in the racing balaclava, able to breathe and feel relaxed.
You don’t want to feel itchy, sweaty, or distracted by an ill-fitting balaclava. A “hood” or a “Nomex balaclava” is often, therefore, what is needed. For such items, we stock some of the finest-quality racing balaclavas, designed and made by P1. These items are a legal requirement for all crew for national and international motorsport events.
What should we pay for a new race suit?
To answer this question, you need to consider so many different elements. For example, some retailers may state that it depends on frequency of use; however, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro, an unexpected accident is just that: unexpected.
Therefore, regardless of how well you drive or how often you drive, the name of the game is quality. This is why drivers and co-drivers from the four corners of the U.K. come to us.
We take our time to consider who we partner with; we therefore partner with proven brands that are known for producing quality items that uphold their company values and heritage.
Whether it's Stilo, Alpinestars, or P1, you will be investing in quality motorsport safety equipment, and you cannot put a price on that, but we do have products at a price that suits you.
