Who is running the appropriate safety equipment for their racing needs? I consider FIA/SFI to be the industry standards so I'll use them for reference.

SFI Rated seats with a sufficient seat bracket?
SFI harness?
HANS devices or Defenders?
Fire systems?
Electrical kill switches?
Window nets?

Add whatever else you're using as you see fit.

 

If it's any help, I have the typical "club" setup. Which is a proper roll bar with FIA rated harness and seat. G-force 6 point camlock harness, and a MOMO Start seat. I don't believe you need seat brackets for proper fiberglass and carbon fiber seats, only the aluminum ones.

I think the biggest safety issue often ignored is harness mounting. I'm using the harness bar for the back, eye bolts in the floor for the 5/6th point, and the stock belt locations for the lap belt. Those are the last thing I want to fix though, as they're located too far back from the seat's harness slots.

I also have a fire bottle which is currently mounted on the harness bar and is therefore near useless in terms of quick access. Any mounting position on the floor required drilling through the frame rail. Not that I'd mind doing that, but I was hoping there was a method that didn't require two holes and a 3" bolt.

 

After reading about Charles Espenlaubs fire in the recent GRM I have a new found appreciation for the importance of safety gear. I think there are a lot of guys on this site tracking some pretty quick cars without half of the safety gear they probably should have (me included). As they say in the motorcycle world dress for the crash not the ride...

 

This true up to a certain number of years after manufacture. In some sanctioning bodies you are required to have the seat replaced or you can install a seat back brace and the seat will be good indefinitely. Really depends on your sanctioning body and such. Hope this helps...

 

Same here for the typical club setup. Hard Dog rollbar with harness bar, FIA rated seat and a Willans 5pt harness properly mounted. No fire system yet. Kill switch is lying around somewhere, but I can't be bothered to install that right now as I'd have to redo all the wiring to the battery.

 

Personally, I don't trust myself as far as safety.
I have installed the harnesses myself, and made sure my mechanics installed the cage (bolt-in), and bolted the seats to factory mounts (I'm short enough), but, I ALWAYS have my safety equipment reviewed by my Spec builder.
I want the guy with huge experience in crashes to know what to do to avoid them.

Fire suppression? If you have the money to spend, sure. I only do HPDE, and a fire extinguisher is all they require, which is not for me, but, for the other guy.
I've been told, "if there's a fire in your car, GTFO".

If you're running wheel-to-wheel, window nets and driver nets are a must. They'll keep you in place.
Hans is nice, but, if you ever in another car, it will be useless without a proper harness.
Tow hooks, battery kill, and fuel cutoff are good ideas, or else, the big boys wouldn't run them

 

I have the tow hooks as well, mostly for looks, are they even considered a safety item? The work involved in a battery cut off switch is what's stopping me, since we have alternators. Lame reason, I know.

 

The tow hooks are not so much a 'safety' item as they are helpful to the track crew to quickly and effectively clean up after an accident. So in my opinion... Safety item, no; Necessary for track, yes.

 

Don't forget the best thing about tow hooks, orange flare. 15pcs of flare minimum, remember.

 

Curly the power cut switch is not that hard to install. Go to advanced-autosports site and check out their cut switch I installed it into my 91 spec. It was very simple to do. Don't wory about the alternator and all. If you wire it properly it wont matter adn will cut that as well.

Have a great day,
Jared

 

Ooh la la. Will do, gracias. So our alternators don't have enough juice to keep the car running, or does the alternator just not feed the ecu.

 

I read that too... Did you see his suit and helmet! Man, that could happen to anybody on the track, and he didn't hit anything either... just BOOM! It made me think enough to get a full nomex suit, gloves, head sock, and undergarments - vs. the 2 piece GeForce I had. You only need it like once right? You're burned to a crisp that one time you need it and don't have it. Seriously trying to save up for an extinguisher system, Hans, add-on halo for my Kirkey (or new seat), and window nets.

 

What he said. It only takes a few minutes to wire up the kill switch.

 

Cage, 6pt harness, seat with halo (side head restraints), HANS, fire suit/gloves/shoes/balaclava, window net, fire suppression system, and battery cutoff switch for me. Probably wouldn't wear the balaclava if it wasn't required if you have facial hair, but would wear everything else.

Yes, if you just have a fire bottle I would agree. That's why I have a fire suppression system. Pull the lever and GTFO.
HANS works with pretty much any harness.... so no, it isn't useless if you get in another car.

hehehe.

 

That **** was insane!

 

Our alts. do run the car after started. Generly all cars work that way. Rear how he wired it and you will understand what I am talking about. The way its wired it will cut all power. Like I said read about it and you will know what will need to be done. It works great.

Have a great day,
Jared

 

And, if you're @ HPDE, and the car has only stock belts?

 

After doing too many HPDEs in a t-shirt and jeans, I upgraded everything at the end of last year. HANS, 2-layer suit, underwear, gloves, shoes, full cage, halo seat, and window nets for passenger and driver.


The good cutoff switches are 6 pole:

-Battery positive to terminal A
-Terminal B to alternator
-alternator to Terminal C
-Terminal D to ground via a 3ohm resistor (IIRC, they supply the resistor)
-Ignition switch to terminal E
-Terminal F to ignition coils/main relay

When the switch is active, terminals A/B and E/F are connected, and terminals C/D are not. When you throw the switch, it disconnects the battery from the alternator, but connects the alternator to the chassis through a resistor which allows all of the power that the alternator produces from the point you shut the motor down to the point the motor stops turning to find its way to chassis ground without harming the electronics (ECU, etc).

The hardest part is running the wires themselves.

 

^ THIS is the correct way to wire a car with alternator for a kill switch.

 

i'm gonna upgrade my 2 piece g-force suit to a 2 or 3 layer suit sometime this year. i'll have the nomex or carbon-x undershirt, pants, socks shortly. adding a cutoff switch (already have that)

right now i have the usual 4pt. roll bar, 5 pt. harness, alum. ultrashield seat with steel bracing to roll bar, single layer jacket/pants, mid top racing shoes, 2 layer gloves, neck brace/helmet support, fire extinguisher on alum. bracket bolted to the oem seat bolt (pass. seat removed)