TraqGear

This is scary and has been happening for some time. Make sure your gear has the correct labeling AND has a valid manufacturers label to go along with it. If it is really cheap gear, it may not be real. The right stuff is not cheap to produce.

Vonschmidt

Of all the low things in life I have such a hard time understanding how anyone can sleep at night after passing off counterfeit gear designed to save lives. Deplorable

TraqGear

Never ceases to amaze me what people will do to swindle a dollar. Even worse is when they play with people's lives to do it.

allen_skillicorn

The same can be said of the SFI. They've been marketing their faulty standards for decades.

TraqGear

That's an interesting comment. What led you to believe that? Anything to substantiate?

allen_skillicorn

SFI is great at marketing to sanctioning bodies and taking fees from manufacturers. Notice I did not say say safety. That label is a false sense of security.

http://www.roadraceautox.com/showthr...&highlight=sfi

TraqGear

Looks like a bunch of guys pissed off about having to recertify their Hans. It may be a pain to comply but better than having no one testing for our safety. I would think that manufacturers stand to benefit much more than SFI for increased frequency of replacement or recert.

Circuit Motorsports

Most of those guys aren't just 'pissed' off. I know many of them and they are very good critical thinkers in regards to safety.

There are many good points brought up in that thread and others about SFI issues. Yes there is some whining but being dismissive of all the ideas.

FWIW if it has an FIA sticker it doesn't need to be recertified but without that sticker it needs recertification. How does that pass the sniff test?

TraqGear

Def some whining going on. I totally agree that the process could use some improvement. I think we will see SFI work more closely with FIA in the future. They already collaborate in many ways. But here is what I think:

It is a foundation, so members have input on the changes and often do at meetings.
It is up to the sanctioning body (PCA, SCCA) to adapt SFI's certfications. They don't have to...it is up to them.
Without a body like SFI, we would be screwed. I know this after testing materials related to my shirt venture. Many of the fabrics that are "military safe" won't pass normal flammability tests. This is very scary as I do want to know that what I put on my back will pass certification of some kind. Otherwise, any yahoo can make safety gear for us that won't perform when the crap hits the fan.

Bottom line is that blanket statements that make them out to be some evil governing organization just waiting to mess with us drivers just isn't right. Are the perfect. No. I have my gripes as well. They don't faulty standards. In fact, many of the flammability testing procedures are adapted from ASTM testing.

It would be great if all of us look at factual information instead of opinions and look for positive ways to improve things instead of just gripe about them. Easy to complain, not so easy to come up with solutions.

Circuit Motorsports

if that were really the case.

TraqGear

They have more power than you think. SFI won't consider a new regulation unless it proves to be a problem in an incident or it is pushed by the sanctioning bodies first. I've been trying to get a new certification for short sleeve shirts, since most of us wear them anyway. But, unless a sanctioning body complains, can't get it. Since I've discovered that all FR isn't truly FR, it would be great to at least have something to go by when wearing under garments when racing. Otherwise, we are just trusting the manufacturer at their word.

allen_skillicorn

Sorry, the SFI had a financial interest in most of the 'standards' in the last ten year. Belts in our garage stored cars expire in 2 years so SFI can sell more labels. I won't even get into the 38.1 debacle.

TraqGear

Okay okay, you win. They are horrible and they are also responsible for global warming and Obamacare.

Anyway, seriously, I don't like the 2 year deal either with the belts. We can respond as consumers and only buy belts with FIA ratings, which I do. If enough of that happens it will get some attention.