Sideways Head Restraint

[Purple Frog]

We sort of hi-jacked JR2's thread about Sebring and buried in it some important safety discussion... so I'm starting another thread to focus on preventing "bobble head injury".

Over the last couple of days I have reviewed a few thousand pictures taken during the last few years at SCCA events, F2kCS events, and the FF40th. In that search i have found examples of very good head restraint systems, and examples of poor systems (including my own).

After hearing of Brian's wreck at Lime Rock, and JR2's at Sebring, and then considering i have a neck old enough to collect social security, I have decided to work with the likes of Eric Langbien and Fred Clark to improve my Reynard.

Surprisingly what my research showed was that many older cars are safer than newer models. And, in many cases a chassis that is safe for one body type/size may be not so safe for another. In otherwords many times the solution has to be custom to the particular driver and chassis.

Formula Mazdas even though being an older design, by the nature of their design seem to give pretty good side head protection for a majority of their drivers:








And many cars older than 30 years do a good job:






Many models look great from the side view but from the front seem to have too much side-to-side clearance:



Note: Fast Forward has a solution for this particular case.



FEs tended to have a lot of photos leaving much to be desired:






But with a small enough driver, they improved:







One of the best new designs, Thank you Ford of Europe and Mygale (and Doug for the image):






The popular VD since the late 90s has many great examples of good systems:








But... without the bolsters the same chassis leaves much to be desired:






Just when you think a SRF must be really safe, you look at a view from the front:






John LaRue's Citation, and Ben Cooper's Elan are good examples of well thought out systems:







Unfortunately, in my review the Swift DB1 and DB6 seemed to have the highest percentage of examples that left the drivers helmet much room to bobble to and fro.






I post this to keep the discussion going and through this forum maybe make some improvements.

[Purple Frog]

A few more examples:

Good:





Maybe not so good:





Good:





Maybe not:

[Purple Frog]

Doug at Fast Forward is developing this for the Piper.

[gcoffin]

Frog

Unable to find a bobble head injury thread what are you talking about ?

[iamuwere]

The FE comes with a head surround that only the shorter drivers use. It is well shown in the "good FE" example that this can be used, but the "bad FE" with a tall driver shows the example of individual fit that you describe in the first paragraph. The newer VD end up with the same situation where short drivers are protected but taller drivers are not. Many drivers end up with and FE because of the ability to fit a tall driver but with inadequate head support.

jim

[cooleyjb]

Srf has an optional head surround that looks similar to what you see in NASCAR. Big beefy and IMO the best in scca.

[Evl]

The FE comes with a head surround that only the shorter drivers use. It is well shown in the "good FE" example that this can be used, but the "bad FE" with a tall driver shows the example of individual fit that you describe in the first paragraph. The newer VD end up with the same situation where short drivers are protected but taller drivers are not. Many drivers end up with and FE because of the ability to fit a tall driver but with inadequate head support.

jim

Yeah, I'd love a stretch FE. I've got my legs bent as much as I can to get my butt as far forward as possible, am sitting on about 1 layer of beads, and I still look like a "bad" FE.

[racerdad2]

THX MIKE ! the 'my incident at Sebring' thread has sparked great interest in driver protection. At 6'1", my noggin is in the airstream... Your photos are a great help to a newbie like me...

Many thanks to the awesome contributers on Apex Speed. Truly grateful...

[Nardi]

Nice work Mike. Nothing like pictures!

[Purple Frog]

Another good example of how many times the older cars are safer in respect to head surronds than the newer cars:

And an example of how full figured guys can get in safety prediciments in little English designed formula cars....

[Jim Nash]

Somewhat pertinent to the discussion:

http://scarbsf1.com/blog1/2013/01/16...it-head-rests/

[chrisw52]

the car I bought had some extra protection added through "optional" safety requirements by the FRCCA (as it was explained to me).

Ultimately I took the bars off because I could not get in and out of the cockpit easily. I did a couple of fire drills to see how quickly I could un-buckle the belts and exit the car, and I could not get that done in under 2 minutes with these bars attached. If the car was on it's side I would not be able to exit the car in case of a fire, period.

