FOR ANY WANNA-BE KARTER, getting a karting suit is the next step after getting a helmet. Some might go and purchase a rib-vest first but in my opinion a karting suit will serve the wearer a safety factor that is as important as a rib-vest. You see most injuries sustained during a karting incident involves the karter flying off his/her kart and diving on the tarmac. If you are only wearing a t-shirt and jeans, like most casual karters do, then be sure you have a medical kit nearby as your exposed body will surely abrade the tarmac in a gruesome manner.

In my pursuit of finding a good karting suit, ie suitable for karting, meeting FIA-CIK standards, and reasonably priced, I first went to Singapore’s main racing gear retailer called Miki Marketing. Although the staff is very helpful in giving me advice and sitting down to give her recommendations, I was put off by the fact that they didn’t have any stocks on hand. So instead, they had to order the suit & gloves in from Alpinestars in Europe. The additional freight cost would have to be borne by me.  The Alpinestars K-MX7 karting suit was very well made, looked good, and had the brand name to back it up. But it would have costed me close to $800!

So I went online to search cheaper alternatives and found K1 Race Gear. A further search revealed that this brand is known and worn by many karters among the sports so I proceeded to order it through their website. Payment can be made by any major credit card but I did mine through PayPal. Upon ordering a helpful customer service rep emailed me to verify the sizes and made recommendation to select a bigger size than what I specified in my original order. In hindsight his size recommendation was very important as I now know that it was more suitable for me. By the way, my size is 52 and I am 1.66 meters tall and weigh 65 kg.  My delivery arrived by Singapore Post 3 days after the order.