Quote Originally Posted by dave parker View Post
Ok, I will play the dick and ask "Why?".

The head and neck restraint has been around for years in various designs. If you have raced with NASA you have had to wear one for the last two years. If you have done any "pro" racing you have had to have one. So why the big push to stop it from being compulsory?

Is it one of the following reasons:
1. You don't want to spend the money.
2. You are too good of a driver so you won't crash and CERTAINLY won't get hurt.
3. You don't agree with the narrow choice of devices that are allowed.
4. You could never be "comfortable" in one.

As someone else in this thread has said the club (SCCA) is covering its ass as advised by its lawyers. Why is this a big issue? Do you want the club to be decimated by a lawsuit filed by a grieving family member and their shark lawyer that the club was negligent in its duty to compel its members to protect themselves against injury after?

Please share your reasoning with the rest of the group.

cheers
dave parker
Well, Dave, just to state the obvious again...


My reasoning is mostly related to #3.
I have had an Isaac since the year they came out. it offers superior numbers to the Hans.*
Now I must buy something SFI. Which has inferior numbers to what I currently have.
This means I must:
But a new device $700.
To REMAIN AS SAFE AS I CURRENTLY AM, I must also buy a new seat, to make up for the new devices poor protection. So, new seat, proper mounts, etc etc, easy $1000. (lets ignore, for now, the whole seat spec debacles)
(Now, as an example of SFI workings, we have the belt SFI rule, where some "member" of the SFI (a company that wants to sell more belts) reported that if the belts are left outside in the Florida sun, and get rained on everyday, they can degrade due to UV exposure, so, the 5 yr rating should be reduced to two years. Funny how the SFI jumps on that and the whole SFI belt buying world now buys belts 2.5 times as often. How'd you like YOUR business products to have a mandate that results in 2.5 times the sales!?). I spent the big FIA bucks, so I'm good there, I think.
But wait...even after spending the $1700, I'm still less safe. Why? Because if/when I crash, and I'm upside down/ pinched against a barrier/on my side/whatever, I now get to wriggle through a window thats 33% smaller in opening size than it was before, thanks to the new 'safer' seat that I got to make up for the inferiority of my new mandated H&N device, that replaces my superior performing but "dangerous and illegal head and neck restraint".

Ah yes, this rule will be a HUGE step forward for me. More money, less actual safety. SO glad we have assholes in our country who sue just to sue and legal depts who run around in fear because settling is cheaper than the day in court..

So, yea, I'm looking at huge money to go backwards in safety.

*I have just learned that there is possibly an SFI device that offers the same protection as I have now. I'll have to confirm that. Even still, it's beyond annoying that because of some SFI racketeering, that i'll end up wasting more money on something I have absolutely no need for.