So I removed them, I don't plan on tracking this particular FF anytime soon because of the economy, and I want to restore the car a bit more before moving up from autocross to track events.

[flat tappet]

Celestial Grand Poobah...I know it's hard to tell from pictures but could you look at these. I'm a couple inches shorter than Ed C. who is in the stationary picture.

Thanks!!

Attachment 36415Attachment 36415

Attachment 36416

[Purple Frog]

Tappet,
I am no expert. Others may better answer.
But at the least, to your setup I would add padding on the inside of the bars that meets SFI Spec 45.1, or FIA 8857-2001 at least 1/2" thick. (see folks like Pegasus for source)

Nash's article has a great sentence, to paraphrase: " ...with these changes, we now see concusions, where we used to see comas..."

[Purple Frog]

Interestingly, i looked at hundreds of pictures of FVs. Most seem to inherently have good side restraint formed by their chassis.

Brian sent me a PM last night. He mentioned his injury might have been aggravated by the lack of sidepods on his Swift, making it easier for his head to contact the guardrail/wall. I can't comment, having not seen the accident. But i do know in Europe with modern series, there are defined regs for sidepods.

Sidepod discussion may take us off the track of this thread.

[problemchild]

But i do know in Europe with modern series, there are defined regs for sidepods.

Sidepod discussion may take us off the track of this thread.

It is unfortunate that the recent FF/FC rules rewrite did not deal with this issue as it was the perfect opportunity. Making euro FFs legal for SCCA involves spending several $K to remove safety items which have no gray area in terms of potential performance if worded as in the ProSeries rules.

[Purple Frog]

Greg,
I know there are some folks in high places that are crafting proposals to encompass that situation.

Lets do sidepods on another thread...

[S Lathrop]

Another good example of how many times the older cars are safer in respect to head surronds than the newer cars:

And an example of how full figured guys can get in safety prediciments in little English designed formula cars....

The picture on the right (full figured guy) should not be an option. He fails the broom stick test. A simple roll over could easily result in serious neck injuries.

The older cars with the forward braces have a serious problem when you attempt to remove a driver who might have a back injury. The width of the roll bar braces is much narrower than the driver's shoulders. This requires the driver to turn as much a 90 degrees to get in or out of the car.

When one designs a car, the driver's head is taken as being generally fixed in particular place in the car. To use the car safely, your head must be in that location. Now having your head lower and possibly back is not a problem but forward and up is not acceptable. That is as true for something like a FM as it is for a modern car.

If you are tall and full, you still have to place your head in the "designed safety zone". That may mean you learn to drive in a more laid back position and the fire bottle needs to find a location besides under the seat and behind the dash. The only good option is to find a car that you can fit into.

Raising the roll bar is not a proper option because that will increase the stresses at the roll bar mounting points and that is not necessairly within the design paramaters for the frame in question..

The Citation "horse collar" is a one piece, thin fiberglass shell over the same material used for the bead seat. We use a flexible epoxy for the resin in the shell.

Richard Pare actually made the head restraint for John LaRue's 94 Citation over a decade ago. We just made new molds for the 2007 Citation and that part in turn can be used on both the 94 and 2007 Citations.

The other issue in head restraints is the material that is used for padding. Water pipe insulation is not an ideal option, better than nothing but certainly not desirable.

[Purple Frog]

Steve,

Thanks for the input!
Contribution from folks with rich knowledge like you, Don, Doug, Richard, Ralph, etc. can only help bring light to this issue.

You stated the importance of head position relative to chassis design much better than I.

I noticed in Nash's article this diagram that actually speeled it out as a spec in F1.

[lucky13]

I think Steve makes a couple of really good points (I'm sure he'll be flattered that I think so ).

I don't know if I agree that a couple of the photos described as "good" are really good. While the side of the cockpit is well protected, it is so low that an impact with it will barely hit the bottom of the helmet. You have to consider where your helmet is going to hit and how far it will travel before coming in contact with the padding, regardless of what kind of padding you have. A longer distance "whip" and a blow to the bottom of the helmet can end-up elongating the spine from the side. The shorter the distance the better, and I think the dual-durometer padding is a good idea that allows you to place the padding as close as reasonable to the driver's helmet but not make it so that every bump ends-up being a hard hit to the head.

