NRG likely doesn't need an introduction, but on the off chance you somehow missed the large amount of products NRG has out there, they put out a lot of solid product for good prices. Is it award winning? Rarely. Is it of the highest quality? Debatable. Do lots of folk use them to great success? They indeed do!
A common modification on nearly any enthusiast car is a removable steering wheel. You can improve the position of the steering wheel along with make ingress/egress much much easier on yourself. Plus there's the added security of being able to take your steering wheel with you making the car that much less of a target of opportunity. Given that most folks on the C5 Corvette bypass the OEM security system with the LMC5 mod, every little bit of extra help is important!
Parts and Numbers in this Article:
- NRG-SRK-170H Racing Style Steering Wheel Quick Release Short Hub Adapter, 6 X 70mm Bolt Pattern, Black Body
- NRG Innovations SRK-250CF Quick Release Kit (Black/CF Ring)
So the aforementioned parts are the two parts you'll need to connect up a quick release hub to the C5 Corvette. For installing these, check out the article Shred Jesse wrote on the topic or any of the myriad of other videos or folks out there. We'll just say this install will either go really easy, or be a giant pain in the butt. For Jesse it was a giant pain, but then his friend Andrew tried it and had the job done in 1/8th the time. It's really just luck of the draw.
You'll of course need a steering wheel to go with this setup, and we highly recommend adding a steering wheel spacer to get the steering wheel where you want it. Here's the parts Shred Jesse suggested and we've seen other utilize effectively as well:
So let's review specifically the NRG quick release hub along on our five categories.
Functionality:
This 100% works. Zero issues, straight forward. As simple as it gets. There's no special bells or whistles to it.
Reasonable Install & Directions:
This is a hard one to judge since so many applications utilize this product and it isn't limited to just Corvettes, so we can't really knock NRG for only including generic installation directions. Given the universal nature of these though, we think it's safe for NRG to not have included application specific instructions.
Quality to Price:
The price on these is quite reasonable, and the quality is just right. It reminds us of why east coast pizza wins over west coast pizza despite having nowhere near as fancy of ingredients... it's all about being good at the right price. NRG nailed this one.
Vanity:
This is a bit of a silly category, but eh some folks really care about this sort of thing. The NRG options do include carbon fiber rings and other such options, but they are a bit of a hodge podge of widths and shapes and navigating all of that information to get a perfectly clean look can be time consuming. A few points deducted here, but overall they look and work well, and at this price point you can't expect much vanity.
Overall Rating:
So all that said and done, we gotta give these parts high marks. We also think there's some extra value in these in that if you happen to forget your steering wheel the odds are quite high somebody else at the event will have an extra one they can swap over to you for your sessions. You'd think it doesn't happen but we met a kid at an event who had forgotten his steering wheel QD, and everybody who came up to offer their steering wheel had NRG while this poor kid had some obscure Japanese branded QD. He lost half a day to that sort of vanity... so maybe just maybe vanity through obscurity isn't the trade off you should be making!