I read the latex gloves comment as more sarcasm than anything else... as in 'any glove will do' if it's not for W2W use. Back to the comfort and grip notion.

If not, yeah the latex would suck as they make your hands MORE sweaty ..... plus any fire/hot situation would be bad.

 

I have Alpinestars Tech 1-ZX ($150) and works like a charm.
I do have sweaty hands so really the main point of using the gloves for me are to have grip with the steering wheel most of the time.

 

OMP and Alpinestars are both great. Both offer FIA certified gloves, and are high quality. Alpinestars puts more emphasis on style, so if you want a low-key look, OMP is the better choice. Since their stuff is less flashy, it's cheaper too

For those of you who are wondering if a good FIA certified glove is a necessity, watch this video. The owner/driver of the car is a friend of mine, and I actually left the track right as he was heading out for this race. Granted, it's not an HPDE/AutoX group. It was a NASA AZ event, where they run everything from HPDE levels 1-4, to TT. There's some good racing up until about 2:40, when the fire starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upxA22rMvxQ

 

There's a big difference between something being possible, and something being likely enough to require precautions. I'm not going to argue too hard against wearing fire-resistant gloves, as there's little reason not to except for expense and looks, but I think it's a stretch to say that they're a "necessity" for DE events.

As an aside, I'm sure the guy shown in the video was also very happy to be wearing a fire-resistant racing suit, which almost no one wears at DEs.

 

Better adhesion to the steering wheel with gloves, so you're holding the steering wheel less intensely, and thus avoiding a death grip, so to speak. This allows you to drive more relaxed and comfortably. I experienced this 2 weekends ago driving at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Roval Course. Didn't have my gloves with me because I was traveling, but ended up with the opportunity to drive a Dodge Charger around the track. Man...after just one session my hands felt tired.

 

I have to add an agree here. One can easily say 'you can never be too careful' , but there's a practical point of common sense to that. If I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt in an HPDE event, I don't think nomex gloves are going to make a difference.

 

when it comes to gloves, try as many on as possible. They all fit differently and seams on the inside suck after awhile. Alot will also depend on the steering wheel, suede/alacantra palmed gloves do not grip on a leather steering wheel, they do however work on after market alacantra wheels. For a leather steering wheel, a grippier palm is necessary like rubber or similar tacky synthetic material (HTX). I have the stock leather steering wheel still and found that the Sparco arrow has a grip palm that works great with leather and fits me well, i tried on 20 pairs of gloves before deciding. Don't worry about the price of the glove you are buying, get one that fits and make sure it grips your leather wheel. Good Luck!

 

I would rather burn other parts than my hands and face, though.

 

Maybe because I'm older, but I always wear all my gear (suit,gloves,hans etc..) when at the track, I feel naked without it...

 

Wandering off topic, but on the subject of relative risk: I'd rather do a track day with a HANS and non-fire-resistant gloves than with fire-resistant gloves and no HANS.