Cool Shirt
 

Any of you track guys ever use a Cool Shirt?

http://www.coolshirt.net/

This is a shirt which circulates cold water through tubing woven into an undershirt worn under your racing suit to keep you cool on hot days.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...Boxster/CS.jpg

I cooked myself past dehydration and into early heat exhaustion on Sunday at the track in 92F heat and high humidity and am looking for something to help me avoid that situation again when I go to Laguna Seca for three days at the end of August.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Have heard recommendations
 

A couple of my friends have cool suits in their Spec 911's and say they are nothing short of awesome in the heat.

I suppose it's worth analyzing whether the weight cost of the cool suit plumbing and ice chest full of ice water is better or worse than the horsepower penalty from an AC compressor (and its weight). My guess is the water chest weight cost is less. However, AC has the advantage of being usable if you drive your race car to the track in hot weather.

I know one guy who uses a much cheaper bit of kit (though it looks well-made) that amounts to a vest with lots of slots/pockets for custom fit popsicle-sized freeze packs. Not sure how quickly they can be re-frozen or if it comes with a day's supply of packs.

I like the FAST brand a little better.

Have one in the race car and love it, wish I had done it years ago.

BTW, A/C does nothing in an race car with open windows (required) and a fire suit/helmet on.

Yeah, I would run the A/C while lined up and waiting to get onto the track but it was worthless once I was on the track with the windows open.

Has anyone heard anything about the ice chest vs cooling can types?

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...ing-club24.png http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...all2_img_8.png

I don't use one but a lot of my TT buddies do and swear by em. Another option is the cool-vest that you soak in an ice chest between sessions. This makes more sense to me for DE/TT days. I also sit out during July-Aug because high heat is hard on both people and cars.

FWIW, Grand Am champion Scott Pruett has been racing for 20 years and does not use a cool suit. He believes in physical fitness, hydration and ventilation to cope with on track heat even during endurance races. His co-driver Memo Rojas doesn't fare as well in the heat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Pruett

i never use this type of cool shirt .

I know its Winter but I wanted to follow up on this thread and post my experience for someone doing a search next spring ...

First, I bought the Cool Shirt that uses the spray can for coolent. I wore the shirt under my racing suit and routed the tubes out my left pocket and then mounted the spray can to the left side of my racing seat. To get cool, I would just reach down for a moment and push the top of the can.

This worked ok but not great. The plus was its simplicity. The negative was that the spray can only provided cooling for about 15mins (at the level that I desired). In the end, I needed more cooling capacity to make it through a full 30min track session on a 100F day.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...all2_img_8.png


My next step was to buy the soft pack bag which acts as the ice chest and contains a small pump that circulates ice water through the shirt. The soft pack was easy to mount on the floor in front of the passenger seat using an adjustable strap attached to the harness sub mount in the floor under the seat. I routed the hose up the passenget side of the center console and back down the inside of the drivers side of the console, then behind the drivers seat and up along the left hand side of the seat where it clips into the shirt connection. The pump runs on 12vdc so I bought a cheap cig lighter plug from Radio Shack for power.

This solution worked PERFECT! There is nothing like cold ice water flowing through the shirt on a hot day. The ice lasted about 2 hours and was easily replaceable between driving sessions in about 5 mins. Even on the hottest days, I'd get out of the car cool, calm, and barely breaking a sweat. This made for a much more enjoyable and safe day at the track in the heat.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...Misc/CSbag.jpg