Is it time to replace your race suit? Let’s get you track-ready. Kit Bags: What They Are Actually For, And Why One Of Them Has Vents
Three new bags have landed with us this year. A Sparco recycled suit bag, a Sparco foldable helmet box, and the Stilo Race Gear Bag. They cost £9, £46.50 and £71.50, which looks like a straightforward good, better, best line-up.
It is not. They do three different jobs and two of them belong in the same car at the same time.
A fair amount of kit comes back through our door. Some of it comes back because it failed. Rather more of it comes back because of how it was stored, and that is the bit worth talking about first.
The thing that actually ruins racewear is putting it away damp
Think about what happens on a normal event day. You are in a suit, boots, gloves, balaclava and underwear for several hours, in a hot car, in summer. All of it comes off soaked. You are tired, you want to get home, so it goes in a bag and the bag goes in the boot.
Then it sits there. Zipped shut, in the dark, still wet, until the following weekend or the weekend after that.
That is how kit dies. Not the fire it never saw. The gradual business of never properly drying out. Helmet liners are the worst for it because the foam holds moisture and you cannot see inside. A liner that has been through that cycle a dozen times will smell, and no amount of washing brings it all the way back.
So when you look at a £71.50 bag next to a £9 one and wonder what the difference is, the honest answer for the Stilo is: it has holes in it. That sounds like a joke. It is the single most useful feature on this page.
Stilo Race Gear Bag
This is the one that solves the problem above, and it is the bag I would buy if I were buying one bag.
It is sized to take a helmet, an FHR device and a full set of racewear in separate compartments, with a foam padded lining and an abrasion resistant outer. The compartments matter because an FHR device sharing a space with a helmet is how visors get scratched, and a scratched visor at dusk on a stage is not a small thing.
The ventilation panels are the reason it is on this page though. Air moves through the bag when it is shut, so a damp suit and a damp helmet liner are drying rather than fermenting. It does not replace hanging everything up at home, and I am not going to pretend it does, but it buys you the drive back and the couple of days you inevitably leave it in the car.
It has a grab handle and a padded adjustable shoulder strap, and a clear ID window on the outside. The ID window sounds like a throwaway feature until you have been in a paddock with forty identical black bags in a marquee.
From £71.50.
- Takes helmet, FHR and a full set of racewear
- Ventilation panels to help kit dry
- Foam padded lining, abrasion resistant outer
- Grab handle, padded shoulder strap, clear ID window
Sparco Foldable Helmet Box
A different problem entirely, and a clever answer to it.
This is a semi-rigid box that takes one or two helmets, with a soft lined interior and external velcro pouches for tools, paperwork and the bits that otherwise end up loose. It has tie-down loops so it can be strapped into the car rather than sliding about in the boot.
The number that makes it interesting is the folded dimension. Open it measures 36 x 27 x 56 cm. Folded it is 36 x 27 x 5 cm.
Read that again, because it is the whole product. It takes up 5 cm of depth when it is empty. In a service van, a trailer or the boot of a rally car, storage that disappears when you are not using it is worth real money. Every other helmet box I have handled takes up the same space empty as it does full, which is why most of them live in a garage rather than travelling.
The semi-rigid shell is honest about what it is. It will stop a helmet getting knocked about and scuffed by other kit. For a hard case you would be looking at a different product.
From £46.50.
- Takes one or two helmets
- Open 36 x 27 x 56 cm, folded 36 x 27 x 5 cm
- Reinforced outer shell, soft inner lining
- Tie-down loops, external velcro pouches, padded handle
Sparco Recycled Suit Bag
Nine pounds. It is one of the cheapest things on our website and I am not going to write four paragraphs pretending otherwise.
It is a full length zip bag for a race or kart suit, made from 100 per cent recycled 75D polyester, with a carry handle on the top so it can be hung as well as carried. It measures 44 x 35 x 10 cm, which is a folded suit.
What it does is stop a clean suit picking up dirt, oil and diesel out of a boot or a van floor between the wash and the next event. That is all it needs to do at this price and it does it.
The recycled fabric is not a gimmick either. 75D polyester is 75D polyester whether it came from a bottle or not, and if the same bag can be made from waste then there is no reason to make it from anything else.
Buy one, throw it in with an order, forget about it. From £9.
- 100 per cent recycled 75D polyester
- Full length zip, top carry handle
- 44 x 35 x 10 cm
- Fits a folded race or kart suit
The three compared
| Stilo Race Gear Bag | Sparco Foldable Helmet Box | Sparco Recycled Suit Bag | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holds | Helmet, FHR, full racewear set | One or two helmets | One folded suit |
| Ventilated | Yes | No | No |
| Padded | Foam lined | Soft lined, semi-rigid shell | No |
| Folds flat | No | Yes, to 5 cm | Yes |
| Secures in car | No | Tie-down loops | No |
| Carry | Handle and shoulder strap | Padded handle | Top handle |
| Dimensions | Not published | 36 x 27 x 56 cm open | 44 x 35 x 10 cm |
| From | £71.50 | £46.50 | £9 |
Stilo does not publish external dimensions for the Race Gear Bag, so that cell is empty. If you need to know whether it fits a specific space, message us and I will go and put a tape on the one in the showroom.
Common questions
Which bag holds a helmet and an FHR device together?
Why does ventilation matter in a kit bag?
How small does the Sparco helmet box fold?
Can the helmet box be secured in the car?
What is the recycled suit bag made from?
Do I need all three?
What I would actually buy
If you compete regularly and you are buying one bag, the Stilo. It carries everything in one trip, it keeps the FHR away from the visor, and the ventilation genuinely extends how long your kit lasts. Over three seasons it costs less than the helmet liner it saves.
If you are the person with two helmets in the car, a driver and a co-driver, or a spare, the Sparco box alongside it. The two are complementary rather than competing: the Stilo bag travels with you, the box lives in the car and gets strapped down.
The £9 suit bag is not really a decision. Add one to your next order.
What I would not do is buy a big padded bag and then still leave everything zipped up in a hot boot until Thursday. No bag fixes that. Take it out, hang it up, and let the bag do the other ninety per cent.
Final thoughts: the boring bit that saves you money
Racewear is expensive and most of it dies of neglect rather than use. A bag that lets air through, and the ten minutes it takes to hang things up when you get home, will do more for the life of your kit than anything else you buy this year.
Have a look through motorsport kit bags and helmet bags for the rest of what we carry, including the Stilo and Sparco ranges in full.
If you want to know whether a particular bag takes a particular helmet, send us a message. We have most of them here and it takes a minute to check rather than guess.
