Hi guys,

I am thinking of adding a boss 302 steering wheel to my GT and curious about your long term opinions on the alcantara-wrapped steering wheel.

 

wow, 92 views and no responses...

 

mine got a bit hard after 6 track days and lots of street driving. i used a soft bristle suede brush and some interior cleaner with water, fluffed it up and its soft as new again. like anything, you just have to take care of it.

 

Hold your horses bud... lol

 

I came in to see responses, sorta gauge how they wear. I bet 91 of the others did too. Just sayin'.

 

I can tell you mine is perfectly fine... but I've only had the thing 2 weeks and driven it for 600 miles.

 

7k miles and no problems.

 

10k miles and no issues.
Interested in trying Shane's "fluffing" method though.

 

Nice alcantara cleaning video by a BMW owner

 

having been through several track days in the summer last year and daily driving the car, more than a bit of dirt came out too. there is a youtube vid around somewhere of a m3 owner going through the process. the cleaning made a huge difference in how the wheel felt though, much softer post cleaning.

basically, i have some turtle wax total interior cleaner around i use to get the chocolate out of the seats from my kids (apparently the secrete chocolate). i got a couple clean white dish towels and wet them and then squeezed out as much water as I would, sprayed a bit of the interior cleaner on the rag, and then scrubbed the wheel. then i patted it dry with a clean cloth and fluffed it with a soft bristle brush as i ran my shop vac to suck up and dust and cleaner residue.

the amount of white dust that came out was surprising, track days make a mess of alcantra lol. anyway, i cleaned it while sitting in front of my kids' school, took maybe 45 min of scrubbing. then fluffed and vac'ed at home, maybe an hour total. then i bought gloves for track days to help it stay clean.

edit: i see someone posted the vid i mentioned while i was writing.

 

good to know you are happy long term with them. I wonder why the prices for them doubled back in the fall.

 

I wouldn't call 10 months of ownership "long term", but I too am interested in how they hold up.

Maybe I should buy a second just in case I need to restore it down the road while they are cheaper now?

 

• 9K miles and the wheel looks great. The high-use area looks the same as the rest of the wheel. Have not yet resorted to "Steve McQueen" gloves, but do wear gloves at the track.
• The wheel price doubled because Alcantara habitats are shrinking.
• I most certainly am NOT interested in Shane's "fluffing" method.

Happy Texas Independance Day!

Jimmy

 

Mine is holding up well. But, I only have about 3K miles. As info... I took some Craftsman mechanics gloves to BTA last November. Bryan had suggested gloves because it would be cold. He was right. I took the mechanics gloves because they were all I had. They have a simulated leather palm that feels like suede and they grip the wheel very very well -- noticably better than the g-force racing gloves supplied in the BOSS owners kit. Of course the mechanics gloves are synthetic and are NOT flame proof and would not be a substitute for a racing glove. Bottom line of all this -- the alcantara wheel and a racing glove with a suede palm should be a killer combination.

 

How about the Alcantara portion of the seats, how are those holding up guys?

 

those aren't real alcantra AFAIK, still it is holding up well for me.

 

Buhuahahahaha

 

Oh Sure, laugh if you want.

Just remember what happened to all the little Naughas when everyone just had to haveNaughahyde seat covers. They all gone now!!!

You want proof???? Show me just one picture of a Naugha running in the wild!!!

So Sad!!!

 

Well at least the Jack-a-lopes are still alive.

 

Yeah, kind of like the Nauga's eco-sphere, another endangered polymer habitat.

Oh, BTW, 8k and no issues on mine.