Stacey@ogracing.com

Hello everyone,

I weighed the helmets that were talked about in the above post and here are the results. They are in pounds and ounces weighed on a digital scale. As Apex Performance stated they may vary slightly from helmet to helmet, but you get the idea.

Bell M3 Pro 3.4
Bell M4 racer series 4.0

Arai GP-5x 3.35
Arai GP 5w 3.55

HJC AR-10 3.5
HJC SI-12 3.25
HJC carbon fiber 3.5

As so many of you have already stated, the best way, is to try them on for the best fit, taking into consideration your car, roll cage, Head and neck restraint system and vision requirements (some helmets have small eyeports).

Thanks, Be Safe and Enjoy
if you have any questions feel free to drop me an email.

Azikara

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses. Didn't think it'd generate this level of discussion. Great points. I will go and try one on but leaning towards the Arai for now.

pcar928fan

+1 on this. How long are you going to wear it? 40 min, maybe you are going to do some Enduro's and wear it for an hour or so... Is an extra couple of ounces really going to help you get the last .1 sec of lap time? If that is the case don't eat before you drive! Your lunch will weigh more than the difference in helmet weights.

If it is to heavy for your head then that is a whole different matter, but if you can't hold that extra few ounces on your head for a race then you probably have no business being in a race car anyway.

If you have not spent a zillion dollars replacing every bolt on your car with something made of Titanium then again you are just throwing good money after bad...

BUT, if it makes you FEEL good to know that your helmet weighs about 4 oz less than the next guys, then, well that feeling is just priceless.

YMMV!

Circuit Motorsports

The issue with weight of a helmet is not for the holding your head up. It's that in an accident the difference in the weight of a helmet can add up to a significant amount when consider the force of some impacts in car racing. Every bit 'may' help.
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pcar928fan

Probably won't help enough and certainly not like a HANS device will help. The extra couple of ounces would turn into an extra couple of pounds, but your 13 lb head is now over 750# in a 50g impact (straight on at a pretty good clip...just estimating all this now so lets not get into a big g force vs. weight numbers game here) and so the difference in the 4 oz of the helmet is 12.5#... Probably NOT a big deal really... If you were not going to sustain injury at 750# head weight due to an impact you are probably not going to sustain injury if it was 762# either.

YMMV, but looking at a helmet weight difference is pretty silly unless you are racing an F1 car and absolutely EVERYTHING (including the driver, just look what happened when the Polish driver lost 15#!) is optimized for weight. Like I said, if you drink a big glass of water you have added more weight to your body than the weight difference between the lighter and heavier but otherwise identical helmets (ie. the CF helmet vs. the FG helmet).

When I had to get a new helmet I looked at all this too and seriously thought about that very issue and determined that I should loose 20# off my middle (or more) before I really worry about the weight of my car, FORGET about the weight of the helmet it is/was insignificant.

Keep the rubber side to the road and track guys!
James
Austin, TX