Is it time to replace your race suit? Let’s get you track-ready. The OMP One Evo X set: why the top suit went back to two layers
If you read our Tecnica Evo guide, you will remember the surprise in it: the third layer on that suit is a cooling feature. So here is the follow-up question a customer asked me across the counter within a week of that page going up. If three layers is the clever bit, why does OMP’s top suit have two?
Because layers were never the point. The One Evo X is OMP’s flagship customer suit, it costs more than a First S and a Tecnica Evo put together, and it is a two layer suit. What the money buys is the cloth: a new generation fabric that passes exactly the same FIA 8856-2018 standard at a published 235 grams per square metre. For reference, the Tecnica Hybrid publishes 400.
That question, and the weight answer, are the whole story of this range. The rest of this page is the three pieces, and then the colour matching, which on this set works differently to every other range we stock. Sorting that out for people is my favourite part of the job. I am Cameron.
The set at a glance
- Suit
- One Evo X5 colourways, sizes 46 to 64, 235 g/m²
- Boots
- One Evo X boots5 solid colours, UK 3.5 to 13
- Gloves
- One Evo X gloves6 colours, XS to XL
- Approval
- FIA 8856-2018All three pieces, same as every set below it
- Set price
- From £1,816.80Every size and colour in stock as I write
Why the top suit has two layers
Four things explain this range, and the layer count is the least of them.
The standard does not move
A £320 First S and this suit carry the same FIA 8856-2018 homologation, and so do both sets of boots and gloves. Nothing at this end of the range is more approved than the entry kit. Once you accept that, the price differences start making sense, because they are all about weight and feel.
235 grams per square metre
That is the published fabric weight, and OMP prints it because it is the whole argument. The Tecnica Hybrid publishes 400. Most suits publish nothing. Over a full race distance the difference between a heavy suit and this one is the difference between noticing what you are wearing and forgetting it.
Two layers, by design
The new generation cloth needs fewer layers to pass the test, so the One Evo X uses two and spends the saving on softness and stretch. The Tecnica Evo’s third layer earns its place through the Dry System airflow. Different routes to the same finish line, and the X is the lighter one.
The accessories are solids
Five suit colourways, all two-tone. Five boot colours and six glove colours, all plain solids. So the system is simple: pick the suit, then buy the boots and gloves in its accent colour. The matrix further down does it for every colourway.
| First S | Tecnica Evo | One Evo X | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approval | FIA 8856-2018 | FIA 8856-2018 | FIA 8856-2018 |
| Layers | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Published fabric weight | Not published | Not published | 235 g/m² |
| Breathability | Breathable Nomex | Dry System 3D inserts | Dry System, high-breathability inserts |
| Arms | Floating, elastic bellows | Fully floating | Fully floating |
| Stretch | Incorporated panels | Advanced panels | Elastane through the key areas |
| Waist | Belt | Belt | Beltless |
| Quilting | Standard | Standard | Fishbone |
| Sizes | 44 to 64 | 44 to 64 | 46 to 64 |
Every line read off the three product descriptions on this site, not a brochure.
The suit
Pick the One Evo X up off the rail and it feels wrong, in the way very light things do. A race suit is supposed to have a bit of substance to it, and this one barely registers. That is the 235 grams doing its work, and it is the first thing everyone comments on.
On, it disappears. The arms are fully floating so the shoulders stay put with your hands at quarter to three, there is elastane through the back and the crotch, and the seams are flat and anti-rubbing. It is beltless, with fishbone quilting and a hidden outer pocket, and the Dry System breathability is built into the cloth itself.
Five colourways, sizes 46 to 64, and every size in every colour is in stock as I write this.
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The boots
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The boots are kangaroo leather, which OMP saves for the top of the range. It is softer and thinner than cowhide at the same strength, so the boot moulds to your foot quickly and you get more pedal through the sole.
The closure is a thin cord lace, fast to do up and secure once set, with rear bellows at the heel so the ankle flexes with you instead of against you. The toe and heel carry reinforcement panels, there are perforations for airflow, and the sole is OMP’s latest, thin and grippy.
