I've been on the fence about installing racing seats, harness bar, 6 pt belts and buying a HANS device for my DE events. I have a 2011 Carrera S and my top speed is around 130. I'm curious if the poor person who died at Road Atlanta might have survived if he had this type of safety equipment or would he have been killed anyway? I know I shouldn't make a decision based on one unfortunate event, but I'm kind of curious anyway.

 

When the DOT crash tests cars, it certain is far slower than 130. I would NOT recommend going out on a track lacking:
1. Six (6) point belts,
2. HANS or some other Head & Neck device
3. A Halo seat such as what is available from Sparco, Recaro, Cobra

Belts, HANS and a seat, less than $3,000 for all. Amortize this over X events in your driving career, cheap, so cheap.

 

It's not the speed that gets you. It's the stop that inevitably happens.

Agreed. Belts, rollbar (not harness bar), HANS, proper seat.

I'm personally "on the fence" with regards to a "halo" seat. It's definitely much safer on the track but is a PAIN on the street. You'll have to balance your own personal risk limits on that one.

 

SPARCO has a Halo seat and the Halo on each side can be unbolted, non-halo on the street, Halo on the track. List price, $1,000.

IMHO, the DASsport roll bar is a must compared to a harness bar. Yes the DASsport will be 2X, but it is surely more sturdy than a harness bar and it could save your life in a roll over.

 

Interesting. I will have to look into that. I am in early consideration phases of building a new dual-purpose street/track car, which will need seats. I did not know of this Sparco seat with the configurable halo option.

 

Jim:
Yes, the Sparco Ergo Seat. Information on it below. It comes in three sizes, small. medium, large, so it covers a wide range of body types. It's popular with people who have dual purpose street/track cars.

http://www.ogracing.com/sparco-ergo-...ss-racing-seat

 

Sparco Ergo. Very comfortable seat as well, but it has higher seat bottom bolsters than the very common Sparco Evo. Comes in three sizes. Mark at OGRacing helped me with mine.


That halo on the seat is removable.

Fun fact, I just realized that picture above has both my E36 M3s in it.

-Mike

 

Because my car is a dual use car, it's a trade off of safety devices. If I after install market seats, I lose the side airbags. In order to maintain them, I'd have to spend over $9,000 for the GT2 seats. Passengers, like my wife, are safer with the side air bags when driving on the street.

I know the smart thing would be to spend somewhere around $13,000 and put in the GT seats plus everything else. I doubt I'm the only one hesitant to make this type of investment for a few weekends of fun.

 

I guess in that regard I'm lucky my current (and likely future) car does not have side airbags. Hell my current car doesn't even have ABS!

 

Interesting comments. I would say the crash deltas are what is important. Leaving a track at 130 does not mean that was the crash delta. Oem safety systems are quite robust and engineered and tested and subject to afternarket scrutiny and recall if found deficient. Design of a dual use car adding in hans a seat and a harness bar may well be a false security. What would a safety engineer say? Where is the crash test data for the home brew solution? We know how to build surviveable race cars. We got black box survival data at over 100g deltas! Half the race car safety gear does not make you safer. Making a safe dual use car is an underestimated challenge.

 

Simpson makes a HANS device that doesn't require a 6 point harness. It's just over $1,000 and I think it's their FIA - Hybrid model. Thoughts on using this with a dual use car for added safety?

 

Nice unit. Know a fair number of instructors that like it's ease of use.

Great info in thread here: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...NS-like-device

Shows as discontinued on OG's site, though. Mark, care to comment?

 

Decisions like these need to be data driven. Safety is a system and an engineered one at that. The HNR devices that are effective without harness means they are used with 3pt oem belts. Instructors and others using these are doing so as the result of marketing and false sense of security. The HANS was designed to prvent one injury the fatal basilar skull fracture. If you scour the data you will find that the BSF does not occur with oem 3pt belts. The are physics for the reason of that. So when people advetise you can use HNR without harness or you get lateral support without full containment if you use this other HNR do your due dilligence and see if claims are well founded. There is a reason that HANS and HANS use cockpit design is the standard.

 

I've seen no data showing that any Simpson HNR is effective with a 3-pt belt, nor have I seen data showing that the NecksGen Rev provides substantial protection for side impact beyond 30 or 45 degrees (I asked for it, and was told that their data it's 'proprietary', whereas there's abundant independent test data available for the HANS). One would think that if there's data supporting these claims, the manufacturers would share it, given the big marketing benefit of doing so. So I remain skeptical of these claims.

 

RichFL, I can now tell you from personal experience that racing seats, rollbar, harness and HANS worth every penny should the moment come and you need them.