Start with a good driving jacket

Tag : Mans Jacket


 By the time you read this, a gallon of gas might cost as much as afifth of good Scotch. But we love our cars, and we love drivingthem. A cross-country trip might be out of the question right now,but buzzing the coast or a turn through your nearest lake districtis a reasonable pleasure. This little list of a dozen gear andgadgets can significantly up the fun factor and keep the driverhappy.

Start with a good driving jacket. It's the place to stash all thestuff you don't want to cram into your pants pockets and sit on:house keys, wallet, spare sunglasses, phone and pocket knife. Butdon't get outlandish.

"If you actually own a Ferrari, and wear the branded jacket, you'lllook like a tool," says Dan Neil, the L.A. Times Pulitzer-prizewinning automobile columnist. "And if you don't own the Ferrari butwear the jacket, you'll look like a tool."

The Sparco City Tech Driving Jacket does the job perfectly. Itworks well for cool summer evenings, can be worn easily with layersfor fall driving, and goes with about anything else you'll wear. Inblack or gray, it's understated, comfortable and durable.

When it's hot, toss the Sparco jacket in the back seat along with aweekend duffle bag from Glaser Designs. You need a duffle for tworeasons. One: An adult who owns a decent car (one that might get asecond glance from an attractive pedestrian) should always have adecent change of clothes on hand. Two: When it comes to style, thatold backpack is embarrassing your all-leather interior, six-speedroadster. Did a former Deadhead leave it there?

Speaking of your car's interior, put the XtremeMac Incharge Autoand the Case Logic AX Door Pocket Organizer in their respectiveplaces. The XtremeMac Incharge Auto power adaptor will pay foritself when you need the juice to send a critical message or findyour way home using your iPhone's GPS. The AX Organizer bringsconvenience and style to what would otherwise be a haphazardcollection of roadmaps. (Get new maps every year, by the way.) In apinch, it can serve as a business case for an impromptu interviewor when you can't ignore a client on your way out of town.

"In addition to any maps, always have a decent compass," Neil says.A compass will keep you going in the main direction you want to go,even if you get messed up with the map, GPS, or detaileddirections, and "a compass is great for cities that you're notfamiliar with, so you can always know which way is north and orientthe map." A fine compass that fits the bill is the Silva Carabiner9, which clips to a key ring or jacket loop with its integratedcarabiner; it's small, light, and easy to read. (If you really needa GPS system, Neil recommends the Garmin 600 series.)

If you're fond of driving at night, consider Tag Heuer's NightVision eyewear. Designed for professional racers at Le Mans (whodrive the famous 24-hour course), these yellow-tinted glasses,mounted in light, flexible frames, help correct the poor colorcontrasts and lack of visual depth that plague drivers in the dark.Similar to the tinting used for skeet shooter's eyeglasses thatemphasize color contrasts for greater perception of moving objects,you should see more detail from a distance with these glassessooner than you would without them as you, the moving object, closethe gap.

"I like the night-vision glasses that are out now-they really dowhat they're advertised to do," Neil says. "But I find there's beena move to light, bendy, flexy eye-wear frames. I need somethingthat can take a licking, at least for my sunglasses. My Wayfarersare bulletproof."

You will need the darkest shades available to withstand a blastfrom the Surefire U2 Ultra flashlight. Don't test this thing onyourself-it's one of the brightest flashlights around. The $280price tag may seem exorbitant, but the advanced design is tohand-held illumination what the Ferrari Scuderia is to driving: amachine of incomparable performance. It'll work for as long asthere are lithium batteries, which will probably be your lifetimeand beyond.

As for tool kits, listen up. Few people work on their carsanymore-new cars are too complicated and old ones take too muchtime. (Unless you're Dan Neil, who completely restored his beloved1960 MGA, which he bought online.) For road trips and afternoonspins, the Leatherman Surge is all handyman power you'll ever need.More than likely, you won't use it on your car, but on repairs thatyou encounter at stops and destinations.

Finally, a few basics: The IntelligentFirstAid's Talking Kitprovides clear, concise audio instructions that you'll hear clearlyeven when your heart-rate is elevated. The Accutire Racing Gauge,with an easy-to-read display and highly accurate calibration, is anessential aid to good gas mileage. You'll use the Mechanix OriginalGlove mainly for changing tires, which everyone tries to do quickly(with good reason) and in their haste always scuffs or cuts theirhands on jacks, the road surface, or shredded tires, all very dirtysurfaces.

For driving, always have jumper cables, flares, fire-startingmaterial, duct tape, drinking water, folding triangle reflector andmaybe a few extra spark plugs and a quart of oil. And, depending onyour ride, a compact fire-extinguisher.

"In the MGA, I always have a fire-extinguisher on board," Neilsays. "I never know when that car is going Johnny Torch on me.