[QUOTE=BradB;11598081]Something I didn't think you mentioned is whether or not you wear glasses. If you wear prescription glasses, as I do, you will find a few full face helmets, such as the Bell M4 (My helmet choice) have larger eye ports which make it easier to put on your glasses after you don your helmet. If they have larger eye ports they will advertise this point. The same is true if you want to wear sunglasses instead of a tinted visor, which generally costs extra.

+1. The Bell M-4 is a good choice for DE and is reasonably priced.

 

CD:
I think at your first event, use a loaner and make sure track driving is for you. After the event, if you are hooked, then purchase your own helmet. We all have different shaped heads, so some helmets will fit your head differently than others even if they are the same type (open-faced, closed-faced).

In the meantime, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to assist you. We are fully stocked with helmets from Bell, HJC, Simpson, Arai, G-Force, and Sparco.

http://www.ogracing.com/driver/helmets

Kind regards,

 

+1 can recommend OG ...

 

Congrats, and great idea to try out DE events. As others mentioned, fit is very important, and it varies from brand to brand. Simpson and Bell tend to fit rounder, melon-type heads (no offense to the melon-headed), and Arai is better for narrower-shaped heads (no offense to my fellow pinheads). I have an Arai GP-6S and love it. Great fit for me, and super-high quality. Stilo also gets great reviews, but I'm not sure of its preferential head shape. Definitely go try some on.
I was just going to mention this--closed-face/full-face helmets definitely offer more protection. Your friend got hit with a rock during an autocross (60 mph max). Now imagine getting hit with a rock doing 140 mph+ down a road course straight. I've been pinged in the cheek by a rubber chunk at high speed--it actually came through the driver's window and my open visor on my full-face helmet. Felt like getting shot with a rubber bullet. Painful and distracting when thundering down the straight. I'm lucky it didn't hit me in the eye. Full-face helmet, visor down or sunglasses on for me.

+1 no Chinese helmets! Much better to spend $ on a helmet and other safety gear rather than an aftermarket exhaust, etc.
Definitely. Motorcycle helmets are a no-no on track in a car. Here's the info direct from the Snell Foundation:

The SA standard was designed for competitive auto racing while the M standard was for motorcycling and other motorsports. The K standard was released to accommodate helmets used in karting. There are three major differences between them:

The SA standard requires flammability test while the M and K standards do not.
The SA and K standards allow for a narrower visual field than the M standard (Some SA and K certified helmets may not be street legal).
The SA and K standards include a rollbar multi-impact test while the M standard does not.
Yep.
Another +1 for OG Racing. Also saferacer.com

 

SA stands for Special Application, it has a Nomex liner and is designed to hit the roll bar multiple times (lots of small impacts)

M is for Motorcycle, and that is designed for one huge impact for max protection.

I have so many helmets...lol. Bell is crap. Simpson is decent. Arai is probably the finest helmet made. Shoei makes a nice lid, too. Fit is all important, remember that better helmets have adjustable cheek pads, so to get a really nice fit, remove the cheek pads and focus on the fit around the top of your head. No wiggle, no slop. Snug. Then refit the cheekpads and if they push too much on your cheeks buy a smaller size set.

I use full face for solo driving and also on my motorcycles, and then a 3/4 when I'm Instructing as it allows me to communicate better.

 

Cpnt slow I did say that was a bike store, the idea is they have 100s to try on, then get an idea of fitment. THEN if PCA DE allow them he could pick one up for $100. But I dont know of a car shop that has the numbers of helmets in mass that Chaparral has. But by the time he gets to a auto race shop he will have a great idea of what he wants in his helmet and he will know what helmet design fits his head the best. I still would pick up one of the $99 to begin with, then when you need a fire suit and a roll cage then spend the bucks on a good SA helmet. Its not like he has a GT3 and is going to race his car. I had a friend buy a $600 helmet then didnt like DEing and had to sell it for $150.

 

A $ 99 helmet is a crap helmet.