[KevinFirlein]

http://baldspotsports.com/products/headrest.html Perfect for the newer VD's and I am sure they can make something for most any car. No they arent cheap but.......

[Beartrax]

Another good example of how many times the older cars are safer in respect to head surronds than the newer cars:

And an example of how full figured guys can get in safety prediciments in little English designed formula cars....

There is more than one way for a full figured guy to get in trouble in that photo!

[DFR Dave Freitas]

Being able to get out of the car when upside down, and maybe on fire is also something to consider when getting your head bolsters fitted.

It's one thing to be at a pro event or even SCCA event with safety people all around to assist, but you also have to think about what could happen during a test day when you might be on your own trying to escape.

The removal system needs to be simple and easy to actuate by a driver that may be disorientated and visibility impared (think about what your visor looks like after rolling in a sand or dirt trap).

[Purple Frog]

I sort of favor velcro, or as David Letterman says, "the miracle fabric of the 80's."

[stephen wilson]

I did a couple of fire drills to see how quickly I could un-buckle the belts and exit the car, and I could not get that done in under 2 minutes with these bars attached.

Chris, I'm surprised the RCCA "decap" bars made it so hard for you to exit. I was considering similar protection. Can you explain in more detail?

[Purple Frog]

Steve Lathrop touched on the "decap bar" problem in a post above:



The older cars with the forward braces have a serious problem when you attempt to remove a driver who might have a back injury. The width of the roll bar braces is much narrower than the driver's shoulders. This requires the driver to turn as much a 90 degrees to get in or out of the car.

[stephen wilson]

Yea, I have to twist to get in my RF78, but I can still get out in 15-20 Seconds. It may be another big guy in a little car issue? (no offense Chris, since I don't know you)

[jhenn4716]

Steve Lathrop touched on the "decap bar" problem in a post above:



The older cars with the forward braces have a serious problem when you attempt to remove a driver who might have a back injury. The width of the roll bar braces is much narrower than the driver's shoulders. This requires the driver to turn as much a 90 degrees to get in or out of the car.

From the rescue side of that, more than likely those bars will be cut. It's far easier to weld new bars then weld a spine back together again.

[Bud Pug]

The Protection against decapatation (PADCAP) bars that I designed for the FRCCA racecars was a result of my having to extract a F-1 driver (Conig) at the 1974 Watkins Glen F-1 race; seeng a decapatated head in the helmet over 20 feet away from the racecar is not ever going to be forgotten. I would welcome any devise that would protect the entire drivers head not just "decap" but also front skull crushing. There is always room for improvement but we have had very good protection with nobody having trouble getting out of the racecar although you must learn to use the "PADCAP" bars to help you out. Getting a back-board under the drivers back is not any more problem then normal. Again, any improvement is welcomed.

[KevinFirlein]

not that it matters in this discussion but Koeinig's disaster was as much a result of poorly designed gaurdrail at the Glen at the time. After Cevert was killed in 73 by the rail having straight edges on top they rolled them like they are today but never thought to roll the bottom and left it a straight edge. When Helmut submarined the rail, the 'cheese wedge' shape of the cars of the era lifted and twisted the rail so that basically he ran into a machete at speed. We'll never now if he would have survived if the bottom of the rail had been rolled lke it is today.

My RT4 had the forward bars and they were padded, when I crashed into the tires at Nelson Ledges flat out in 4th gear when I left the road my head hit the bars so hard it knocked me out, cracked my helmut, and fractured my skull. I am not a big believer in a padded bar being used as a head restraint.

[stonebridge20]

From the rescue side of that, more than likely those bars will be cut. It's far easier to weld new bars then weld a spine back together again.

[Steve Demeter]

This is not going to be popular from an asthetic point of view, but take a look at modern sprint cars.

I do not think anyone would call them sissies and the properly constructed cages do work.

NHRA type cages, while good in concept are simply welded to the top rails of the frame and I have seen one of them shear right off in a not major impact. That chassis was cerfitied by the NHRA.

