LuigiVampa

I heard a story about NJ State Troopers looking at OEM belts at NJMP and sending people home if the car was older than X number of years. I forget what that number was.

This goes back to requiring more gear as you advance - which I am in favor of. Let the green and yellow students drive around with expired gear and a t-shirt. but if you want to advance to white you need a harness bar and harnesses. If you want to advance to black or instructor you need a HANS device and race suit.

People will disagree but that would be safest.

hf1

Disagree. Switching to knitting or chess (in that order) would be much safer.

fbirch

I agree with the idea of requiring more safety equipment as one advances and also enforcing expiration dates for advanced drivers. My original question related to sending home a newbie who had race seats and harnesses that were a year or two expired while allowing other newbies with very old OEM equipment to run. As long as the drivers in a given group are treated consistently, no one has a basis for complaining.

mark kibort

Technically, the funny thing is, racing belts are not legal on the streets, why? because they are not designed for street cars. for a racing belt to work well, it needs to be part of a racing restraint sytem that includes roll bar for their mounting, as well as helmet and HANs by todays standard. it doesnt make a bit of sense to have belts that dont give, without a hans device as well as the fact that most people with racing belts on the street dont tension them correctly. street belts are more flexible (have more give by design) and are self adjusting.

as far as the topic.. as i said, there should be a graduating level of safety gear , and as far as the beginning groups, there is no way that the racing gear should be DQ'ing anyone from playing as most all of it is much better than stock OEM stuff, even if its 20 years old. (unless shows signs of obvious wear or aging) this goes for the helmets too...after all, in race cars we are surrounded by uncovered hard surfaces and lots of them. in a sreet car, there is lots of leather, plastic and foam surrounding a driver. dont thin they need the helmet that the legal racers would require. i would say, anything snell 95 or better would be just perfectly fine. but, that will never happen , so get used to buying a new hemlet every 10 years.

LuigiVampa

Personally, I don't think you should be knitting or playing chess while driving.

ir_fuel

You got the love the USA, the "land of the free", littered with laws, lawyers, disclaimers and fear of liability issues.

I've done a lot of track days in Europe. Not even once did I have to pass a technical inspection with my car. Maybe we have a bit more common sense and less lawyers waiting at every corner to make a buck out of everything that happens, and which was not explicitly ruled out by some waiver/rule/disclaimer?

It's a matter of common sense to equip yourself as you deem safe enough for what you are going to do. For one guy that's shorts, t shirts and an open face helmet. For someone else it's the full FIA approved safety equipment, fire extinguisher, fuel cell and full battle suit with full face helmet.
Driving with stuff that isn't up to it, crashing, being injured because of this and then sueing the organiser because they let them on track? I think they would have a good laugh over here when someone tries it.

jlanka

Welcome to the USA. Now go to law school so you too can chase ambulances.

Gofishracing

knitting is ok.
belts must be current for PCA DE

mark kibort

hahhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

LuigiVampa

I stand corrected!

Remember kids - there are no law suits without clients. Blaming lawyers is like blaming guns for gun violence.

cashmancab

Pretty Damn funny

hf1

LOL! Well done! Obviously the dude is a pro -- and he said 6gt3 is "too ghey".

Raider89

For someone that is about to change seats, this is a dilemma that I have had with regard to equal protection for passenger/instructor. I intend to install FIA seats and harnesses for both seats. I will start using a Hans type device for myself as well.


Since I still utilize instructors in novice group and occasionally have passenger when advancing to solo status, I don't want the passenger wearing harnesses without neck restraints. In the event of crash, it would be safer to use OEM 3point belt in combination with factory air bags that would likely deploy. I don't want passenger/instructor having a neck issue.

mark kibort

I guess it depends on the crash.. even with all we know about on track crashes, i think the 4 point or 5 point is better than lap belts , even without a HANS. Its very debatable and both sides have points. since what ive seen and read is that many incidents are off track flips and rolls, i think its safer to be hooked in than to prepare for only the one type of incident that is near head on to a stop. in my accident caused by another racer a long time ago, i went from 100 to 0 in a very short time. (no HANS) had i only had a lap belt on, I would have not survived.

sundog

Interesting, there was a CHP booth at the Rennsport Reunion, and I talked to the CHP about the legality of harnesses. They said that they would not issue a ticket if you were restrained with harnesses. Of course my airbags are 25 years old, so I'm not sure they would do anything but go Pffffttt anyways.