Piloti Monaco Driving Shoes
I'm not really a shoe person, in fact, for the past 5 years I have had exactly three pairs of shoes. Dress shoes for special occasions, some Reef sandals from when I was a lifeguard, and for 95% of the time, my trusty Parajumper zip-boots (zipper-boots are the best boots to have, because they rock, and they take about 2 seconds to get on and off). At race events, people would often ask me how the hell I drove in combat boots. I would tell them that the thicker sole helped me push on the gas that much more, pure Spinal-Tap logic. But since I've started rev-matching with the heel-toe (actually ball-of-foot/side-of-foot) technique, I've started to pine for a more appropriate sort of footwear. As our track day approached, and the rules specified "sneakers or another light shoe", I decided to go all out and get some real driving shoes. I don't own sneakers, I don't need sneakers...but I do drive, so driving shoes made sense. Matt, fountain of info that he is, pointed me to Piloti, who make driving shoes that don't look like brightly colored elf shoes. I grabbed a pair of the Red and Black Monacos, and they're fantastic for driving...the heel rolls so that it works well in the driving position, the soles grab the pedals wonderfully, and you can really dance around the footwell. They served me wonderfully at Nelson Ledges, and you can wear them around without feeling like too much of an idiot. My girlfriend even likes the way they look, apparently they're hip. Highly recommend. They are lined with Nomex, and so get pretty hot...but for someone used to combat boots, they're like having naked feet. Notice the right shoe has a red side, that's to accentuate the fact that the sole on that side rotates around so you have a better gas-pedal-blipping surface...swank.
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