[EYERACE]

1. Speaking of necks.................who among you has had a bone density scan?........my Internist brought it up...........I was shocked, not to know that I've got old bones [I knew that - the number of candles on the cake is the clue] but an implied brittleness and density that was sub-par.

Drink more milk
Take some Vit. D
Get some sun
Train with weights to stress those bones

If you've got other advice along this line...please elaborate

Second point/question...........the other year everybody had to have dripless fire resistant padding.....I guess that's the same stuff to use for saving one's neck too?

[chrisw52]

Chris, I'm surprised the RCCA "decap" bars made it so hard for you to exit. I was considering similar protection. Can you explain in more detail?

The way the bars were installed I had maybe 1/2" between the helmet on each side. They were attached at the gussets at the top of the main roll hoop to the top bars on the cockpit about 8" from the dash. I have really wide shoulders and the only way to enter or exit the car was to twist my torso 90 degrees and find leverage to pull my self out.

Another installation issue was the bars blocked my side views which I need for what I do. I want a lot of visiblity out of the cockpit so I am seated a little high in the photos. With the car I have, if I were to go on the track I would re-adjust my seating position much lower in the cockpit than you see in the photos. I could easily drop my helmet and upper torso another 2", space is not an issue here. In fact, I think I have enough space to fabricate a F1 style head restraint without destroying the lines of the car. I don't know.. I'll have to run that by the guy I use for fabricating stuff for the car.

[R. Pare]

As with any restraint system, it has to be customized to the driver.

In some of the photos, as mentioned before, the drivers helmet is too high for the restraint to be effective. The point of contact between the padding and the helmet needs to be slightly higher than the CG of the head, which for most heads is approximately at the ear canal. In many of those photos, the contact point is waaaaay below that, and can produce severe neck injuries as the head tries to rotate over the padding.

The distance between the helmet and the padding also needs to be held to the minimum - the driver should only be able to move his head (both rotation and straight sideways) enough to be able to drive correctly, and no more.

What happens is that in a sideways shunt, the chassis will slow down considerably before the helmet hits the padding, so what should have been a relatively low velocity, low G initial impact becomes a high velocity, high G impact. Add to that the problem that the helmet will distort to some degree and then rebound, the head can then be accelerated the other way and get bashed again against the restraint on the other side of the cockpit.

Add to that again that if the padding has too much rebound capability, it will accelerate the head even more, adding to the G load the brain sees. The rebound characteristics of the padding ideally should allow the head to "ride down" the crash all the way to a stop before the padding can start rebounding - it's the severe rebound that starts way before the crash stops that leads to the high G spikes that the head can be subjected to, not the actual crash decel rates of the car itself.

Guys: Spend the money and time it takes to modify the car to fit you correctly.

[R. Pare]

The other issue in head restraints is the material that is used for padding. Water pipe insulation is not an ideal option, better than nothing but certainly not desirable.

I'll correct Steve somewhat on this one - the majority of the inexpensive water pipe insulation is probably almost as bad as using no padding at all. Most of it is of high air entrapment in relatively large cells, which is great for heat insulation but not much else, and collapses way too easily under the sort of forces a helmet will give to it, and will then rebound way too easily.

It is unfortunate that the recent FF/FC rules rewrite did not deal with this issue as it was the perfect opportunity.

It wasn't taken up at that time since the desire was to just rewrite the rules with better wording without making any current cars illegal. The squawking was bad enough at the time with just what little we did change.

As for the SRF, Steve and I can tell you quite a bit about how bad that car is from a seating safety standpoint, but that a whole 'nother story......

[a. pettipas]

I am not a big believer in a padded bar being used as a head restraint.

Amen to that brother.

[cooleyjb]

Here's the SRF with a Butler surround kit.



My car has that and a huge Butler seat with a bead seat insert where I have about 2" thickness of seat around me.

[stephen wilson]

I would love to see some detail pictures of the front and rear mounting hardware of removable surrounds.

[stephen wilson]

Opinions on this roll cage, assuming the addition of side head supports ? It's about the best I can do without going to a sprint car style.