Recently Sparco suits were being sold on TradeMe that were found to be non-genuine. These have been investigated by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act and they have just released their findings.
Basically, they found that the suit was not a genuine Sparco suit manufactured in Italy, and that the labelling was of poor quality and not correct for the type of suit. The LH side label had a number of spelling and grammatical errors as below.
The errors in this label included:
“ÍT IS IMPORTANT TO READ THE USER’S HANDBOO CONCERNING THE CARE OF THIS GARMENT”
“THIS SUIT WILL OFFER PROTECTION FROM FIRE AND THE TRANSMOSSION OF HEATFOR A LIMITED TIME, BUT IT DOES NOT OFFER TOTAL PROTECTION AGAINST ANY KIND OF HEAT OF HE ATOR FIRE”
“THE FABRIC USED TO MAKE THIS SUITIS SUBJECT TO AGING”
The inner label shows a Karting number Mod. K28, which contradicts the FIA homologation number printed on the collar label.
Karting suits do not have the flame retardant material and are basically abrasive resistant suits.
The suit carried a FIA 8856-2000 label on the collar however the Commerce Commission tested the suit against this standard and found the suit failed to meet the requirements of the Standard regarding allowable flame self-extinguishing time and it produced flaming and molten debris. Also they noted the inner lining material was polyester which is certainly not approved as a flame resistant material for race suits.
Unfortunately, it would appear the seller of these suits has gone to ground and he has been issued a warning letter to cease trading on these items. It is very important that when you are purchasing a race suit you do so from a reputable supplier as not all suits come from the approved manufactures.
Motorsport safety have a list of approved sellers in New Zealand and you can find these by clicking on the Suppliers Link above.
The full report on this issue from the Commerce Commission can be found on the Speedway NZ website here.
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