Five solid colours, UK 3.5 to 13, so the range covers smaller drivers most race boots skip.
The gloves
The gloves carry OMP’s dimpled silicone print across the palm and fingers, which grips the wheel and takes the sting out of vibration through the column. The back is a honeycomb fabric that breathes, the palm and fingers are pre-curved to a hand already holding a wheel, and the seams sit on the outside where they cannot rub.
The wrist is a plain elasticated closure, quick on and off between sessions with no strap to fiddle with.
Six colours, XS to XL, five of them matching the boots, plus the Orange & Black.
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Which colours go together
This range does colour differently to every other set we have covered. The suit is five two-tone colourways, but every boot and every glove is a plain solid. So there are no exact pattern matches to hunt for, and no dead ends either. You pick the suit, then buy the accessories in its accent colour.
Here is each suit with the boot and glove we would put against it. The chips are sampled from our own product photography, not guessed at.
Every hex sampled from the variation photography on our own product pages. The colour names are the ones on the product pages, so what you read here is what you pick at checkout.
All five colourways, worn
Product photography is shot flat so you can see the panels. Here are all five colourways on a driver, each with the boots and gloves from the matrix above.
Black & Red
The accent runs cleanly from the shoulder yokes to your feet and hands. The most recognisable way to wear this suit, and the one we would put on the shelf-edge card.
Black & Yellow
The fluro yellow is a genuine hi-vis yellow-green, and the boots and gloves carry it as full solids. The loudest set in this range by a distance.
Blue
The suit is a deep navy with a cyan flash across the shoulders, and the navy glove carries the same cyan at the cuff. The boot is a straight navy. It reads as one considered set.
Black & Silver
Silver across the shoulders and black everywhere else. With the black boots and gloves it is the most understated way to spend this much on racewear.
Fit and sizing
The One Evo X runs true across all three pieces. The one thing worth knowing before you order is that the suit starts at 46, not 44 like the ranges below it.
| Piece | Sizes | How it runs | What to measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Evo X suit | 46 to 64 | True to the OMP chart, and cut closer than a First S. It is a race cut, not a paddock cut. | Chest, waist and height together, not chest alone. |
| One Evo X boots | UK 3.5 to 13 | True to your normal shoe, and the range goes far enough down for smaller drivers. | The length of your foot in a race sock. |
| One Evo X gloves | XS to XL | True, and snug when new. The pre-curve means they feel right on a wheel, not laid flat. | Around the palm, knuckles excluded. |
What else sits at this money
Three honest alternatives before you decide.
The Tecnica Evo is the suit this whole page has been comparing against: three layers, the Dry System airflow story, and a full set for around £600 less. Our Tecnica Evo set guide covers it the same way this page covers the X.
The One-S Air and One-Evo Air are the other way to spend flagship money with OMP: both build ventilation into the suit itself. They suit hot-climate and endurance drivers where airflow beats grams.
And if the answer is that this tier is not for you yet, there is no wrong answer further down the ladder. Every OMP set we stock carries the same standard, which is where this page came in.
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From £1,040.00 Excl. VATKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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What I would actually buy
The Blue. The navy with the cyan shoulder flash is the one colourway in the range that looks like it cost what it cost, the navy boots and gloves finish it without shouting, and the cyan cuff on the glove picks up the shoulder flash in a way you only notice up close. That is exactly the register a flagship suit should sit in.
If it is going on a shelf next to a red car, Black & Red is the safe call and the red solids make it easy. And if you already own good boots and gloves, buy the suit alone and wear the rest out first. The suit is where the 235 grams lives.
Final thoughts
The One Evo X is not a safety upgrade over anything, and OMP does not pretend it is. It is the same standard as a First S, executed in the best cloth they know how to make, and the published 235 grams is them showing their working.
Whether that is worth flagship money depends entirely on how much time you spend in the car. Twenty minute sprints, probably not, and the ranges below this one are genuinely good. Long stints, hot days, a car you race most weekends, and the suit you stop noticing is worth every penny of the difference.
Everything on this page is in stock in every size and colour today, which at this end of the range does not last. If a colourway matters to you, do not sit on it.
