HANS downside?

[Flyinglizard]

I was walking around the grid @ the last Regional, talking to old friends. Old friends.
Two said that they cant get out of their cars with the helmets on. The HANs keeps them from tipping their heads out the door .
Fire escape?
How should this be adressed? Or should it at all?
The race cars would have to remove or reengineer the driver door bars, much lower.
Before you race your car this year,find a way out, with your eyes closed and helmet on, IMHO.
MM

[Greg Amy]

Barn <<----..................---->> Horse

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[CRallo]

Jut ask Joey hand about egress with a HANS...

That said, they now have those quick release anchors. Recommend those to your friends. That is the easy button, but I don't like it either :/

[JohnW8]

That said, they now have those quick release anchors. Recommend those to your friends. That is the easy button, but I don't like it either :/

And 2 more tethers to try to find in a rush while trying to get out of a smoke filled car.

No good answer but with all the safety I have in my car I'm starting to feel a little unsafe.

[tom91ita]

...No good answer but with all the safety I have in my car I'm starting to feel a little unsafe.

if we keep the key out of the ignition, then maybe is there enough room?

[1stGenBoy]

They should look at the HAN's Sport II. It was designed with a shorter and rounder back piece to make getting out of a sedan easier.

[Dano77]

Thats not the point. They cant tip thier head forward to clear the cage. I have a similar issue due to Hieght in the car. Im going to have to scoot my ass down to clear the hoop and window opening to get out with the dumb thing on.

Maybe I need a removable steering coloumn, and the dash board needs to come out to,along with the heater case, and the rear hatch glass ,and all the other stuff that my IT car still needs.

Hmmm maybe safty will get my car to minimum weight afterall.




Ok Im done now
Dan 77 IT7/A

[JohnW8]

They should look at the HAN's Sport II. It was designed with a shorter and rounder back piece to make getting out of a sedan easier.

I personally don't get hung up on the Hans itself, I can't easily duck my head with the HANS on to get my helmeted head aimed out the door. I can do it but I sure would hate to try it in a hurry, upside down and on fire in a snowstorm with sharks circling.

[CRallo]

Don't get me wrong... I am in no way a fan of the HANS. Just choosing my battles :/

there is a reason the HANS sticker on my racecar is upside down...

[lateapex911]

An alternative:

http://www.necksgen.com/

Looks like a new and improved HANS, or DeFender. I wonder if this version will get sued??
They are pretty vague about performance.
Price looks decent.

[Knestis]

I was walking around the grid @ the last Regional, talking to old friends. Old friends.
Two said that they cant get out of their cars with the helmets on. The HANs keeps them from tipping their heads out the door .
Fire escape?
How should this be adressed? Or should it at all?
The race cars would have to remove or reengineer the driver door bars, much lower.
Before you race your car this year,find a way out, with your eyes closed and helmet on, IMHO.
MM

Really?

[JoshS]

Thats not the point. They cant tip thier head forward to clear the cage.

I don't understand. I've been using a HANS since 2004. I cannot figure out how this could be true. With the harness unbuckled, the HANS does not limit forward head movement.

[924Guy]

An alternative:

http://www.necksgen.com/

Looks like a new and improved HANS, or DeFender. I wonder if this version will get sued??
They are pretty vague about performance.
Price looks decent.

Vague about performance - that's putting it mildly! The only thing they have pics of is their promotional materials! Everything else is CAD renderings.

Don't get me wrong, I do like what I see and I appreciate a new competitor - but I wouldn't feel comfortable till I see more on there, like "About Us" and more photos, stuff in use, etc.

Very new. Very, very new.

[StephenB]

I have the HANS and an RX8 with Halo seets similar to the person you mentioned above. I have NO issues getting out of the car... BUT that is when I am calm and collected in the pits but who knows what will happen on track! With that being said the only thing I can do is prepare. If any of you don't practice this every weekend you race then you really can't blame the safety equipment.

Side story: My daughter started to walk a few months ago, I put shoes on her and she was pissed, started crawling again because it was harder. does that mean I should take them off? NO she kept practicing and now she is a pro and running all over. Moral of the story. PRACTICE over and over again until you can do it.

I practice by taking paper or even a shirt and stuff it in the visor so I can't see a damn thing. then my crew times me how long it takes to get out of the car. anything over 8 seconds is to long for me nowadays. BUT in the begining it took 15+ seconds. I started doing this at my last event last year and will ALWAYS do this for as long as I race going forward. I remember the first time I did it I forgot that the steering wheel comes off. Took me 20+ seconds as I tried to sqeeze between the steering wheel, halo and rollbar. Image if the first time I tried to actually get out was on track? How many of us take off our helmet in the car before we get out when we come in? why? use that moment for more practice.

Keep practicing,
Stephen

[Flyinglizard]

It looks like the key is to sit the driver inside car, fully suited,(" Hanned up" ), before you install the driver door bars. Maybe lower the seats also. The SM has the seat on the floor already with the braces cut away.
Both of these cars will have lower side bars next time around.

[Knestis]

Vague about performance - that's putting it mildly! The only thing they have pics of is their promotional materials! Everything else is CAD renderings.

Don't get me wrong, I do like what I see and I appreciate a new competitor - but I wouldn't feel comfortable till I see more on there, like "About Us" and more photos, stuff in use, etc.

Very new. Very, very new.

It's certified. That's all you need to know. That's all you neeeeeed to knowwww... That's allllll you neeeeeeeeeeeeeed to knowwwwwwwwww... Your eyelids are getting verrrry heavy... Now, reach for your wallet.

K

[lateapex911]

I really really would want to see all the numbers on that. I think the geometry is much different than most of the others, and wonder about neck compression. Of course, I am NO smart biomechanics doctor type, but even though it passed, i wanna know more,
GLAD to see an alternative, but...

[Chip42]

Note that the contact address on the Necksgen is the same as DefNder:

1176 Greenfield Drive
El Cajon, California 92021
fax: 619.448.0917

shouldn't be long before the lawyer swarm is released from the hubbard/downing hive. in the mean time, kudos to the best version of a HANS-like device for sticking to it!

[MMiskoe]

Just for shits & giggles, has anyone looked at the relative difference between the need to keep your head teathered in an accident vrs the need to exit a car quickly? Seems like although there are lots of crashes, there are relatively few fires. If there was no need to get out quickly, I don't see that the HANS is the right tool. Seems you would have a teather from the helmet to the seat/roll cage. But the powers that be want to have a 'single point of release'. But w/ high door bars, big containment seats, side nets, radios, cool suits etc, very few cars actually have one item to release before trying to get out of the car. How many people can actually get out w/ the steering wheel in place? So have we followed this standard on one hand while ignoring on others, thus leading us astray from a potentially better solution?

FWIW I want to know how many people have been involved in a crash that was not straight on and had their belts come off the HANS leaving them slack. At least once every weekend I find my belts aren't right mid race and have to fix them. HANS adamantly declares it is user error, poor belt placement, but certianly not their device. 'the belts WILL NOT come off the HANS if properly installed' was their response when I called.

I know, the horse bolted from the barn a long time ago, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to gather data and learn from it.

[JIgou]

Vague about performance - that's putting it mildly! The only thing they have pics of is their promotional materials! Everything else is CAD renderings.

Don't get me wrong, I do like what I see and I appreciate a new competitor - but I wouldn't feel comfortable till I see more on there, like "About Us" and more photos, stuff in use, etc.

Very new. Very, very new.

That says "same folks as the defNder" to me as well. When they came to market with their initial offering, it irritated me to no end that the details were vague. (That and the screwy spelling / caps thing).