Racerrob

Looks similar to the 986 system shirt. I know it is not technically legal as it is not cotton or nomex but if you were to sneak it, is it really worth $100 more than the regular?

Clark-ApexPerformance

Rob,
Have not personally used as yet. Of the ones we have sold...no complaints so I assume they are as advertised (make sure your ESS fire system is charged).
I am sure you are going to the PVGP this weekend.
Please tell all our hometown Pittsburgh friends HI.
Understand you have 300 plus cars......CONGRATULATIONS
to Allegheny Region.

Racerrob

I am very leery of the material. I remember asking the 986 guy at PRI a few years ago how they could sell it when none of the sanctioning bodies would allow the material--I got a blank stare.

PVGP should be epic. Cant wait to see what Porsche has sent from the museum.

mobonic

if you are in a fire a shirt that is not cotton or nomex will melt to your body, and they will have to peel it off your body and most likely skin will come with it.

I saw some pretty crazy pictures from a person that had a full nomex suit and shoes but wore cotton socks with the elastic being polyester.. when his car caught on fire and it hit his feet, the non nomex materials melted burned and glued to his skin.. they had to peel it off at the hospital and the skin came with it....

When i buy safety equipment I always buy the best i can afford.... my thinking is:

What will be more expensive.... a $200 nomex shirt or a $2,000+ hospital bill....

winders

If you are wearing a 3-piece SFI rated suit, and the material of your Cool Shirt comes into play, wouldn't you have much bigger issues?

Scott

924RACR

If you're going to wear something under your nomex... well, at very least, I'd want to make sure it's something that's not going to make things worse, like plastic. Everything I wear down to the base layer is nomex or carbon-x.

Likewise, my wife got purpose-built women's carbon-x undies - don't need to have some stupid elastic sports bra melting in there if things go wrong.

Bigger issues? Yeah, sure - but do you really want to make things worse? At least choose a material that's not going to make things worse, if you don't want to lay down the cash for the expensive stuff that'll make things better...

mglobe

I agree with preferring cotton or nomex/carbonx in a cool shirt, and that (along with cost) is what has kept me from buying a 986 shirt, but isn't the plastic tubing in all of these shirts going to be an issue in a fire anyway?

Ritter v4.0

Maybe instead of water the Coolshirt and tubes could be filled a fire retardant liquid.
(remember, there's a fine line between genius and stoopid).

Plavan

If you are actually talking about the brand Under Armor, NEVER wear that while in a race car. It has been banned by the military because of the nasty melting/burns Under Armor causes when exposed to flames or high heat. It melts!
Stick with Nomex or Carbonx stuff.

mglobe

I'm so far from that line I wouldn't know it if I saw it...

onelove

I have a good friend who works in the sportswear business, and while walking around PRI he couldn't believe seeing the Under Armor logo on a coolsuit, by his explanation there isn't a compression wear out there that is fire retardant yet, and if anything having the base layer in this would be worse off than wearing nothing at all because of the way it burns. He said some companies are working on compression fire resistant underwear, but to the best of his knowledge none were publicly available yet. I'll stick with CarbonX myself as well!

Potomac-Greg

Under Armor has a line of "charged cotton". If they were smart, they'd use it (assuming it's all cotton). The market for nomex is probably less than a rounding error for Under Armor.

todinlaw

You would be lucky if you could walk into a hospital healthy and walk out with a 2,000 bill. +1 for the good stuff, we ware this for a good reason, and one of them is i hope to god I never need it.