Helmet Suggestions

[dtanker65]

Great stuff-only veered a little of course into airplanes and got lost.
Some incident beyond that I'm likely a vegatable not matter what helmet I'm wearing. Comfort and fit appears to be most important part and then features.

Can't talk about race cars with without talking about aircraft, they have more in common than with street cars. Once the genius of Burt Rutan was unleashed, composite technology has exploded. Aircraft are light and strong, but not too strong. Any repair to an aircraft has to match the original design load so as not to overload the adjacent structure. Same as a helmet, carbon fiber is incredibly strong so it should be thin as possible so it fails before the adjacent structure (my noggin) light weight is serendipitous benefit.

BL the hit you took in my first race scared me. I have had issue with NASCAR door bars being built all the way out to the door skin, because any impact is transmitted immediately to the driver in a fixed seat. The same principal applies there as with helmets. The very expensive FIA seats without back braces address this with the right balance of rigidity and compliance in impact, but a short life being composite. NASCAR started using a piece of super high density foam molded between the door skin and door bars about 2" thick. I compromised by angling the door bar down and in in order to let the rocker panel absorb some of the impact in a hit like you took. Trauma to the brain or tearing the aorta are the primary risks we face. I heard NASA was going to require that James Bond beach ball thing on the cars next year.

Comfort is the main consideration with helmets, yes on balaclavas to protect your neck and consider running Scat tubing over any fuel lines running through the cockpit or trunk. Fuel cell cars should have the trunk completely isolated from the cockpit with steel. Cracking the visor will help with the fogging and I try to not clean the visor too much to keep from spoiling the optics. Tinted lens is good for most sunny days but clear and good sunglasses is pretty effective too. I think any certified helmet is safe and dude, radios and a spotter are AWESOME. Great tip on helmet storage Richard, now we will all be forgetting them at home :-) Just my .02

Jeez I gotta find more work, oh wait I have a race car