There is a reason to wear a helmet, its not there just to look cool going down the road, its because you are taking a vehicle and driving it at 100 mph + in an event and per-mile-driven the chance of an catastrophic incident is massively higher than regular street driving, and you need protection. Ideally, you also need a cage, 1-piece seat, 6 points and a fuel cell with on-board fire control but now you have a different car - a race car. So, realizing that DE students won't do all that, the organizers require a helmet. And if you are going to buy a helmet, get a decent one. I don't agree with event organizers that an SA-rated helmet should be required, what's the point of a Nomex liner if your driver is wearing jeans and a t-shirt? However I do believe in buying a good helmet that gives you a fighting chance at getting through an incident.

Today I'm headed over to go see my pal John this afternoon. He has brain surgery on Tuesday, where they sliced off his scalp, drilled two holes in his head, and drained the blood off his brain. When done, they put two titanium plugs in his skull and sewed his scalp back on. John was a a Motorcycle DE event in May at Summit Point, and high-sided off T2 on the main track. He went over the bars and landed on his head, destroying his $ 800 Arai helmet and fracturing his collar bone, and shattered his pelvis plus two broken ribs. He was knocked out for about half an hour and medivac'ed off the track. They ran him through an MRI and his head was good, but apparently a slow bleed in his brain. Last week he got so he could barely walk and he thought it was Lyme's Disease, since its 4 months since the accident, but another MRI showed differently.

Another pal Jim. who owns a 991S and is here on this list, also had a motorcycle high side about a month ago, came down on his head and ruined his $ 800 Arai helmet. He too broke a collarbone and his thumb was shattered, and he was knocked out and medivac'd off the track, but he's good with no head trauma.

I was instructing a student in 2002, wearing a full face Simpson SA-rated helmet when he lost control of his BMW and we went into the tree line at Summit Point and totaled his car. The impact was on my side of the car and his vehicle did not have side airbags. The impact into the trees whipped my head into the C-Pillar on the car and it cracked my helmet, a small crack, but it ruined the lid and I had three broken ribs. I never wore that helmet again and bought a new Simpson to replace it.

Point is - we all were wearing what is considered to be among the best helmets made and some of the most expensive ones. All were sacrificially destroyed as they are designed to do. Now the question you can ask is this - what would have been their outcomes if we had the $ 99 helmet? We don't really know for sure, do we? If you can afford to buy a $ 100,000 car, one would think you are both smart enough and financially capable of purchasing a high quality helmet. Chances are you won't have an incident, but if you do, the time to wish you bought the good lid is not when you car is sliding sideways into the Armco at 60 mph....

Thus endeth the helmet lesson of the day.

 

I know what you were trying to say. My point was to try on the helmets that are SA rated and are what are actually in play. Tying on a bunch of motorcycle helmets won't really tell him anything, in my opinion.

On the rest of it. I would encourage the OP to use a loaner helmet, see if he like the event and plans to do it, or autocross, or karting, or whatever before purchasing anything at all. As for a $100 helmet? Again, I see your point, but my head is worth more than $100. I'm not suggesting a $7000 custom painted carbon fibre F! helmet. But for me, I'd skip the $100 made in China special.

 

Airbags are not going to hit you in the face unless you are not belted. So don't worry about that.

Full face are heavier, which is bad in a whiplash situation. Get a helmet support collar like this one. OG racing (that link to the left) is also a great place to buy helmets and stuff.

Shoes are great if you've got a manual transmission and do things like heel & toe.

 

You contradict yourself. On one hand, you suggest borrowing a helmet with unknown history, unknown age, and unknown usage. Was it dropped? How many times? Did the previous occupant have, um... hygiene issues? No, borrowing a loaner helmet is not a good idea, not now, not ever.

As Mr. Collie points out above in his interesting yet dearly-in-need-of-proofreading post (Duane does not believe in proofreading ) it seems kind of silly to spend $100K+ on a car and then go cheap on a helmet that may save your life.

 

Actually, you make a very good point that I hadn't thought of. I "assumed" I suppose, that a club like PCA would ensure that their loaner helmets are in good condition and repair, but really, they would have no way of monitoring that, would they? So I retract back my suggestion. It does kinda suck buying a helmet for several hundred dollars and realizing that you never want to come back to a track and it's wasted money, though.

 

Your brain is your most valuable organ ... protect it accordingly ... you should never skimp on safety related equipment, you may never need it, but when you do you will be happy you spent the $'s