So this pace weekend I went racing at Buttonwillow. Sunday was 95F with 20% humidity and I'm getting tired of baking on grid so I am now thinking about getting a cool suit.
My main concern is how much attention do they need throughout the day. I don't want an extra worry of having to bring a bunch of extra ice etc.
So for those of you using them, how are they to deal with?
Endurance racing in the South, they're a necessity. But I always use them when doing TTs and shorter stint stuff, too. It's just so much more comfortable.
As far as ice use, "it depends." I find they last about two hours of driving time in warm weather before they need fresh ice, so if you're doing shorter races and can keep the cooler somewhere shady when it's not in the car you'll probably be fine with one set of ice all day.
FWIW They are great when they work. When they don't they are a PITA.
Thet require a good power source, draw a lot of battery power, and as noted SUCK when they don't work.
Supported their installation, maintenance and feeding as part of the engineering department responsibilities in my NASCAB Days,
Did I mention they are a SAUNA when they don't work
Same with helmet blowers
Good Luck
I use a Cool Shirt brand one. Yes, it's expensive for a bilge pump epoxied into place with an epoxied hole with dry-break fittings into a cooler.
That said, it works every time, it's been banging around in the back of my track car for 8 years now, still works great. It's my drink cooler for a normal track day. Toss frozen water bottles in, drink them as needed.
Well worth the cost to never worry about it.
For endurance racing, we bring a large cooler of frozen water bottles. They last a lot better than just dumping ice cubes in it.
If you've got the means, I'd recommend one of those fancy no-ice versions as that seems logistically a lot easier and one less thing to service during a pit stop, but I don't have that kinda scratch!
Cool Shirts are awesome, I love them.
There's two main choices, ice-based, or electrical cooling. The electrical cooling ones are super expensive (figure $2K+), take a lot of juice (like 30-50 amps or more) and even then the water they deliver is not as cold as an ice-based system. OTOH, you never have to change the ice in it, so that's one less thing to worry about at pit stops if you're doing a lot of endurance racing. The electrical boxes weigh more than the cooler+pump, but you don't have the weight of the ice to deal with so they come out a little lighter overall.
Ice-based systems are a lot less expensive, but you have to deal with the ice and the water. You can use block ice (lasts longer but doesn't cool as much) or cube ice (cools the most, but doesn't last as long). I typically use cube ice with the 19 quart Cool Shirt (TM) cooler. I can get something like 25-30 lbs of ice in there, and that was enough that it was still cooling after a 2 hour stint at the NASA Utah enduro earlier this summer (90F ambient). I have two coolers so for enduros we prep the second one before the pit stop and then it's quick to swap it while doing the driver change.
If you want to save a few bucks you can DIY the cooler.
I usually hit a grocery store on the way to the track in the morning (I typically stay at hotels rather than camping) and pick up however many bags I need. Most tracks also sell it on-site, although you risk them running out. Keep a spare cooler in the trailer so you can buy bags in the morning before everyone else does.
As far as the garments go there are multiple vendors who use incompatible quick-disconnect fittings, but in most cases the hoses are close enough to the same diameter that you can adapt them. You can get the shirts as either standard T-shirts or as SFI-rated racing underwear. They also sell "cool pants" (the opposite of hot pants!) which are SFI leggings with more of the tubes on them. I have those and they are an excellent addition.
There is a "cool-a-clava" that goes inside your helmet that I have never tried.
The other nice thing about a cool shirt is that you can throw a bottle of water in the cooler before the race and then pull it out to drink in impound. :)
I think they're super cool, pun intended. As has been said, if you want to save a few bucks you can make your own cooler. They're not that complicated. Get a good quality shirt. Buy several 1 gallon jugs of water at the grocery store and freeze them. Fill the cooler with just enough water to cover the pump. Cut the water jugs open and put the ice blocks in. That will last a few hours and keep you cool. Put something over the pump so the ice blocks don't crush it. We have even used a small child sand pail with holes in it. You can also set it to a cycle timer so that the pump is not running continuously. I set mine for 1 minute on for every 5 minutes off, and it's great.
If you want, you can build two identical cool boxes. Fill them both and then you have an easy swap when one runs out. I have not found it to be a sauna when the cold water goes away. I just shut the pump off and it's like the good old days.
If the pump picks anything up, it will stop the flow, so do everything you can to keep the inside of the cooler clean. One team I ran with told me about someone they had that would throw the bags of ice on the ground to break up the ice cubes, then place the whole bag in the cooler. Any small rocks or twigs stuck to the bag would plug up the pump. Most pumps have a screen now, but it wouldn't take much to cover the screen.
Also, when I'm running in an endurance race, I'll cycle the switch on and off five or six times during the course of two hours. Tends to save the ice a little longer. I just ran at Harris Hill in San Marcos, Tx. this past weekend. It was over 95 both days and I still had a tiny bit of ice left at the end of my stints.
Saturday had 40 cars start, and there were a lot of yellows/purple 35's. Sunday, only 25 cars started, and 15 took the checker, so I only had about 15 minutes of slow down time, and the Cool Shirt was a big help. I drove the third stint both days, so by the time I got out, it was the hottest part of the day. They work. You'll be amazed at how you ever drove without one before.
Tee shirt style shirt over a fire resistant undershirt work well enough, or preferable to just get new rated undershirt with tubing?
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