Although most of us do not drive for a living, truckers who log hours and hours of driving a week report that blisters may form if gloves are not worn to prevent the abrasion of gripping the wheel. Who wants to drive a beautiful car with a steering wheel that's falling apart? Depending on the type of car you drive, it may be worthwhile to wear driving gloves to keep your steering wheel in good shape. Maintaining your car's steering wheel will help it maintain both its aesthetic and resale value.
A nice wheel adds value to a luxury sedan or SUV, so it makes sense to want to preserve the steering wheel as much as possible. Driving gloves are not just a fashion statement among luxury vehicle owners and classic car collectors. Vintage cars already have years and years of cumulated wear, depreciating even faster if you drive with your bare hands.
Quality driving gloves act as a barrier between the sweat and oils produced by your hands and the wheel. In the cold, a pair of driving gloves will help keep your hands warm. Many people wear winter gloves to keep their hands warm behind the wheel, but these can be bulky and limit your gripping ability. Men and women's driving gloves offer both warmth and superior grip for drivers. Driving gloves are especially useful when you take driving posture and the natural human anatomy into consideration:.
Properly designed driving gloves can help compensate for the lack of blood flow. In extreme heat, driving gloves prevent your hands from transferring moisture to the steering wheel.
As mentioned earlier, this moisture will not only affect your grip on the wheel, but can also cause blisters over time. A good pair of driving gloves will help your hands stay at a comfortable temperature. In the last few years, driving gloves have become even more popular.
For a lot of people, choosing to wear driving gloves is probably more often about fashion than anything else. So when did this niche-type glove become so popular?
Early Formula 1 steering wheels were usually wood or hard plastic. Gloves improved grip on the wheel, while their thin leather construction and careful seaming provided maximum feel. To keep the driver's hands cool, the leather was often perforated and featured ventilation holes. By the mids, the American sports-car explosion was in full swing on both coasts, bringing in marques previously unseen in the United States, such as Alfa Romeo, MG, Porsche, and Triumph, and creating a cottage industry to provide accessories for the sports-car lifestyle.
Haan of Beverly Hills advertised their wares in the back pages of the budding car-enthusiast magazines of the day and implored readers to send 50 cents for the latest catalog—which contained, among other things, driving gloves.
MG Mitten sold Champion driving gloves "handcrafted from Abyssinian kid and sewn with Terylene thread," along with pairs of driving gloves named for Formula 1 drivers Brabham and John Surtees and official Ferrari team gloves for the Ferraristi.
Haan offered "Italian Sala Sport gloves with an exclusive nonslip grip. Iconic s Formula 1 champion Jim Clark was so often photographed wearing driving gloves, one had to wonder if they were glued on. It comes as no surprise that he ended up with his own namesake gloves in the Haan catalog. And in a stunning missed cinematic opportunity, Steve McQueen wrangles a famous green Mustang fastback barehanded in the legendary Bullitt chase scene, while both villains in the black Charger were wearing driving gloves.
And that leads us to today, where the era of grippy leather- or suede-covered steering wheels mostly makes driving gloves both a throwback and a luxury—though owners of vintage sports cars of the s and s might still consider them de rigueur. But even if you drive a new Miata or a Mustang, just slide your mitts into a pair of thin, buttery, aromatic, leather driving gloves and try to tell us your hands aren't feeling pampered and happy. Some people have extremely dry skin hands included.
Any gloves will help them with there grip on the wheel. Try driving a older vehicle with no power steering and a original steering wheel they can be a little slippery. I have two cars that have manual steering and the gloves give a better grip on the steering wheel. They also protect the steering wheel from the oil and salt that is on your grimy skin……….
Back when most wheels were made of wood, even a slight bit of perspiration could cause the wheel to become a bit slippery. Driving aggressively for prolonged periods, in a race for instance, in a car with no power steering or air conditioning , could result in blistering, so gloves were essential to maintain comfort and control — as they are today for race car drivers.
Nowadays in our effete power-steering leather-rimmed wheel cars, they are totally unncessary, but every time I pull my on as part of the ritual of getting ready to go out on the track, the introduction to the movie Grand Prix plays in my head, and gets me into a track frame of mind.
Edsall, I have always enjoyed reading your work, thanks. Now to add my humble and perhaps less than useful opinion. To protect the control surfaces in the car. Our hands, even if freshly washed transfer salts and other chemicals from perspiration and oils from our skin. Many believe gloves offer better control and grip. I know I do. They look cool. Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and other cool drivers use them setting the style. If you have to display hand signals, to do so with gloves adds that touch of umm……..
For British cars it allows the engine to warm up while you find and put on your gloves. My dad, my hero sports car driver wore them! Thank you, KO. I have a Porsche cabriolet. It raced along the east coast. Have you seen this car. Did the driver wear gloves?
Recall that those favoring these the most, back in Brit sports car days, drove convertibles. And in the UK in particular, that could mean top-down in all but rainy weather.
My days of cool fall — or spring- driving various Brit roadsters I used to sell were certainly enhanced by a pair of nice driving gloves…. I completely agree with John above. I wear them when driving my corvette to protect the leather steering wheel from hand sweat which eats up leather faster over time plus it is cool looking. Riding gloves also are neat gifts to auto enthusiasts. When things get wild wooly and hairy, the added traction is helpful.
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