RickBetterley

There is a risk management theory (and before I get flamed - I DON'T FOLLOW IT) that people react to safety devices by acting less safely. Helmets in contact sports, for example, might cause players to take more risk.
Now - anyone driving in DE or club racing would have to be an idiot to drive less safely because they have safety gear.
Sadly, idiots exist; I hope to never be on the track (or even in the same garage) with one of them.

utkinpol

i drove plenty with miata club and it was just a regular porsche crowd pointed humor and as i can see it worked exactly as was expected. it is all your ego, forget it and smile, he did not mean any harm.
and realistically he wouldd not wreck his car with you inside on a show up lap.

'too many snobby old farts who do not know sh$t of how to drive yet dress up as freaking F1 pilots'. i guess he did not say that out loud, did he?

no one in miata crowd disregards safety, there are no idiots (almost) among those who drive in the front of the pack. but it is a young club, average age is more like mid-30s instead of a PCA where you`ll see almost nobody under 40, well, unless a big group of asian kids will show up in a green run group.

bobt993

Oh boy!

DDun911

Ah to be young and stupid again.
It is a tough lesson to learn how things can go from good to very bad in a split second and all the I should haves in the world won't put the equipment on before you hit the wall. I visited a relative in the burn ward after a street accident which resulted fire and let me tell you, you can call me what ever you want all day long that was as close to hell as I ever care to go.

schao

Just a bunch of successful techies from MIT, no doubt! ;-)

Sherman
WF-1
Cayman S
MINI GP
F-250

utkinpol

if they were there, they were shy, i did not see many engineers there.
but crowd was very diverse indeed and it was not a bad thing at all. all fun. again, it is all a matter of perception, as in any other club people do group together into small circles and a group i was hanging with most of the time could not be same as other groups. who knows. overall experience was very nice, and it was quite fun that i never had a chance to hang with them while i actually owned a miata and it happened only after i got this 997 and started taking it out for sport events, it`s kinda ironic but it is what it is.

GTgears

You're wearing your driving suit so often you wore a hole in the butt...

I still can't believe there are tracks out there that will let someone drive in shorts. I don't always wear my driving suit, but have started doing so more and more often at open lapping and DE days.

And as soon as I get a harness bar installed, I will wear my HANS every single time out. I broke C5 and C6 in a rollover in 1996. I'm already more fragile than the rest of the human bodies out there and as time goes on, I'm becoming more and more concerned about my safety. Naysayers and tough guys be damned...

utkinpol

i was always curious to ask about that, i was told by a couple of pretty smart people that a regular HANS is actually worse in a car with no special HANS seat like a pro racer hans recaro than a simple foam collar as HANS does not help much in a case of a side impact when your head will try to bounce sideways. is it true or not? i can kinda see a logic in that, but how much protection foam collar gives in a case of a straight impact compared to HANS?

Juan Lopez

Ha ha ha. That is true!

Kind regards!!!!!!!!!!

Juan Lopez

I heard an instructor once tell a student, "do you go to bed with a girl you don't know without a condom?"

Doug007

Special HANS seat? That's not what HANS says on their own website:
http://hansdevice.com/s.nl/sc.5/category.22/.f

And regarding the foam collar, they don't do jack in a real crash:

Can I wear a "horse collar" foam pad with a HANS Device?
Yes.
Foam collars are comfort accessories, not safety equipment. Wear one to stabilize your head and helmet on rough tracks.
Testing has shown a horse collar adds mass to the helmet and head loads that must be carried by the neck. This increases the chance of injury.

Was this guy wearing a HANS? That is a risk I will not take as full harnesses add the risk of a basal skull fracture that is not there with road seat belts.

Groups differ greatly on fire safety clothing for DEs. Some are ok with shorts and t-shirts while most require long pants at least. The fire risk is really very low in a miata. Spec miata has been one of the most popular series in the nation for many years and you'd be hard pressed to find a fire video online. In a class noted for frequent contact no less. Not saying it can't happen, but the risk is very low, especially in a DE.

Personally I wouldn't knock someone for not wearing a fire suit at a DE, but no HANS is inexcusable.

But I also wouldn't poke fun at someone that did decide wear a fire suit.

utkinpol

i have an old version of non-pro hans so just was wondering if it is doing anything much in a case of a side impact or not, i also saw here a post this summer about some other kind of a similar contraption that was supposedly better in that regard, but, never cared to investigate further. so there is no hidden agenda here, just a question.
i am aware off what hans says on web site, what i was told was a same pretty much opinion that hans was developed for open wheeler kind of cockpits where you have almost no movement from side to side and all movement is only back and forth, so, it works this way fine but if you hit a wall by your side you are as good as if you had nothing at all. to what degree it is true or BS i cannot tell, and hopefully will never be able to tell.

Doug007

A HANS doesn't do a hell of a lot in a side impact and neither does a foam collar.

You need a containment seat and/or side nets to keep your head from violent sideways movement.

utkinpol

well, a containment seat is a given for a race car, i would put one in if i had one. mine is still mostly a street car, it will not work out.
what about a rage r3 system?

mrbill_fl

wasn't it Mario that said there are 2 kids of drivers, those that have hit the wall, and those that have yet to....

I say if you've ever seen a fuel fire, you'd wear everything you could to keep from getting burned. oil fires are nothing in comparison... (unless you get some on you).

But fuel fires are like the sun exploded. <shutter> a Fuel injected car...w/ 70+ psi of fuel next to a header?