What goes under the firesuit?

Anything under your firesuit needs to be either fireproof (nomex or Carbon-X, typically) or 100% non-synthetic (cotton or wool, typically). An important area to consider is the waistband of supposedly 100% non-synthetic cotton underwear, which typically contains elastic that will melt in a fire and leave a very nasty burn right around your midsection.

You could go commando, but that's providing less fire protection rather than more. The smart way to go is to wear fireproof garments under the firesuit -- undershirt and long johns -- even if you have a multi-layer firesuit. The more fireproof layers you have, the more time you have to exit a fire before your flesh begins getting charred.

And although it's not strictly required by Lemons specs, a fireproof balaclava is a pretty smart investment too.

I'm chicken about fire.  So I wear a /5 suit, and Carbon-X underneath it.

Steve

That's why I got the single layer suit because I figured I'd be wearing nomex underwear anyway.  It was hot, but not half as bad as my motorcycle leathers.

One thing to keep in mind is that the fire suit isn't really just for the situations where the car is on fire but it's easy to make a "quick exit." The /5 suit and all the rest are probably no more necessary than a cotton suit dunked in Borax in that situation.

When you really need that fire protection is when you're rolled over, the door is crushed, and you can't get yourself out of the car when it catches fire. At that point the only thing that's between you and getting totally effed is the fire gear that you're wearing. At that point less is decidedly not more. I fully understand the balance between comfort when not on fire -- i.e. sweating your balls off -- and gearing up so that you look like Bibendum. There are a lot of shortcuts to be taken in Lemons -- hell, we revel in the shortcuts -- but fire gear is a bad place to cut corners.

It's kind of like they say about helmets; if you've got a ten-cent head, get a ten-cent helmet. For me, if the choice is between sweating more or risking third degree burns to my gentleman's region because I didn't want to wear a pair of Carbon-X boxers, I'll bear the extra sweat. IMHO, YMMV, other standard disclaimers apply. Cheers.

If you are trapped in the car when it is upside down and burning, you may as well cram your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye (if so able).  Even a /5 suit only gives you 10 sec before you will get 2nd degree burns.   Point is, racing is dangerous and some situations you cannot prevent no matter how much safety equipment you wear.

I agree that it's going to be dicey either way, but wearing fireproof undergarments even under a /5 firesuit may be what saves your life or saves your skin from more severe burns:

"Fire resistant underwear should be worn with every type of driver suit, especially single layer suits because it will double the minimum protection time..."

http://www.sfifoundation.com/

It may only give you 10 more seconds to kiss your ass goodbye if you're wearing a /5 suit plus fireproof undies, but it also gives the rest of us an additional 10 seconds to get there with fire extinguishers to try to save your freshly-kissed ass from burning to death.

Exactly what I was saying.

Yeah, at least your jewels will have about 3 extra seconds before they become charred like your ass.

You willing to admit that?  At least they aren't on the mantle next to the fake flowers and candles like some of the other guys I know.

Since you're all worried about buying more time to escape a fire and talking about $100 underwear times 4-6 drivers, consider a fire system.

http://www.firecharger.com/

Their system is $320 and rechargable.

My friend bought one of these.  We don't have one in the LeMon car but it's been considered.

Point is, pull the lever or whatever and it will buy you a LOT of time.  Maybe even extinguish the fire.

Then you save your jewels, ass, face, legs and maybe even a damn E30.